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HRSA Web Content Transformation
Social Media Plan
March 29, 2010
HRSA Web Content Transformation
Social Media Plan
Prepared by_ Aquilent, Inc.
1100 West Street, Laurel, MD 20707
aquilent.com
Prepared for_ HRSA Office of Web Communications
Submitted_ March 29, 2010
3/29/10 i
Table of Contents 1 Overview ............................................................................................... 1
1.1 Scope ................................................................................................................................................ 1
1.2 Organization ..................................................................................................................................... 1
1.3 Defining Social Media ....................................................................................................................... 1
2 Defining Users ....................................................................................... 1
2.1 User Research ................................................................................................................................... 2
2.2 Potential Users ................................................................................................................................. 3
2.3 Audience Types................................................................................................................................. 4
3 Define Goals .......................................................................................... 5
3.1 Increase Awareness, Interest, & Participation ................................................................................. 5
3.2 Better Manage Reputation & Brand ................................................................................................. 5
3.3 Enhance Customer Service ............................................................................................................... 6
3.4 Promote Existing Content ................................................................................................................. 7
3.5 Develop New Content ...................................................................................................................... 7
4 Measuring Results ................................................................................. 7
4.1 Increase Awareness, Interest, & Participation ................................................................................. 8
4.2 Manage Reputation & Brand ............................................................................................................ 8
4.3 Enhance Customer Service ............................................................................................................... 8
4.4 Promote Existing Content ................................................................................................................. 8
4.5 Develop New Content ...................................................................................................................... 8
5 Consistent Messages ............................................................................. 9
6 Selecting Social Media Technologies ...................................................... 9
6.1 Types of Engagement ....................................................................................................................... 9
6.2 Serving Audiences, Advancing Goals .............................................................................................. 12
6.3 Recommendations .......................................................................................................................... 16
7 Next Steps ........................................................................................... 17
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Appendix A: User Research Results .......................................................... 18
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Table of Figures Figure 1: Social Media Tools Used .......................................................................................................... 2
Figure 2: Number of Social Media Tools Used ....................................................................................... 3
Figure 3: Number of Hits in Top 50 Google Results Attributable To User ............................................. 3
Table of Tables Table 1: Document Organization ............................................................................................................ 1
Table 2: Audiences for HRSA Content .................................................................................................... 4
Table 3: Goal 1—Increase Awareness, Interest & Participation ............................................................ 5
Table 4: Goal 2—Manage Reputation & Brand ...................................................................................... 6
Table 5: Goal 3—Enhance Customer Service ......................................................................................... 6
Table 6: Goal 4—Promote Existing Content ........................................................................................... 7
Table 7: Goal 5—Develop New Content ................................................................................................. 7
Table 8: Messages .................................................................................................................................. 9
Table 9: Tools and Types of Social Media Engagement ......................................................................... 9
Table 10: Mapping Tools to Levels of Effort, Audiences Served, and Goals Advanced ....................... 12
Table 11: Recommended Social Media Efforts .................................................................................... 16
Table 12: User 1 .................................................................................................................................... 19
Table 13: User 2 .................................................................................................................................... 20
Table 14: User 3 .................................................................................................................................... 20
Table 15: User 4 .................................................................................................................................... 21
Table 16: User 5 .................................................................................................................................... 21
Table 17: User 6 .................................................................................................................................... 21
Table 18: User 7 .................................................................................................................................... 22
Table 19: User 8 .................................................................................................................................... 22
Table 20: User 9 .................................................................................................................................... 23
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Table 21: User 10 .................................................................................................................................. 23
Table 22: User 11 .................................................................................................................................. 24
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1 Overview
Aquilent was contracted by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to transform its web content strategies. As part of Option Year One of that contract, Aquilent is crafting a social media plan.
This plan will guide strategy development for a HRSA social media presence that:
Ensures citizen-focused delivery of information
Enhances communication of HRSA mission and activities through use of multiple channels
Better targets specific audiences and delivers timely messages and information to them
Aquilent recommends HRSA become more involved in social media, to help create, disseminate, and shape an ongoing dialog with citizens about HRSA as it provides national leadership, program resources and services needed to improve access to culturally competent, quality health care.
1.1 Scope
This document is intended to establish a framework to guide HRSA’s Office of Web Communication’s further adoption of social media as a communication tool to guide bureau- and program-specific social media plans.
1.2 Organization
This document is divided into 7 sections, as outlined in Table 1, below:
Table 1: Document Organization
Section Number Section Title
1 Introduction
2—5 Foundation for Social Media Planning
6—7 Selecting and Implementing Social Media Tools
Appendix A User Research Results
1.3 Defining Social Media
Any media that encourages interaction among users can be called social media. For the purposes of this document, we will restrict our discussion to electronic social media, with the understanding that other media will support the same overall communication and brand goals.
2 Defining Users
The first step to developing a social media plan is to discover who your users are, and how they use social media. Questions HRSA must ask about its users include:
Do they use social media tools?
Which social media tools do they use?
If they do use them, how do they use them?
What users are not using social media tools, and why?
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2.1 User Research
Aquilent undertook an online user research project to help answer these questions. Full methodology and results are reported in Appendix A. We identified 11 people who had either “friended” HRSA on a social media site, or posted content specifically mentioning HRSA. Once these research subjects were identified, we searched for signs of their participation in a standard set of social media tools. Figure 1 (below) shows how many of the test subjects use each of the studied tools.
Figure 1: Social Media Tools Used
Facebook is used by the majority of the research subjects. MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter each have the
same number of users in our subject group; slightly less than half of the subjects use one or more of
those tools. Link sharing tools—such as StumbleUpon and Digg—were only used by one subject, who
used more than one link sharing tool. Three of the subjects were found to use other social media tools,
such as blogs and professional online communities of interest.
Subjects used the social media tools for a mix of professional and personal communication. Some
frequent uses include:
Seeking employment or employment advice
Sharing information about HRSA programs and procedures
Debating health policy issues
Identifying relationship with or interest in HRSA
Most of the subjects used multiple social media tools, as shown in Figure 2, below. Several users posted
similar or identical content to multiple sites—e.g. both Facebook and Twitter. This is not surprising, as it
stands to reason that subjects’ social networks overlap from site to site, as do the networks’ interests.
7
5
5
5
1
3
MySpace
Link Sharing
Other
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Figure 2: Number of Social Media Tools Used
To ensure we captured a full picture of the subjects’ social media usage, we searched Google for them,
using only publically-available identifiable information, and evaluated how many of the top 50 Google
search results were reasonably attributable to each subject. More than half of the subjects accounted
for 8% of the results for their searches; three subjects had over 75% attributable search, as seen in
Figure 3 below.
Figure 3: Number of Hits in Top 50 Google Results Attributable To User
2.2 Potential Users
By design, this research only captures information about people who are already using social media to
interact in some way with HRSA. Citizens who either do not use social media or have not mentioned
2 2 2 2 2
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User 1 User 2 User 3 User 4 User 5 User 6 User 7 User 8 User 9 User 10
User 11
4 4 4
39
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38
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02
43
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0
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User 1 User 2 User 3 User 4 User 5 User 6 User 7 User 8 User 9 User 10
User 11
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HRSA in some way are not accounted for. Missing from the sample group are:
People without college education
Patients at health centers
People over 60 years old
Minors
This does not mean that these people are not using social media, or are not interested in HRSA. American citizens are online, in ever-increasing numbers, across all user demographics. As they use the internet more, they are engaging in social media more, and using these tools to evaluate and change their communities.
Eighty percent of American adults use the internet, according to the 2009 Digital Future Report.1 Eighty percent of those users have broadband access, double the level in 2004.
One of the fastest-growing segments of internet users is people over the age of 66. This demographic has increased 33 percent since 2000. Fully 40% of these Americans are using the internet.
Users report increasing time as members of online communities – online communities have become “stickier,” encouraging people to stay and participate longer than they had previously. According to a recent Pew Internet and American Life Project study, 19% of adult internet users –nearly one-fifth of the users—are now using Twitter (up from 11% in April). Indeed, TNS and the Conference Board’s Consumer Internet Barometer shows more than one third of male internet users and nearly one half of female internet users report visiting social networks in the second quarter of 2009. In each age range reported, there was 10-20% growth in social network usage.
Any future user research should include questions about social media usage, especially for those segments of the population not represented in the recent research sample.
2.3 Audience Types
Synthesizing user research results with general internet usage statistics and stakeholder interviews, Aquilent has defined six audience types, as shown in Table 2, below.
Table 2: Audiences for HRSA Content
Audience Types
Healthcare professionals
Healthcare administrators
Healthcare students
Policy advocates & government officials
Media
General public, including underserved populations
These types are mapped to social media tools and goals in Table 10, below.
1 2009 Digital Future Report, Center for the Digital Future at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication.
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3 Define Goals
Aquilent recommends a user-centered approach to defining social media goals. While HRSA is in the process of articulating organization-wide communication goals as part of an on-going branding effort, we can still advance the social media plan, and assume that social media efforts will support the eventual overall communication goals. Suggested goals for HRSA’s social media plan include:
Increase citizen awareness of, interest in, and participation with HRSA
Better manage HRSA’s reputation and brand
Enhanced customer service, with faster, more personalized response to user concerns
Drive users to existing content
Develop new content to meet user interests
3.1 Increase Awareness, Interest, & Participation
User research with health center patients showed awareness of and interest in HRSA programs and activities. However, users had no awareness of what HRSA itself was. HRSA grantees, who are by definition invested in HRSA programs and activities, often identify more strongly with grant-sponsoring bureaus than with HRSA itself.
Building up HRSA’s social media presence can mitigate this. Highlighting programs and activities in
multiple different social media will increase the likelihood that potential users will discover the content
and act upon it. HRSA can leverage its association with HHS and other government entities, reposting or
commenting upon their content, and seeking opportunities for building content together.
Table 3: Goal 1—Increase Awareness, Interest & Participation
Goal 1: Increase Awareness, Interest, & Participation
Generate awareness of the organization; and provide complete, accurate, and timely information, so users have tools for making informed decisions.
Reinforce the relationship between HRSA and its bureaus.
Promote social media efforts in other social media spaces.
Subscribe to, friend, or follow related government agencies and programs.
3.2 Better Manage Reputation & Brand
Online research shows that many users think of HRSA as somewhat suspect. The following “tweets” were in the top results when searching Twitter for “HRSA” in early November 2009:
@Ryanwhiteponce HHS Awards $5 Million to Spur Innovation in HIV/AIDS Care to Women of Color http://newsroom.hrsa.gov/releases/2009/womenofcolor.htm
@HBDirk #HumanRights Movement for children Vaccine Victims #Autism like Injury #NoVoice and #NoChoice #36shots #1Flushot #desiree #hannah #HRSA.gov
@Autismdiaries Wow. what is that all about? Poisoning our kids??? National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccine
@Autismdiaries You MUST Check this out! National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program http://www.hrsa.gov/vaccinecompensation/table.htm
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@HBDirk #UWAC #Autism Civil Rights Movement 1-91children 1-58boys CDC HRSA HHS Vaccine Injury Human Rights Movement 1929 1986 1989 2002 2006 2009
@clt2atl @SchwinnSwan Since you still seem to be unlcear on the 1986 law PROTECTING vacc mfgrs: http://www.hrsa.gov/Vaccinecompensation/
@lucidicus HRSA is giving grants to train new doctors, but only to "minority" or "disadvantaged" students. http://tinyurl.com/ylarl5f
Without an active HRSA presence on Twitter, these comments go unanswered for the most part. Active participation in Twitter, in this case, could ensure that factual information is as accessible to Twitter users as is less accurate information. HRSA’s absence in the space allows detractors to frame the discussion on their own.
HRSA should construct and project a consistent organizational identity that carries over through all social media and other online spaces. Some elements of identity construction to consider include:
Vocabulary.
Writing style.
Interaction style.
Opinions.
In short, every piece of information HRSA puts out into the social space shapes HRSA’s identity, and tells the HRSA story. Others can evaluate future information against that identity to decide whether to trust the information, and how to react to it. HRSA will benefit from a consistent, truthful presentation of corporate personality because that consistency helps a user feel like the organization has a unified sense of self.
Table 4: Goal 2—Manage Reputation & Brand
Goal 2: Manage Reputation & Brand
Discover and counter misinformation about HRSA programs and activities.
Regularly audit HRSA-generated social media content for brand-adherence.
3.3 Enhance Customer Service
Social media has been described as, essentially, a conversation. If HRSA is to shape conversations about its programs and activities, it must participate, and must do so strategically, engaging the users, where the users are, on topics the users want to explore. Users who are already interacting with HRSA in social media where HRSA has an active presence can reasonably expect responses to questions and comments. It is important that these responses come in a timely manner, preferably within one day of the original comment. Social media information grows stale quickly.
Many social media users will be questioning and commenting on HRSA programs and activities without directly interacting with HRSA itself. Discovering these comments will help grow HRSA’s social media presence in a natural, organic way. Monitoring mentions of HRSA and major HRSA programs in major social media spaces will afford opportunities to serve these customers, who might otherwise go without any authoritative information.
HRSA has a well-established online customer service tool, http://answers.hrsa.gov. Cross-promotion will let users know they have several options for interacting with HRSA, and drive them to the most up-to-date answers to common questions.
Table 5: Goal 3—Enhance Customer Service
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Goal 3: Enhance Customer Service
Monitor user comments in HRSA’s social media, and respond to questions within one business day.
Regularly monitor user comments and references to HRSA in major social media, and respond to discovered questions in a timely manner.
Promote social media efforts on http://answers.hrsa.gov.
3.4 Promote Existing Content
HRSA has a wealth of information online, on its website and with its social media efforts. HRSATube has nearly 60 videos, and 143 subscribers. The channel has been viewed over 5,000 times, with nearly 8,000 upload views. If subscribers were responsible for all the upload views, each subscriber would have watched each video an average of 133 times; odds are slim that subscriptions are responsible for the impressive viewing numbers. Instead, HRSA’s rigorous cross promotion of HRSATube content across its social media and other communication efforts is driving the HRSATube success. Applying this level of rigor to promoting other new and existing content should provide similar success in attracting user attention. Focusing on new content and time-sensitive information—e.g. application deadlines or events—leverages the ephemeral nature of social media content.
Table 6: Goal 4—Promote Existing Content
Goal 2: Promote Existing Content
Provide summaries of and links to new and existing content.
Highlight HRSA-sponsored or -attended meetings and events.
Inform users of application opening and closing dates for all time-sensitive applications.
3.5 Develop New Content
Deploying tools that allow users to rate, comment , or otherwise evaluate content gives users the sense that they are contributing to HRSA’s message. Taking those ratings, comments, and evaluations and acting upon them to alter or develop widgets, articles, applications, and other content, as well as information architecture and other user interfaces builds on the promise of user-centered communication and social media.
Table 7: Goal 5—Develop New Content
Goal 5: Develop New Content
Provide method for user feedback on http://www.hrsa.gov.
Monitor user feedback, and alter or create content—e.g. widgets, articles, applications—in response to user needs.
4 Measuring Results
Defining goals can direct HRSA’s social media efforts, and measuring goals will keep those efforts on track. Though each social media tool will have its own hallmarks of success, some general metrics are provided below. There is some overlap between metrics for the goals, as the goals are often served by the same technologies and methods. To keep track of performance metrics, HRSA can use a simple spreadsheet, which will enable some basic statistical analysis without prohibitive expense.
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4.1 Increase Awareness, Interest, & Participation
Number of followers
Number followed by HRSA
Number of posts made by HRSA
Number of comments received
Number of responses posted by HRSA
Number of follow-up comments received
Comment topics, by subject/bureau
4.2 Manage Reputation & Brand
Number of comments received
Time until response
Number of responses posted by HRSA
Number of follow-up comments received
4.3 Enhance Customer Service
Number of sites monitored
Number of comments received
Number of responses posted by HRSA
Number of follow-up comments received
Track click-throughs to source URLs, by campaign or effort
4.4 Promote Existing Content
Number of summaries or links posted
Number of time-sensitive postings (meetings, events, application deadlines)
Track click-throughs to source URLS, by post
4.5 Develop New Content
Number of positive ratings received
Number of negative ratings received
Number of comments received on website content
Number of responses made to comments on website content
New widgets deployed
Usage statistics for widgets
Track locations widgets reused
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5 Consistent Messages
HRSA’s social media plan should have strong themes as its foundation. The plan should support, reinforce and reflect the communication and social media goals established by the organization, and should support the overall mission. This can be done through using consistent messages, across all platforms and channels.
Table 8: Messages
Messages
HRSA responds to the need for underserved Americans’ health, through its bureaus and programs.
HRSA provides training for compassionate health professionals, through its bureaus and programs.
HRSA operates transparently, and welcomes dialogue with the public.
HRSA is responsive to citizen and stakeholder concerns.
6 Selecting Social Media Technologies
HRSA has already begun utilizing several social media technologies:
Facebook: HRSA has over 1,200 fans, averages approximately 600 page views per week, and regularly posts links to website content and videos.
YouTube: HRSAtube, HRSA’s YouTube channel, has received over 5,300 channel views, and over 10,100 upload views. 155 users subscribe to HRSAtube videos.
MySpace: HRSA’s MySpace presence is relatively new, and has yet to find its footing and voice; that being said, HRSA has 7 friends.
Each of the technologies advances different goals and serves different—though sometimes overlapping—audiences. Once the organization has defined its social media goals, and discovered what social media its users actually use, it can then make good decisions about choosing social media tools.
6.1 Types of Engagement
Just as there are different types of social media tools, there are different levels of engagement.
Table 9: Tools and Types of Social Media Engagement
Tool Type Representative Technology Types of Engagement
Blog WordPress
Percussion social media add-on
Organization crafts content
Users read content, and comment publicly
Organization responds to comments publicly
Bookmarks
delicious
Stumbleupon
Digg
User tags content they are interested in
Other bookmark users discover content
Organization may assist bookmarking by placing bookmark tools on content pages
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Tool Type Representative Technology Types of Engagement
Brand monitoring
News clipping
Custom RSS aggregator
Organization engages in ongoing research to discover what is being said about the organization, and where
Discussion boards
BBS
Usenet
Users and organization create content
Users and organization respond to content, and to others’ responses publicly
Image sharing Flickr
Picasa
Organization posts relevant images to a public site
Users can comment on images, post to other social media sites, add tags, etc.
Microblog Twitter
Organization creates short blips of content
Users respond to content, publicly or privately
Organization responds, publicly or privately
Podcasts iTunes
Organizations produce content
Users download content and listen to or watch on their computers, mobile devices, etc.
RSS Percussion CMS add-on
Organization’s content is automatically repurposed for syndication feeds
Users, including other organizations, follow and repurpose syndicated content
Social networks
MySpace
Users and organization create content
Users and organization respond to content, and to others’ responses publicly
User ratings Percussion CMS add-on
Users respond to content
Organization analyzes ratings, and adapts content to enhance future ratings
Video sharing YouTube
Organization posts relevant videos to a public site
Users can comment on videos, post to other social media sites, add tags, etc.
Virtual worlds Second Life
Organization creates virtual space and avatars to interact with users
Users, immersed in the virtual world, interact with organization representatives, educational content, etc.
Widgets Custom Organization creates and shares code to distribute windows into organization
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Tool Type Representative Technology Types of Engagement resources
Users post widgets to their social media spaces, giving their own users access to organization resources
Wikis NotePub Organization and users collaboratively
create and edit content
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6.2 Serving Audiences, Advancing Goals
Table 10: Mapping Tools to Levels of Effort, Audiences Served, and Goals Advanced
Tool Type Level of Effort Primary Audiences
Served Goals Advanced Comments
Blog
Set Up: Low
Ongoing: High
Policy & government
Media
Increase awareness
Develop new content
Blogs are most valuable when they encourage user comments and discussion.
Percussion’s Community Manager provides blogging capabilities.
Bookmarks
Set Up: Low
Ongoing: Low
Policy & government
Media
General public
Increase awareness
Promote existing content
Though user research didn’t show high numbers of link sharing usage, we can predict higher usage in the future as “Share This” has been rolled out on the site.
Brand monitoring
Set Up: Medium
Ongoing: Medium
Policy & government
General public
Manage reputation
Enhance customer service
Monitoring any one medium is relatively easy; each additional medium adds to level of effort
Possible to use automated search tools to monitor multiple media
Include government and advocacy websites
Discussion boards
Set Up: Medium
Ongoing: High
Healthcare professionals
Healthcare administrators
Healthcare students
General public
Increase awareness
Manage reputation
Enhance customer service
Promote content
Develop content
Sponsoring a discussion board or forum requires a high level of effort in content creation, comment monitoring, and community building
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Tool Type Level of Effort Primary Audiences
Served Goals Advanced Comments
Image sharing
Set Up: Low
Ongoing: Low
Policy & government
Media
General public
Increase awareness
Develop content
Images put a face on an organization, humanizing it and enhancing trust
Content easily repurposed into other social media technologies
Microblog
Set Up: Low
Ongoing: Medium
Healthcare students
Healthcare administrators
Policy & government
Media
General public
Increase awareness
Manage reputation
Enhance customer service
Promote content
Reach users on many platforms—computer, phone, etc.—through one interface
Enables rapid information dissemination in crisis or mutable situations
Podcasts
Set Up: High
Ongoing: Medium
Healthcare students
General public
Increase awareness
Develop content
Helps users with auditory learning styles
Users can digest long-form content while away from their computers
Procuring quality recording equipment may be prohibitive
RSS
Set Up: Low
Ongoing: Low
Healthcare students
Policy & government
Media
General public
Increase awareness
Manage reputation
Promote content
Built in to Percussion’s Community Manager
Users access content through their personal choice of interface
Social networks
Set Up: Low
Ongoing: Medium—High
Healthcare professionals
Healthcare administrators
Increase awareness
Manage reputation
Enhance customer service
Creating content for multiple social networks is time-intensive, but content can be repurposed for other social networks and media
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Tool Type Level of Effort Primary Audiences
Served Goals Advanced Comments
Healthcare students
Policy & government
Media
General public
Promote content Tailor content to audiences—e.g. post all job opportunities to professional networks like LinkedIn, but perhaps not to disease support forums
User ratings
Set Up: Low
Ongoing: Low
Healthcare providers
Healthcare administrators
Health care students
General public
Increase awareness
Enhance customer service
Develop content
Built in to Percussion’s Community Manager
Feedback can be displayed on the website, or just relayed to content owners
Video sharing
Set Up: Low
Ongoing: Low
Healthcare students
Policy & government
Media
General public
Increase awareness
Develop content
Images put a face on an organization, humanizing it and enhancing trust.
Helps users with auditory and visual learning styles
Virtual worlds
Set Up: High
Ongoing: High
Policy & government
Media
General public
Increase awareness
Enhance customer service
Develop content
High level of effort to establish and maintain presence; do not recommend unless further research shows large pool of HRSA-interested users wanting virtual world interaction with HRSA
Widgets
Set Up: Medium—High
Ongoing: Medium
Healthcare professionals
Healthcare administrators
Healthcare students
General public
Increase awareness
Enhance customer service
Promote content
Create content
Set up level of effort varies for each widget depending on the widget’s functionality.
Ongoing level of effort for any one widget is low; LoE increases with each subsequent widget
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Tool Type Level of Effort Primary Audiences
Served Goals Advanced Comments
Wikis
Set Up: High
Ongoing: Medium
Healthcare professionals
Healthcare administrators
Healthcare students
Policy & Government
Increase awareness
Manage reputation
Enhance customer service
Develop content
Organization and users collaboratively create and edit content
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6.3 Recommendations
Aquilent recommends HRSA focus on building its current social media presences, and adding to or enhancing the following social media tools:
Table 11: Recommended Social Media Efforts
Level of Effort: Set Up/Ongoing
Tool Type Recommended
Technology Recommendation
Low/Low Bookmarking/
link sharing AddThis
AddThis bookmarking and link sharing tools have been added to some site content pages; future brand monitoring will likely discover other bookmarking and link sharing sites that should be added to the AddThis options.
Low/Low Image sharing Flickr
HRSA has a wealth of suitable content developed already, but it is not in any central repository. Sharing these images on Flickr—which has robust tagging capabilities—would help HRSA staff locate appropriate images for online and traditional communications, as well as enhancing the visual offerings for the public.
Low/Low RSS Percussion
Community Manager
HRSA investment in Community Manager allows roll-out of RSS for little additional expenditure. RSS feeds will let users customize when and how they receive updated HRSA information.
Low/Low User ratings Percussion
Community Manager
Community Manager will enable users to give instant feedback to HRSA content owners. Those owners can then create citizen-focused content in response to user’s needs.
Low/Low Video sharing YouTube HRSA’s initial YouTube efforts have been successful, and should be continued.
Low/Medium Microblogging Twitter
Policy advocates, government officials, and media use Twitter to generate leads and conversation, and even people who don’t tweet themselves read tweets that are repurposed on other sites. There is little effort needed to start a Twitter account, and maintaining it requires approximately the same level of effort as HRSA’s social networks. Research showed as many HRSA users use Twitter as do MySpace, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
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Level of Effort: Set Up/Ongoing
Tool Type Recommended
Technology Recommendation
Medium/ Medium
Brand monitoring
TBD
An ongoing brand monitoring initiative is necessary to ensure HRSA can react promptly to issues and misinformation, and plan strategically for future efforts.
Medium—High/Medium
Widgets TBD
Though widgets take a greater level of effort than the other recommended tools do, the benefits are great. Widgets give users a direct path to tailored information, and allow other sites to repurpose authoritative HRSA content easily.
Low/Medium—High
Social networks
MySpace
HRSA’s Facebook efforts have been successful, and should be continued. Its MySpace presence is still in an early stage; more work on crafting content and building audience is necessary. Adding another social network to HRSA’s offerings will require a greater level of effort to both set up and maintain than those tools mentioned above. However, LinkedIn is a popular site with health care administrators and providers, and a HRSA presence here can help those users form connections with their peers as well as learn about HRSA offerings and opportunities.
Those tools and technologies with both a low level of effort to set up and maintain should be set up as soon as possible.
As new tools gain popularity, they should be evaluated to see if they will enhance HRSA’s overall social media presence by better addressing communication goals and user needs. Future iterations of this document will chart the rewards of each type of engagement for user and for the organization. When staff resources and Administration interest are in place, additional, more-collaborative social media may be rolled out.
7 Next Steps
Review goals and messages
Implement Percussion’s Community Manager, enabling RSS and user ratings
Identify and train social media representatives
Implement image sharing on Flickr
Implement microblogging on Twitter
Establish usage guidance for the new tools and technologies
Establish metrics tracking system and procedures
Define medium-specific goals for each technology implemented
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Appendix A: User Research Results
Research Study
Aquilent conducted a research study of HRSA social media channels in March, 2010. The purpose of this study was to assess which social media are used by people who are interested in HRSA. The results of this research will guide creation of social media goals, messages, and tools.
During this study, eleven (11) individuals with declared interest in HRSA were tracked through a selection of social media channels and Google’s search engine. The purpose of this document is to report the results of the research. This report includes a summary of participants and their social media presences.
Test Participants
The HRSA online user research study included eleven (11) subjects, who are representative users of the HRSA social media user population. Subjects were selected from four source sites:
MySpace
To ensure a representative mix of users, the eleven participants were divided into four (4) sub-groups. The following are brief descriptions of each of the subject sub-groups.
General requirements for all subjects:
self-identifies as a friend, fan, or follower of HRSA on a social media site; or mentions HRSA in a social media post
does not self identify as a HRSA employee or contractor in profile data
is a “real person,” not an organization, agency, or news feed
Privacy
Each subject is represented in our reports and notes by a pseudonym; e.g. User 1, User 2. All information collected is in the public sphere, and available to any holder of a basic, free account on the social media sites. Privacy restrictions put in place by the subject or the sites have been respected. None of the subjects were known to the researcher, nor affiliated with the researcher in any way on social media.
No live, in-person research was conducted. All data is publicly available.
Method
After identifying a subject on a source site, the researcher searched for the subjects on the other studied sites as well as three (3) link sharing services. Basic user characteristics were captured, including sex, age, geographic location, and profession.
Next, each subject was searched for in Google, to gauge that subject’s online presence and
possible participation in other social media sites. The top fifty (50) search results for each were
analyzed to determine if link could be reasonably attributed to that subject. This is scored as
Attributable Hits in the tables below. In some cases, there were fewer than 50 search results for a
subject; the Attributable Hits for those subjects reflect the actual number of search results, and
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have not been adjusted. Some subjects had very common names, or posted little unique
information about themselves, and initial search results could not be attributed. When possible,
additional data about those subjects were used to produce a more-targeted search result. These
cases have been identified in the tables below.
Any additional social media participation discovered through profile or search analysis was
captured.
This group includes four (4) subjects who have self-identified as fans of HRSA.
Sex breakdown: 2 female, 2 male
Age range: late teens to late thirties
MySpace
This group includes two (2) subjects who have self-identified as friends of HRSA.
Sex breakdown: 2 female
Age range: mid 20s to early 40s
This group includes three (3) subjects who participated in the Answers forum, and provided information about HRSA or HRSA programs.
Sex breakdown: 2 female, 1 male
Age range: late 40s to early 50s
This group includes two (2) subjects who tweeted about HRSA or HRSA programs.
Sex breakdown: 1 female, 1 male
Age range: late 30s to late 50s
Table 12: User 1
Source Site
Connection to HRSA
Fan of HRSA; physician’s assistant.
Sex Age
Female Early 20s
Geographic Location Attributable Hits
San Pedro, CA 4/50
Social Media Presence
Facebook: 359 friends; protected profile; displays sex, location, networks, and pages; fan of 46 pages.
PA-Link.com: Presumed to be a member, as is a fan of it on Facebook. This is a P.A.-only community, so her participation can not be evaluated. PA-Link has a social media poll on its public home page, and of 6 respondents, all used Facebook, and none used other
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social media sites.
Comments
User 1 is a graduate of a Hawaiian college or university.
User is a Facebook fan of Learning Radiology, Association of Family Practice Physician Assistants, and Physician Assistants Web Community www.pa-link.com.
Her Attributable Hits was calculated using her name, presumed title/profession, and state as search terms.
Table 13: User 2
Source Site
Connection to HRSA
Fan of HRSA; college student
Sex Age
Male Late teens—early 20s
Geographic Location Attributable Hits
Ithaca, NY 4/50
Social Media Presence
Facebook: 1,466 friends; protected profile shows networks & pages; fan of 72 pages.
Twitter: possible account holder; however, if User 2 is the account holder, he has only tweeted once, and that was over a year ago.
Comments
User 2 includes a Hebrew word in his Facebook profile name; when that word is included in searches, his Attributable Hits is 4/7.
He has created Facebook groups, and posts questions to organization pages.
No direct connection with HRSA or HRSA programs and activities can be drawn from his Facebook pages. He is, however, a fan of the President.
Table 14: User 3
Source Site
Connection to HRSA
Fan of HRSA; MBA in Health Care Administration
Sex Age
Male 39
Geographic Location Attributable Hits
Atlanta, Georgia 4/50
Social Media Presence
Facebook: 279 friends; protected profile shows detailed personal information, education & work history, and pages; fan of 17 pages, including U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. Posts to oragization pages.
LinkedIn: possible account holder; however, if User 3 is the account holder, he is not
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active with the site, having only one connection and no identifying information on a public profile.
Comments
User 3 is a recent MBA recipient, and is seeking employment in the public health field. He has posted to the HRSA Facebook page.
Table 15: User 4
Source Site
Connection to HRSA
Fan of HRSA; MD; medical school faculty member
Sex Age
Female Late 30s
Geographic Location Attributable Hits
Indianapolis, IN 39/50
Social Media Presence
Facebook: 296 friends; protected profile shows networks, sex, current city, and pages. Fan of 27 pages, including CDC and AIDS.gov.
LinkedIn: 6 connections; basic profile information.
Comments
User 4’s full name, as shown on Facebook, gives a Attributable Hits of 4/4.
Other physician HRSA Facebook fans also seem to use Facebook and LinkedIn as their social media tools.
Table 16: User 5
Source Site
Connection to HRSA
Answered question about health care; health care management professional
Sex Age
Female Early 50s
Geographic Location Attributable Hits
Rochester, NY 4/50
Social Media Presence
LinkedIn: detailed profile; active in forums.
Twitter: limited participation; follows the Whitehouse, CNN, NPR, and a relative. Is followed by two people. Has not tweeted. Has marked one tweet as a Favorite.
Comments
User 5 advocates for low-cost health care professionally.
She is very familiar with health center programs, Medicaid and Medicare.
Table 17: User 6
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Source Site
Connection to HRSA
Answered question about health centers; health care grants manager
Sex Age
Female 51
Geographic Location Attributable Hits
Reading, MA 38/50
Social Media Presence
LinkedIn: detailed profile; has recommended other users.
Twitter: has two accounts; one seems to have been abandoned in 2009. Now tweets extensively on health-related issues, with a high percentage of tweets being conversations with other Twitter users.
Boston.com: has commented on articles from The Boston Globe.
Comments
User 6 is active in her community (church, politics, library, etc.).
She has a strong interest in heal th care reform, as well as the grants writing process for health care providers; her social media presence is focused on these topics.
Table 18: User 7
Source Site
Connection to HRSA
Answered question about nursing scholarships; college admissions professional
Sex Age
Male 42
Geographic Location Attributable Hits
Nampa, ID 4/50
Social Media Presence
LinkedIn: basic profile information; participates in Answers forum
MySpace: not active; has very basic profile, hasn’t logged on since 2008.
Comments
Table 19: User 8
Source Site
MySpace
Connection to HRSA
Friend of HRSA
Sex Age
Female 42
Geographic Location Attributable Hits
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St. John, VI 0/10
Social Media Presence
MySpace: last logged in this month, but last posted content 11 months ago; has shared vacation photos and playlists.
Comments
User 8’s Attributable Hits number is not a mistake—she does not have a Google presence. Adding in her location returns 1 good result: her MySpace profile.
Table 20: User 9
Source Site
MySpace
Connection to HRSA
Friend of HRSA
Sex Age
Female 24
Geographic Location Attributable Hits
Stroudsburg, PA 2/50
Social Media Presence
Facebook: 252 friends; protected profile with moderately detailed information revealed; fan of 5 pages, including Breast Cancer Awareness
MySpace: private profile; has logged on this month.
Comments
Table 21: User 10
Source Site
Connection to HRSA
Retweeted mention of Dr. Wakefield; health centers advocate
Sex Age
Male 59
Geographic Location Attributable Hits
Lyndhurst, VA 43/50
Social Media Presence
Facebook: protected profile, but shares detailed information and all wall posts. 219 friends; fan of 64 pages, most of which are health centers or health policy-related.
LinkedIn: detailed profile, with 72 connections.
Twitter: following 98, followed by 161. 274 tweets in total.
Digg: no recent activity.
Mr. Tweet: recommended by one user.
Topsy: posted 273 links.
Blogs: blogs about health center advocacy issues for an association.
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Comments
User 10’s social media presence is sharply focused on health centers advocacy.
Table 22: User 11
Source Site
Connection to HRSA
Tweeted about Stop Bullying Now; natural health consultant
Sex Age
Female 37
Geographic Location Attributable Hits
Marblehead, MA 4/100
Social Media Presence
Facebook: protected profile, but shares her wall content. 296 friends, fan of 11 pages.
LinkedIn: detailed profile; 44 connections.
Twitter: following 64, followed by 53; mix of original posts, retweets, and conversations, focused on women’s health and empowerment.
Comments
