| Name of Health Department/Agency: |
Contra Costa Health Services |
| State: |
CA |
| Date Added: |
05/08/2009 |
| Themes: |
Communications - General H1N1 |
| Issue Summary: |
Using social media to communicate during emergencies |
| Description of Issue(s): |
The swine flu gave us the opportunity to put some new social media into place that was very successful. |
| Actions taken to address the issue(s): |
We set up a Facebook page and Twitter account and have 200 followers, including residents, teachers, parents, reporters, elected officials, our own employees, and representatives of community clinics, day care councils and schools. |
| Outcomes that resulted from actions taken: |
Our public health system had been exploring using social media to push out public health messages, and have been using podcasts, but now we have an expanded social media audience and plan to use the followers for future outreach. |
