Twitter Engagement: Some Lessons from AIDS.gov

By Michelle Samplin-Salgado, AIDS.gov New Media Strategist

A couple of weeks ago I participated on a panel with our CDC colleagues Ann Aiken and Jessica Schindelar about Twitter monitoring, evaluation, and engagement at the CDC’s National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media. During this panel I spoke about “engagement” on Twitter – providing different definitions of it and how we at AIDS.gov work to engage our Twitter followers (and here are the slides ).

2010 CDC Health Communication, Marketing, and Media Conference Highlights

By Michelle Samplin-Salgado, AIDS.gov New Media Strategist

Last week in Atlanta I joined nearly 1,000 health communicators at CDC’s 4th Annual National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media. The theme of this year’s conference was “Convergence: Purpose, Programs, & Partners.” From the opening session, to the numerous panels, to the tweet up, to the closing session, the conference emphasized a “forward movement of partnerships and programs toward a common purpose.” The conference was divided into four complimentary tracks:

Data Academy: Providing Training and Technical Assistance around HIV Data to Ryan White Grantees and Program Staff

By Michelle Samplin-Salgado, AIDS.gov New Media Strategist

We’ve talked a lot about the importance of knowing your audiences and their information needs. Our colleagues at the HIV/AIDS Bureau at the Health Resources and Services Administration (HAB/HRSA) provide training and technical assistance (TA) to Ryan White grantees and program staff about how to manage data. In response to feedback and a process to identify unmet TA needs, HAB/HSRA developed Data Academy , a series of on-demand, web-based training modules about how to collect, use and share data. We spoke to Mira Levinson, Project Director, to learn how and why they developed Data Academy. Here’s what she had to say:

Data Academy is based on feedback we received from Ryan White grantees and program staff about what kinds of support they needed to help manage, report and use their data. We used the POST strategy to figure out exactly what information would be most important to convey, and the most effective way for grantees to access the information.

Keeping it Real: Understanding the Changing Landscape of HIV/AIDS Clinical Trials Communication

Earlier this month we presented at a symposium of the HIV/AIDS Network Coordination Project's (HANC) Communications Working Group. We asked Amy Ragsdale, HANC Special Projects Coordinator to tell us a little more about the Working Group and how they are using new media.

The HIV/AIDS Network Coordination (HANC) works with the six HIV/AIDS clinical trials networks funded by the Division of AIDS (DAIDS) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) with the intent of creating a more integrated, collaborative and flexible research structure. The networks (ACTG, HPTN , HVTN, IMPAACT, INSIGHT, and MTN) are an affiliated group of national and international medical research institutions and investigators that conduct clinical HIV/AIDS research to develop safe and effective drugs, prevention strategies and HIV vaccines.

Lessons Learned from SXSW 2010

By Jeremy Vanderlan, AIDS.gov Web Developer, and Cathy Thomas, AIDS.gov Technical Director

Austin is a town with a distinct vibe. Where cowboy boots would be expected, nose rings are present instead. We saw more mohawks than crew cuts, more ironic t-shirts then suit coat jackets. It’s a town that thrives on individuality, and in this setting, the interactive community convenes for their flagship gathering, the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival .

Last year, we heard from our Federal colleague Andrew Wilson that leaders in the field are using new media to connect, collaborate, and engage in creative ways. Extracting a theme from this year's conference isn't easy for us. The web is continuing to expand exponentially. There are apps for phones, book publishers pushing content to Kindle, enhanced interactivity with HTML5 and CSS3 , more browsers, thousands of social networking communities, and hundreds of ways to actually deliver content to a targeted audience.