(Photo Credit: Wicho)
The field of social marketing is growing and I love that. As more people, especially online, get to understand the importance of trying to use communication/marketing tools to bring about better health (which is my mission) and positive behavior changes, the better things will be in my opinion.
My good friend Alex recently put together a list of blogs that you should check out if you are interested in the whole marketing for good movement. I’m super humbled that yours truly is listed - will be doing things in the next few days to make Pulse & Signal a great resource for those in the Public Health/Health Education world, stay tuned for the revamped mission.
Being Informed > Awareness > Getting Tools for Action > Change
At least that’s how I see it.
Hi folks! Well I am really excited because I will be on Jonny’s Partay tomorrow evening. The Partay is a popular Web show where individuals are highlighted for what they are doing in the realm of social media and I am honored to have been picked to be on the show with 2 other awesome friends of mine.
The focus of the show will be on using communication and marketing tactics to bring about positive social change. Of course I will be speaking to how social media and emerging technologies are intersecting with health education, promotion and communications. My other to friends joining me will be Alex Rampy of the SocialButterfly blog as well as Qui Diaz of the Evange.list blog - both are talented individuals who love to use social media to bring to light the things that matter.
The awesome Jonny Goldstein has written a post about the event taking place tomorrow evening, check it out here.
What: Jonny’s Par-tay, the live interactive online talk show
Who: Join special guests Andre Blackman, Qui Diaz, and Alexandra Rampy, with host Jonny Goldstein and super producer Scott Stead.
Where: jonnyspartay.com
When: Weds., July 16, Weds, 9-10PM
Hope to see you there!
If you have spent any amount of time swimming around in the social media ocean, I’m pretty sure you have heard of at least one of these guys. Robert Scoble is the popular blogger and new media personality who writes at Scobleizer and was recently brought on board at Fast Company. Gary V is most notably known for his innovative promotion/review of wine over at Wine Library TV.
Last night I headed over to the event where these two were hosting an event for all DC social media lovers.
I got to say hi to great buddies of mine including Alex Rampy, James Walker, Ryan Moede, Jill Foster, Leslie Bradshaw and Jesse Thomas.
Lots of new faces as well. Robert and Gary are cool people and I’m glad they were able to make it to the city to bring together the DC socialites!
Here is a video put together of the event from the good people over at DC Piazza:
For more videos on the event check out the rest of the site here.
Yesterday morning, I had the great opportunity to attend the State of the Art of New Media in Health Care: Harnessing the Power of Digital Communication and Social Networking Tools conference held at the Newseum in downtown Washington, DC. The event was put on by Amplify Public Affairs, a “next generation in public affairs” firm integrating new media and traditional communications. Now of course the theme of this meeting is right up the alley of what gets covered on Pulse and Signal, so I was definitely happy to be able to attend. The question of how is new media affecting the health care world is popping up more and more, especially with the advent of Google Health, Microsoft’s Health Vault and the various online health social networks. I was eager to hear exactly what the panelists would be talking about - hopefully not just about their companies but to add some real thought to this growing landscape. Here were the people that spoke on the panel (in order of speaking):
» Elisabeth Goodridge, US News & World Report
» Joel Selzer, Ozmosis
» Matt Koll, Revolution Health
» Christopher Fleming, Health Affairs blog
» Ed Fishel, University of Maryland, News Bureau
Below I will touch upon some notes I took while listening to each presenter:
Elisabeth touched on a few items that showed how US News & World Report evolved from just a print publication to one that has integrated several elements of digital media including a list of affiliated bloggers, video, shareable articles and an upcoming widget library with embeddable content. I think one of the last times that I took a good hard look at what the publication could offer, it was when I was selecting colleges to attend. They also have a list of Best Hospitals that is very useful.
Joel has created a very interesting social networking platform for physicians, these include licensed MDs and DOs. A few reasons in which Joel created Ozmosis was because of the steadily increasing patient load for doctors (less time for them to interact with the patient), physicians having little time to find the answers for detailed patient questions and the fact that many physicians were turning to the Internet to locate information - trusted information is the top priority.
Matt spoke about how Revolution Health is transforming how social media is used in the consumer healthcare world. They also own CarePages and HealthTalk - both being focused on community health support. I felt that there was heavy discussion on advertising and business models, so I’m assuming that is where the organization is at this point in their growth. I’m looking forward to see what else comes from Revolution Health in the future.
Christopher also spoke from a once print only publication point of view. The Health Affairs journal, which recently celebrated its 25th year of being in print, has taken steps to embrace social media within its content production. The journal’s blog includes staff and guest bloggers. The staff members generally write about articles already printed in the journal while the guest bloggers create shorter, more advocacy based articles that usually correlate to a health policy issue. As the blog began expanding policy discussions to different areas, it helped to attract readers to the actual journal material. Currently, Chris and the Health Affairs team are looking to increase staff to assist in the growing and maintenance of the blog.
Finally, Ed touched on the changes involved in moving from old media and journalism to adopting new methods of disseminating news and information. I think that this will be an ongoing discussion (and struggle) for some time. Many people still do not see the value of this change in the media landscape but it’s good to know that there are a handful of people in certain professions willing to lead the charge.
Overall, I had a great time and picked up on a few thoughts regarding what exactly might need to be done regarding health communication efforts. It was nice hearing the various voices from different industries speak on what they are accomplishing - I really think that the aspects of Health 2.0 that were presented will be one of many to shape the way we stay healthy.
I really love the folks over at Common Craft! I was over at the Creative Connects blog and saw this video explaining what social media is through creative storytelling. A while ago, I wrote about how Common Craft helped people understand Twitter - they are just awesome!
Notice the story is about people…that is what it’s all about.
Social Media in Plain English from leelefever on Vimeo.
As you all know, I’m all about making use of emerging web technologies to further health communications. One of the most useful web tools that I have grown completely enamored with is Twitter, the micro-blogging platform that has become useful in many different ways.
My awesome health sciences librarian friend P.F. Anderson, recently conducted a demo of Twitter’s usefulness in the health arena. The parts on Twitter being used for activism and exercise really put a smile on my face! I’m pretty sure as time goes on, more uses will emerge, especially for health communications.
Patricia also blogs about emerging technologies at Emerging Technologies Librarian, which is also on my blogroll
Found this video of Connie Reece of Every Dot Connects blog, talking about what social media means to her.
I wholeheartedly agree that this technology allows us to come together to share ideas and build relationships - which is the most important aspect.
You’ll hear me say this over and over again in relation to health: the health communication world is all about people and helping to build awareness & promote positive behavior change.
This whole social media phenomenon is about the people…see the connection?
Hat tip to the Diva Marketing blog for the source! What does social media mean to you?
I am extremely excited to know that one of my favorite Health 2.0 bloggers, Jane Sarasohn-Kahn who writes over at Health Populi, has just come out with a document highlighting how the future of health is being affected by social media. I plan to really dig into this document over the next few days as this is pretty much the focus of my interest regarding the advancement of health.
No longer are consumers tied down to a single option regarding their personal health. You all know that I love information and the Web is certainly the place to get your fill - that includes health information. With sites like WebMD for details on disease and conditions, Healia Communities for interaction with others on health issues and even tools like Qwitter, to help stop smoking - it’s easy to see that the Web is transforming how we get informed about our health.
You can find the document here
I’ve been really excited to learn more about how the Web and it’s growing focus on community has been impacting the realm of health education. Improving the quality of our lives through peer discussion AND the dissemination of professional information is something we need more of in the health landscape - we need to focus on the people.
And that’s what Healia Communities aims to accomplish.
You’re probably already aware of the health information search engine, Healia - this tool has been around for a while and from what I can tell, has been successful in helping individuals find what they need on topics ranging from mental health to weight management.
The Health 2.0 movement is definitely taking notice that individuals aren’t solely seeking doctors for their medical advice. There are plenty of health professionals who are better trained to actually interact with people on deeper community basis and you can find some of them on Healia Communities. This has always been a concern of mine when it comes to health information being twisted and changed - causing people to leave thinking about the wrong concepts. Experts are important, but experts that actually respond is essential, good job Healia.
The personalization aspect of being able to join certain groups that are tailored to your health interests make the site even more effective in that you don’t have to look all over the community to find what you want. Interested in finding out how to get your family to lose weight (similar to a question I put up there)? If you are part of the weight management group, you will most likely see this query and be able to quickly respond. You feel better by offering your own sage advice and the person asking the question now walks away with a smile, feeling encouraged. Win-win situation right?
Healia Communities is about what concerns you.
If you want to connect with me, I’m mindofandre in the community. Oh yeah they also blog regularly about diseases and conditions that you probably want to know about.
ReadWriteWeb also recently did a profile of other communities that deal with community members lending an ear and expertise to one another. The Web is really starting to bring people together for a common good.
So go ahead and join the conversation and meet people who are concerned about the same things you are. What better issue to be concerned about than your health and the well being of others?
Attention Health Educators and Health Communicators! This is for you (us)!
Who’s happy that the weather is warming up? I know I am! Something about sunshine and getting fresh air does wonders for the mind and body.
Before you run outside to enjoy that fresh air, I wanted to talk about a passion of mine and I believe it will revolutionize the way we deal with health. That passion is something many of us engage with on a daily basis – the Internet; more specifically, the emerging social aspects of the Internet. For those of you not familiar with the term social media – let me give a brief description. Social media or new media, has to do with the relatively recent advances in the ways we are able to communicate with each other online. It consists of elements such as blogs, social networks (Myspace, Facebook) and user-generated videos (YouTube, Viddler).
Speaking of video, check this YouTube video that shows actress Jennifer Connelly helping to spread the word about the need of clean water in Africa. Now, if the video gets sent around my friends and family, how far do you think this message will go?
Those new online social tools have completely changed how we interact with each other. Now, with social online communities that are geared toward individuals battling cancer, mental illness or diabetes (www.diabetesmine.com) – the online world has effectively become a well respected and genuine place to connect with like-minded individuals and share information. It is now possible to collaborate with other public health professionals who share your same interests, even if you all are in different parts of the world! Think about the ideas that can be generated, the networking opportunities and the friends that can be made!
Let me ask you a question – the public health/health education industry is about who? Answer: the people. Messages that help reduce the risk of diabetes, prevent the transmission of HIV and even educate the next generation of superstar health professionals, can all be created and disseminated in the online spaces. I believe if more people in the health world took a serious look at harnessing the resources (and increasingly user focused) aspects of the Web and social media, we would see prolific benefits and long lasting results. So go ahead and start exploring – the opportunities are out there!
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