Salt Lake Valley Health Department Meets Social Media

Several weeks ago while I was on Twitter, I came across a tweet that mentioned a local county health department was on Twitter and actually interacting with others and sending out valuable information! Needless to say, my ears perked up and I immediately went to find out who this was. Turns out, Salt Lake Valley Health Deparment in Utah was the culprit. A week or so went by while keeping an eye on them, when it hit me: get these folks on Pulse + Signal ASAP! Not only have they been making use of Twitter as a means of health information dissemination, they have made great use of Youtube and Facebook as well.

Pulse + Signal is all about highlighting innovation in public health and the folks over at SLVHD are doing a fantastic job. Take a peek inside the mind of the team on some questions I asked them. If you are a local county health department thinking about taking the plunge into the uses of new media, please pay attention.

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Pulse: With all the buzz surrounding federal agencies such as CDC and FDA using social media, it’s refreshing to see a county health department actually implementing some strategy. How did it all start?

SLV: The Salt Lake Valley Health Department decided to get involved with social media late last year after seeing all the great things the CDC had done with their social media outreach.

We know that Salt Lake County residents are very tuned into digital mediums (Utah is known as the Digital State), and saw it as an opportunity to reach out to a segment of the public that we may have been missing using traditional community outreach.

We began by opening a Twitter account, then turned to Facebook, and with the One Small Change campaign we opened our YouTube channel and Flickr page. (Summary of our social media involvement with links: http://www.slvhealth.org/html/socialMedia.html)

Thankfully our department leadership has been really receptive to social media tools – I know that is a sizable hurdle for many local and state agencies.

Pulse: Do you feel as time goes on you are getting more proficient using the tools and even thinking about new ways to use them?

SLV: Of course! As you interact with Twitter and Facebook, you learn from the community. The concept for our One Small Change – For the Health of It campaign, which combines various social media tools to support a community health effort, came from interacting with and better understanding the potential of social media.

Pulse: Was there a steep learning curve prior to “going live” with the social media implementation?

SLV: Definitely. Twitter has a steep learning curve, but once you get the hang of it you are able to appreciate the benefits of being active in the community. Our social media accounts are a new way for the health department to communicate, and that it is liberating for us and a huge benefit for the residents that we serve.

In terms of “going live” – we never had one moment where we were officially “launched” on the social media community. It happened very organically, one step at a time. Our Communications Office is responsible for managing all of our social media accounts, which means we have one person managing them day-to-day. As we got the hang of one tool, we were encouraged to expand to another.

Pulse: Was there any sort of resistance in the health department to using these tools for official business? If possible, can you describe the types of conflict?

SLV: We were lucky to have the support of our department leadership from the beginning. I’ve had a lot of questions from other county or state departments hoping to join the social media community, but who face strong opposition from within.

What helped us was to realize that there was a segment of the public we were missing in our communications efforts, and these people didn’t just want to hear from us, but to interact with us as well. Social media tools create a wonderfully even playing field where interaction is easy and encouraged. We think that is the #1 benefit of being present in these communities.

Pulse: How do you think using these social media tools will impact how the health department can serve the residents of Salt Lake Valley, UT?

SLV: We view our social media accounts as additional tools to help us communicate with, and hear from, the public that we serve. As a whole, the field of public health faces the challenge that much of our community doesn’t understand what we do (until we do something wrong).
Social media tools allow us to be active in our community in a whole new way, easily accessible to anyone with questions, concerns or feedback. We love the conversation and hope to hear more from Salt Lake County residents in the future.
Pulse: I see you also have been working on a campaign called One Small Change. Can you tell us about it and how you have incorporated new media to spread the word about it?

SLV: The One Small Change – For the Health of It campaign is our first community health campaign to combine traditional outreach efforts (health fairs, stickers, flyers, news media, school and business outreach) with social media tools to encourage our community to make small, incremental changes that lead to a healthier lifestyle.
The “center” of our campaign is our YouTube video, created 100% in-house with a budget of $0.00. We shot the video using a tiny Flip camera and edited it using iMovie – and we are really proud of the finished product! We also engaged our Twitter, Facebook and Flickr accounts to support our message and help us spread the word.

One Small Change website: http://www.slvhealth.org/programs/weighActiveAndHealthy/OneSmallChange/index.html

Pulse: Are there any other campaigns that are in the works that may use social media?

SLV: We don’t have anything in the works at the moment, but we are looking at creating more of our own YouTube videos, like the One Small Change video, to help us promote healthy behaviors within the Salt Lake Valley.

Pulse: What are the next steps for you in rolling out content and staying connected with the local community as well as those interested in health as a whole?

SLV: We are always hoping to grow our local following in Salt Lake County, so our next step is to get involved with our local Salt Lake City Social Media Club – to put a face behind the tweets. We were recently invited to present with the @utahdiabetes, @cleartheairutah and @UtahGov people, and it was great to finally meet the person behind the account.

Pulse: What advice would you give to other state or local county health departments that are thinking of taking the next steps to incorporate new media elements into their work?

SLV: Take the plunge. If you are facing internal opposition, join the @GovLoop community and get some advice on how to convince your department leadership to give you the go ahead.

It doesn’t have to be all or nothing either. Create a Twitter account or Facebook page and start there. Most government agencies don’t have the luxury of hiring an external agency to get them started or an individual to manage social media exclusively, so take it one step at a time.

I am always happy to answer questions from other health department’s interested in getting started, so email me at klilja@slco.org. And be sure to find us on Twitter (@SLVHealthDept), Facebook. YouTube and Flickr!
Summary of our social media involvement with links: http://www.slvhealth.org/html/socialMedia.html