CDC plans to use a variety of online and social media tools to spread the latest information about the H1N1 flu virus, InformationWeek reports.
Janice Nall, director of CDC's e-health marketing division, said the agency will put information on other Web sites, rather than requiring people to visit CDC's Web site. Nall noted that videos on the H1N1 flu virus on CDC's site received about 100,000 page views, but the same videos received more than two million views on YouTube.
Health officials say that social media is an effective way to reach young adults. The H1N1 flu is expected to be hit young adults particularly hard, compared with other flus.
CDC's electronic H1N1 strategy includes:
- Targeting independent bloggers that can help spread important information;
- Sending e-mail updates and alerts to government e-mail list subscribers;
- Distributing graphical buttons that people can embed on social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook;
- Using text messages to provide health alerts;
- Using several Twitter feeds to release relevant health information; and
- Providing widgets and content syndication from CDC that people can embed on their own Web sites.
CDC also is looking into using games and virtual worlds to spread H1N1 flu information (Wagner, InformationWeek, 8/24).