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U. S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health

Social Media and Media Relations at NCI

Brooke Hardison

OCE Retreat

December 2, 2010

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Journalism 2.0

• 70% of journalists use social networks to assist in reporting– Newspaper and online journalists more

likely to use than magazine reporters• 56% said social media was important

or somewhat important• 92% believe that social media is

enhancing journalism

Sources: Middleberg Communications and the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), "Survey of Media in the Wired World.“ & George Washington University and Cison’s “2009 Social Media & Online Usage Study”

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Top Information Sources

Search types journalists used:– Google Search (100%)– Corporate websites (96%)– Blog Search (89%)– Social Search (65%)– Wikipedia (61%)– Photo/Video Search (58%)– Forums (42%)

Social Media Tools used (sharing):– Blogs (64%)– Social Networks (60%)– Micro-blogging (57%)

Sources: TopRank Online Marketing Survey on Journalists Use of Search & George Washington University/Cison “2009 Social Media & Online Usage Study”

100% of journalists use searches like Google or Yahoo! to get news information (up from 91% in 2008)

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Once upon a time, there was an outdated website…

Since 2001, the NCI media relations team has been publishing articles for reporters about research at NCI

Volumes and issues Paired articles Text-only article

pages Internally hosted

videos (small) Separate pages for

multimedia files Keyword-based and

date range search options

Average hits/month: 800

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Time for Change

• The webzine concept was antiquated and needed a fresh look

• NCI, NIH and HHS as a whole were moving toward incorporating web 2.0 technologies, and we wanted to make sure that the new design could adapt

• Separately, we were beginning to see an increasing need for more blog-friendly content

• Journalists were increasingly becoming active on social media sites & we needed to make content available in the blogosphere

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A new formatIn 2009, in an effort to modernize the site and serve a broader audience, the Office of Media Relations redesigned the site, inspired by news blogs and social mediahttp://benchmarks.cancer.gov

Multiple images per article Embedded videos (now

discoverable on Youtube.com)

Twitter, YouTube and Flickr integration

Easier search (text-based), utilizing categories, a tag cloud, and archive

Hits in November 2010: 10,622

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YouTube Channel

• Branded YouTube Channel

• B-roll discoverable through YouTube & Google video search

• ~ 2,300 views per month

• Posting on YouTube saves on server space & allows for full-length views

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Corporate + Personal Branded Twitter Accounts

• Formal notices• Only follows HHS accounts• More authoritative for retweeting by

other organizations

• Professional w/ personal touch – real person

• Mostly science writers• Allows for 1-on-1 interaction

On average, Tweeted press releases get 25-60 hits in the first hour

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Corporate + Personal Branded Facebook Pages

• Provides a real person for connections• Can post non-official posts that are

useful to reporters• Lets science writers connect without

“friend requests”

Facebook is driving traffic to Benchmarks and cancer.gov

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Keys to Success (gleaned from others)

FacebookIntegrate with other

platformsCreate a resource

(offer information, serve as a place to connect)

Create reasons for fans to participate

Target YOUR audience

TwitterBe usefulProvide links to

information (short URLs)

Respond to questions

Remember that it’s public

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What NOT to do(gleaned from other’s mistakes)

• Focus on fan/follower counts– Are your fans engaged?– Do you have the right fans?– Are you serving YOUR audience?

• Ignore the specific platform’s etiquette– Attribute when appropriate (tag, retweet)– Avoid being “spammy” – post in appropriate

places

• Allow page to be overrun with ads & scams– Check in regularly, even with the spam filter

• Overreact and/or respond to everything– Sometimes, people just need to rant

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Overreaction 1: LockdownDKNY was letterbombed by PETA protesters on Monday. Rather than ignore it, they deleted the posts, locked down their page, and disallowed posts.

Now every DKNY post has hundreds of comments related to fur and bunnies (can’t disable comments)

And their current news mentions are dominated by this issue

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Overreaction 2: DefensiveGreenpeace staged a protest on Nestlé's page, regarding deforestation and palm oil. People changed their profile image and posted comments on their page.

The representative got very defensive, and things spun out of control.

This story was in the news for months

Nestlé had to create a “zero deforestation” policy in response to the backlash