Sharing Knowledge About Social Media and Public Health

I have been missing from this blog for the last while, mostly due to some urgent work in the farm world. But I was invited to speak at an academic panel on the topic of social media in public health, particularly prevention and response to pandemics and the like. While I, along with Patrice Cloutier and Bill Boyd, did a project along this line for a major city department of health, I am reaching out to see what any of this blog's readers may offer in terms of insight.

Specifically, I would love to hear:

• any case studies of integration of social media monitoring into emergency management functions during exercises or response
• examples from experience of effective use of social media in addressing rumors, providing helpful public health information, or supplementing or replacing traditional means of public communication
• examples of where things went wrong. I know there are a number of these and would love to put together a more complete list of "don't even think about it" things or where good intentions and supposed best practices just didn't perform as advertised.

For my part, being thrust into the real world of media, crisis management, issue management, government relations and the like, this time as it relates to farming issues involving legal and government regulations, I've found that social media has its place but is just one part of a much more complex whole. Most of you would laugh and say, well, of course, we knew that. Right. But it's what happens with consultant types and pundits. When the only tool you have is a hammer, as they say, everything looks like a nail. So, reality bites, but the reality is that we cannot ignore -- depending on audience and circumstance of course -- the old world of mail, print advertising, radio advertising, billboards, phone calling, meetings and the like. I worry on this point a bit because I and others have been pounding the digital world and social media world so much that younger folks coming up may have no awareness or appreciation for the broad range of communication options that are available and should be considered. Ha! Maybe I finally found an example of where my advancing age might provide an advantage!