Public Health Affairs

Category: Uncategorized

  • Via Shel Holtz: Every Presentation Ever

    Boy, I’ve see too many presentations like this. Hat tip to Shel Holtz for the great find.

  • All of the Tools

    There was an interesting post the other day on Shel Holtz’s great PR
    blog
    about how companies block access to social media websites on their
    networks. (There’s almost always something interesting on Mr. Holtz’s
    blog, by the way.)

    (Begin rant)

    So yeah, this type of behavior is pointless. And counterproductive.
    Mr. Holtz points out NINE different ways employees having access to
    social media can help their business:

    • Recruiting
    • Idea testing and decision support
    • Brand and product/service evangelism
    • Reinforcing organizational culture and values
    • Competitive intelligence
    • Content curation
    • Access to subject matter experts
    • Training
    • Having a voice in processes that could affect the employee’s industry

    In fact, Mr. Holtz gives two concrete examples of why employees
    legitimately need access—at work—to social media websites:

    Two recently formed groups are the culprits. Both are work-related. The first is the home to a largely intellectual discussion of how Wikipedia can work more closely with official representatives of organizations to ensure their companiesí entries are accurate and up-to-date. Wikipediaís founder and Wikia owner Jimmy Wales has joined the closed group and the discussions with him have been mostly respectful, with information and ideas moving in both directions. Edelman Digital Senior Vice President Phil Gomes started the group after posting an open letter to Wales about the situation on his blog.

    The second group, also a closed group, is one I started along with Joe Thornley, CEO of Thornley Fallis Group, as a place for the 80-plus participants of an eight-week IABC training program in social media to gather.

    The problem?

    I was chagrined when one of the participants in the IABC program expressed her dismay that Facebook would be the home for our discussions. Her company, she said, blocks Facebook. Her participation in the class that sheís taking for work purposes, and for which her company is paying, will have to wait until she gets home.

    And now you’re saying, but Jim, those folks are in the private sector.
    They don’t have the crushing responsibilities and dictates that we in
    government have. How about another scenario? One that I personally was
    involved in, and could have only happened because we have access to
    social media website at work.

    You remember the bomb threats in cargo holds of
    planes
    from last year? Philly airport, Newark airport? Printer inks from
    Yemen? Well, here in the Health Department, we think that’s pretty
    important. Something to keep an eye on, I would say. Well, I heard
    about it before anyone else in the Department. And I told my Program
    Manager, my Division Director and the Commissioner’s Office. And then
    I conducted some pretty hardcore social media monitoring, and kept
    them posted on what was going on on the ground throughout the event.
    And they could respond truthfully and knowingly about maintaining
    situational awareness on the problem. We were leaning forward. And
    only because I was on Twitter.

    Another story? Okay, but just one more before bed. It’s H1N1 season.
    The pandemic is just starting to kick off here and we’ve got limited
    supplies of vaccine, and we’re pushing hard to make sure that all of
    the priority groups get access to that vaccine. And some lady comes
    into one of our clinics and gets her vaccine, but the nurses say that
    her child cannot. Not in the priority group. (Which you’ll remember is
    wrong.) She reached out to us via our newly set up Twitter account and
    asked if that was true. (Obviously not.) We apologized, made sure she
    knew where her child could get the vaccine, and began to retrain all
    of the nurses at that clinic. How many more folks in priority groups
    would we have missed if we weren’t monitoring social media? Would our
    response have been less meaningful if she had to wait until one of us
    got home and reviewed all of the comments we got that day?

    Counterproductive.

    And pointless. Because your employees are already on social media.
    During the day. At work. In their cubicles and offices. Mashable says
    so right here

    The three biggest [Facebook] usage spikes tend to occur on weekdays at 11:00 a.m., 3:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET.

    I know the economy is bad, but some of those folks are at work and on
    Facebook. How? Blackberries. iPhones. Android phones. All restricting
    access does is force people to waste time figuring out ways around the
    firewall—which actually makes them less productive.

    One day we’ll get there, but for now? Question why social media is restricted.

  • 12 Days of SMEM: Wrap-up and Review

    Whew!

    What a three weeks! Our little 12DaysofSMEM may have been one of the
    most rewarding and enjoyable blogging things I’ve done yet. And boy
    did I learn a ton. I hope that you found these posts as enlightening
    as I did and recommend folks check this post out to see all that we’ve
    done.

    So, what’s next? First, a break. I’ll be back with renewed vigor after
    the new year, and back to our normal emergency public information
    work. I’ve got plans to get back to basics and review some of the
    CERC (in time for CERC 2, maybe?) and
    risk communication models. I had promised earlier this year to look
    into video, and I still really want to do that. Beyond that, I’d
    like to start talking more about media relations, especially when
    viewed through the lens of social media. I envision my role in that
    part of communications will only continue to grow here in Philly, so
    as I learn more about it, so will you. And of course, we’ll be talking
    about all of the disasters, PR and otherwise, that happen.

    Thank you all for an amazing, amazing year. The folks who stop by and
    read? Let me know who you are! Email, Twitter, smoke signals, comment
    on the blog. The folks who comment and interact? Love you guys and
    gals. Keep it up. The quality of your thoughts and comments only
    serves to make this blog more relevant and expert (I really am a
    reflection of your collected intelligence). And everyone that
    contributed to the blog in some way? I owe you a beer, simple as that.

    The Twelve Days of SMEM: