What's happening with Prevention Speaks Social Media?

What's the strategy on Facebook?
I read posts in our newsfeed and like the ones having to do with obesity prevention and tobacco, and comment on one or two a day (okay, not every day, but most days). I avoid saying generic things like “way to go;” instead, I read or view what the post links to, and try to make an observation that continues a conversation that isn’t opinionated or strident. Sometimes I do resort to “this is great!” when it’s taking too long to think of something.

I know I’ve succeeded when, after a comment, a new like or two shows up in our messages. We’re up to 87 likes and only about a quarter of them are WCH staff/affiliates or my personal friends.


I post each time we have new stories published, but I don’t want every post to be about our thing we’re pushing out there. Being proactive with relevant posts that people find useful is the gold ring of Facebook (and the Prevention Speaks blog), and that’s what I’m trying to win.

Enter Don Stanley
We’ve hired Don Stanley, a UW–Madison faculty member, to coach us through a communications plan for the home stretch of Prevention Speaks.

Zanna (who is helping with this) and I have homework. One assignment is to “listen” for several weeks to see what “influencers” are talking about, and determine themes and ideas. He encouraged us to set up Google alerts for some of the terms we’re doing stories on, such as “physical activity access” or “food desert.”

This is extremely time-consuming, but helps in understanding how our stories can be of use. I’m seeing a vivid picture emerge of advocates speaking at thousands of meetings across the country such as city councils, conferences, coalitions, to news reporters, parent and neighborhood organizations. Now if only they were all searching for “prevention speaks” to help them prepare!

By dissecting the Google alerts I’ve also added more pages to like and read about in the newsfeed on Facebook.

What about Twitter?
I’ve struggled to use Twitter as a social media tool that benefits Prevention Speaks. It’s so immediate—to me it seems most relevant when we have people out in the field or have just published a new story—most useful when there’s something happening.

But it could be used to champion the use of story by saying something about that each day. Pointing out the efforts and accomplishment of others using story would build our credibility and awareness, besides being helpful.

It’s possible to have more than one user for a Twitter account.

Tuesday morning web marketing classes
The social media class reinforced concentrating on Facebook. It’s where most people and organizations have a presence in social media, so it’s where you should put your first effort.

The instructor, Stephen Woessner, talked about the time-sensitive nature of Twitter in social media use. You really don’t need to be there if your organization isn’t driven by daily deadlines.

But if you’re there, it’s bad to let ancient tweets just hang, advertising your inactivity. The examples he showed were over a year old, so I haven’t achieved that notoriety. This is something for Don to advise us on.