Webinar: Online Outreach Tactics

Date: December 14, 2011
Speakers:
Julia Eisman (HHS/ASPA) and Jaime Mulligan (HHS/ASPA) – to discuss how you can utilize the web to reach the public when doing press announcements.
http://www.slideshare.net/HHSNewMedia/webinar-online-outreach-tactics
If you have questions regarding this webinar or the HHS Center for New Media Webinar series, email newmedia@hhs.gov.
Transcript

Some of what I do here at HHS , before I was here work at a nonprofit organization called families USA which does health care advocacy work. Prior to that I was at an online consulting firm. So, experienced in online work and also work. Seems to be a good fit in that way. I think from there, we will get started. I'm going to kick it off to Jamie.

So today's topic is about roll off. I'm sure in your various capacities you have a piece or two of roll off. So, just a few things we want to go over in terms of the reality of roll out. There's three much generally they hurry up and go type of moment when people are working on a plan. Traditionally they obviously include reporter outreach and principles to be on call or events. And the thing is that usually it's better about this new culture media both internal and external meaning outreach to websites etc. it's usually tagged on as an afterthought. Unpopular thing that many of you may have seen, is that a general press person puts together a plan and might go through what they would call traditional media, bullet points and you might see double for this is blog, cast on at the end. Indicating obviously it's in their head that they are not necessarily that earlier with the toolset that may be available to them. Blog tend to be the go to. But usually people aren't necessarily thinking about them in the context of where the blog might go and whether there is cross posting opportunities, whether it's going to be a place that's actually going to push the message out further etc. etc. But, the thing is that ensuring outreach to external partners, so Washington Post, mom driving, etc. The reality is there is a large percentage of Americans who get a lot of their information from those sources. This tends to get added to the line by a staffer who sees it moving across their desk, when it's almost ready complete, or you know, any creative ideas about what else

Able to do, something like a twitter interview that are of. Some benefit taxon. This is a reflection of the fact that there's only 70 hours the day -- when he gets finalized can be put together in a few days. Sometimes as little as a day or two. There's a lot of moving targets. There's a lot of things that a lot of people are working on, and it's not -- a conscious effort to be this about, but it falls by the wayside. So one of the things we want to talk about today is ways to put those for the forefront of everyone's mind in terms of getting the message out.

So one other thing, given the actual timeframe for these plans could put together. Is the reality of the timing. It's really important to make sure that any suggestions or ideas that you have about utilizing social media to get out messages are ideas that are pretty fleshed out before something like that plan hits the desk. I know that some the little bit nonintuitive. Though what I mean by that is, you don't really want to be in a situation where you get a rollout plan and then at that point you said your boss, -- if one of the ideas you're putting in the plan is utilizing for a.

It's kind of more like you want to make sure you are laying the groundwork for all these different new media options so people are decently clear with them, but maybe can actually necessarily explain them articulate them, but maybe heard about them from you and how to get an so that if one of these things across your inbox and you add that, but it goes back to them. It won't sound like a very foreign new media possibly scary idea.

So basically, some of the stuff we're going to be talking about in addition to giving examples of things that it works, here in public affairs. We are just making sure you're working generally on things ahead of time is much as possible.

Sorry we are taking a minute to go to questions. They're being asked. Does it say that at all?

[laughter]

There we go. Okay. Is the first one.

The first slide is this. Enough to confuse question. That second question that the most common online tools people use for press rollout is actually really good one and you'll don't jump into that now. So some of the most common online tools that we've used in the past I would have to say our lower hanging fruit that comes to that. It's partially because some of the groundwork was laid to develop to to the relationship to these tools like putting Facebook. And they allow us to have more control over user control. We used were a lot. Whenever we make an announcement we typically posts related to eat whatever the most relevant to their feed is. If it HHS and then we will craft code  on different hundred feet. So twitter is a big one. That we use. We use Facebook as well. And we have used Facebook primarily as it's a use of Facebook we recognize that we try to be a little that more -- to engage people of the more. Suppose questions for people in action have questions so we become more conversational. Which is one of the great uses of Facebook so we can cram more of a dialogue. YouTube is a big one we use a lot when we do videos. You know, pertaining to their issues, either to direct a camera video and instant message or something produced that we create in the studio here. And we also do a lot to create and work with online partners. To help them get the message out to. So it's not necessarily school we are using, but if there is enough we are making and we know there's online platform, sorry there are online platforms that are interested in this topic and we will send them a blog and work with them to try to either draft their own content or -- we've worked with Huffington Post a lot in the past when we wanted to make an announcement, because there's so much traffic. Those are some of the main tools we use when we are trying to get the word out online.

Someone to submitted a question about the legality of using Facebook specifically but also generally social media mechanisms really depose questions people as government agency and stuff like that. That's really good question is where the rubber meets the road issue so the people that work here deal with of a lot of it's a growing area. And I would say on a kick this mostly to you but keep it to one area that requires a little bit of education internally for people. I might need to have in line for different terms of service agreement and stuff like that. The threshold answer is yes. Definitely a great question.

I think what we've done is we've really tried to be very broad and vague when we asked people what they think, so what we do specifically is put the blog on something. Their benefits at a been really able people from the healthcare law what are some benefits you can't libel? On what are some other ways in which your family has been helped? So those the ways in which we pose questions. It's more of a general and broad -- to ask you what they think. It's interesting because the mostly black shall he respond to other people within this thread entered into dialogue. And on the Facebook page as well. So, hope with answer your question. But definitely, writeback is that did not into your question. [laughter] So we've gone over media tools. And getting the word out. We work with bloggers as well to make sure that we try to hit different constituencies and the nice thing about that is there are different online these out there that focus on different topics. So, we really treaded target our outreach in terms of targeting different audiences with different messages for different announcements we are making that might be particularly relevant that audience.

Oh good, we just -- thanks for. [laughter]

And so what else? Let's see. In terms of online tools, those of the tools we've used most often. We -- there are other online tools that exist and I know some folks have used -- like the White House is big on doing open for questions Tewell that we've done a little bit. Are they actually pose a question to their own ends that obviously had a pretty big audience. So, they the principle or counter secretary or somebody doing a topic and what they do is use this tool to go up or down questions that might be particularly relevant then they'll have the principle or secretary answer the most relevant question on that topic. There's another website called Cora which Amy mentioned earlier, it allows you to post questions to a general audience implicit feedback on different ideas. For these more ideation tools or crabs pursing tools. But, currently HHS does not have those for that kind of thing. But I might change. So, [Indiscernible - low volume] Concerns about things like making sure your agency is terms of service and making sure your crossfire teasing dotting I. your eyes, that Center for new media is an amazing resource I know about presentations through them and their website has a lot of public permission on that. And services administration has done a really great job and establish a universal agreement for a lot of these mechanisms for federal government overall. So, if you're at all concerned about or give people the questions about it, definitely feel free to check out those resources. There is stuff there that can help.

Yes definitely. What I find really interesting about the Center for new media also is, if you ever want to get an idea they were really good list of that in a good archive. Said you're interested in seeing what other agencies or departments are doing online, you can go through and search, I'm sure you know this. But I find that sometimes we want to get ideas to help listed other people are doing out there. Online, so,given within the HHS committee there are a lot of really great things happening,  often doing really interesting things as video or on Facebook. They are very creative. So that's a good example. CDC is very highly active on twitter. They're really good examples of departments and agencies who are doing pretty awesome things. So I would encourage if you have time, just take some time out to research and see what else is happening out there online. Ensure maybe this is a fun have very cool things as well.

So, right now I think we're just going to look through some of the -- we have some thoughts -- screenshots we could examples of platforms reviews the indications methods. We worked with at WebCam DLI. Answer questions about the affordable care act. Or even different social media tools. We have teamed up with the White House and iVillage before. To talk about different topics like bullying for tobacco prevention. So these are examples of things we've done. If

Actually if I could be back on something Julia said there, part of our emphasis today is your resources and social media ideas are things that are value added for you as you roll out. One thing that anecdotally I can say, there are certain publications and website places like high village women's magazines in a better a better really excited to experiment in the area of social media. Some of them are only just now getting into things like you and then whatever. The editors contended he really excited about opportunity like five question video Q&A with a senior government official. So one thing you may want to think about as you look at these auctions and thinking about these pulls into rollouts is, it is a value add. It's something that may give your press team an opportunity to get reach into places that may otherwise not be interested in a traditional article just for the introspective.

Yes and also taking a step back, one of the really important questions you need to ask is, who your audience is? Done a thing about working online to be partly honest as a lot of these different constituencies they might be working with our online, so if you want to target caregivers their caregiver communities, the Java target nurses are nursing these. And websites, per se, is something we use the past and this is doctors and other care providers like Medscape or the one at target general consumers and health issues you can work with web and the. So there a lot of different opportunities to reach different audiences, based on what you are trying to target. Identifying who those people are the outset is really important in seeing where these people are sending the time online and what platforms exists that reduce audiences. And, there a lot of disease groups out there. Kind of like what she said, we found that when we came out these files, it actually was very mutually beneficial. We are looking for an outlet message center and a page with a different audience. Oftentimes, they are looking for new content. So it works there he well in the partnership has worked very well, because they're really excited to get such viable content that we have to offerthrough HHS.  Is very highly regarded and every time we've approached the new platform, we have Ari been very -- we've always been very well received. It's very rare the study says, no we aren't interested., A couple months ago we certainly to MTV and they covered it. Just reach out to young adults. So I think it's just good to remember that the sciences are out there, and it's really important to try to reach out there and build those relationships. Because then when you make another announcement down the road be ready establish this relationship and say hey, we want to work with you on this. Or iVillage or MTV or whoever. These are just some additional partnerships we've done with 11 D. on the right side of the screen. And primarily we're making sure the secretary is out there so the secretary -- and I think depending on who you are working with their happy to get a contact from any trusted source HHS.  These are examples of getting our material out to AARP. We did a webcast a long time ago. That year and a half ago I guess. Loppers past. We wanted to make sure that people are able to get their questions answered. We had MTV to eat out an announcement that we made about adults. Because we wanted to reach a younger audience. Recently we worked with iVillage which is a website that targets billet -- targets women talking about tobacco and trying to get people to quit smoking. For national Smokeout we. That there. These are just some examples and we've done other things. Anyway, that's kind of where we stand. On a pivot is a sad? Reputed 70 questions?

A point about relationship is a good one because we know that are working to plot easy to approach them and say, something breasts or whatever. That's deathly one big thing, I would also recommend applying that to relationships internally obviously. Obviously all of us are talking to different people in my be able to say to find some synergy there. I think the big thing here that can also be really helpful in your thinking about schools, in addition to really giving you the ability to say we can target it to the audience you try to reach for all out. There's also a lot of data often times a press release or whatever at August the contractor many papers and I showed etc. You can do the same thing with your online outreach is the most obvious thing people think about. There's ways to track and that's just one additional way to think about the stuff. When you're in the stages on that particular rollout group, but when you are make a sure that people are where you have decent seat can really talk to people about the value these different platforms.

I don't see any of the questions right now. [laughter]

[Indiscernible - low volume] Yes Catherine Hamilton asked if we could share the online outlet. We -- that's actually really good question, because, [laughter] We've had reason extremes recent bleep pitching to women's magazines because one of the goals here is to make sure we get information difficult to women from a portable care act and tobacco and other issues -- or women's audience. Board a lot of women spend their time in magazines. Lake Mary Claire. Then these websites determinist none of online traffic. We recently met with -- and they said the 2 million hits a month. And it's a good opportunity to get them. We did our research and found e-mail addresses online for different various editors at magazines that literallysent an e-mail, saying hey we work at HHS work was  secretaries available and there's important benefits for women we think would be valuable to your audience. And I think it's really key to really promote why they should care. They get 1 million pages a day from different places at different platforms. I think it does help because where the US Department of Health and Human Services we are credible and that it. We have a lot of information that's very valuable for their audience. I think in the pitch e-mail or in the phone call, viable for them and why they should respond. So that is one of the things that obviously they have their contact list and one thing you can do is for the people that are working in the quarter day-to-day you pass them organization that you or they could also be talked into or could be added to you can follow their putter cannot good old-fashioned I think a lot of the people you networking with and their relationships when you make something happen intense to be when you that someone in person sometimes by accident someone you side happy hour turns out they are in charge of some sort of online platform that talks to 3 million adults love. These are the types of things that you cannot -- you have to put yourself out there and make yourself known in the community. And really make friends. In addition to that, I think -- this is an area where people are aware of it now, what might be available in the list already. Would be a good way -- and I think the relationship part, going to people you know it or it will really help as well. Online school for press rollout. One of the lessons I have learned the more you can engage people in more of a conversation, I think more successful you're going to be getting the message out. The more we try interaction with people I think the more that six. And the more they feeling ancient part of this. We have a press release we do both. We are not as strong in the interactive piece. I think those are the times when we really fell people were sponsored. For were asking them questions we will try to answer them we generally try to answer when we can. I think the more we can be interactive the better.

I would just throw out then -- one thing we can be really fun that happens is you try something new and it will really work. For every rollout after that, what are we doing other twitter interview? It becomes another tool can somebody else's line. And it really works. Was mentioning at the top of the call, make sure where you can, make sure these options are available, so they have in the back their mind but also don't be afraid if it works. Data on how much it works. One lesson I would say is, the little bit of follow up with long way. We took the time and effort to do this video is what happened afterwards. It's a really good way to make sure you state at the forefront of everyone's mind is another option in public.

We got your note broke. Thank you. We are going to reach out to you [laughter]

Does anybody else have any questions? Or questions or comments? Or just general thoughts about today?[Indiscernible - low volume] [Indiscernible - multiple speakers] Catherine just suggested we talk a little bit about twitter campaigns we have run. Recently we launched a campaign in the love of November in the spirit of Thanksgiving to recognize some of the benefits of health care law. Everyday we calendar out a different we have a different provision of the law. At the end we use the tag for HDR which is healthcare reform. The spirit of giving thanks and around things giving we thought this may be a good way and we've to thank Jamie before them like a year ago -- that strategic and warbles of

She is the creative one. And has all the ideas. How do we make it planned out for every single day to make sure people will actually --

Which is true as it would never happen if we didn't plan things out. Having things calendar.day today especially for weeks is tremendously helpful. If we were really strategic about it we could go out at certain times but we didn't see that. We ended up sending different tweets every day we work with our external affairs office, who had a number of connections with advocacy groups and organizations. And we got them involved. Initially we post a blog on healthcare.gov thing this is what we are doing in this is the idea we are starting today. Join us. And we asked people to either read to we are tweets are submit their own tweets or show their own story if they had something to show on the portable pet care act also using that hash tag. We ended up doing pretty well. I think we ended up getting about 1000 gosh I don't remember, 1000 receipt. But altogether when you can service networks so it was something new we had done and it's a good way of trying to target a big audience with minimal effort. And I think you be doing similar campaigns like that going forward.crater on staying for something.  To return something into orbit event. So we can get people to notice a little more as opposed to sending something out and being a splash water. On my detail with the White House on twitter. Basically the White House put out a call for beginning with a this person who works at the Council for economic whatever -- and your questions for the next half-hour ago be here live to eating those kind of a cool thing to do. So a lot of people working in the principles well realm -- they don't do that much of a chance for people asking them questions so they seem to be excited about engaging on a platform and you take a little picture of them to eating any use that any work with them on making the right amount characters or whatever but I would just say that doing things like that in giving other people your organization an opportunity to participate is invaluable. They get excited about doing this kind of stuff and it does have an impact also on the public when they see how transparent you are being. To ask someone a direct question.

We got another question than what they'd information have you used to basically get by to get new projects. Online data I think all of those are rude go for useful examples for data. Another website I think it's useful is called Quan had. It allows you to look up different traffic for different websites ledger lookup and look at different demographic than what you can target I think it's also useful.

And if I could throw in in addition to the raw data we talk about calendaring out something and whatever and when you talk about principles in addition to having data about breach or whatever it is and I able in here is a two-page memo about exactly how we would do this just to the any resource concerns in addition to the data information actually that I think is a hugely important point -- I think putting a strategy down how we will manage the social media feed that is going to manage itself it sometimes takes while more resources than people realize and in the couple weeks just on Facebook and two just to get started their way you're an essay the next day. It shows people your thinking through these things. Sometimes, there's there's no right or wrong answer necessarily. Are being managed by something in particular, but I think they want to see that you're taking through these things very strategically and how they fit into the other rollouts and announcements and messages you are doing. Social media and online outreach is not incentive -- it supplementing every other indication. The redoing an effort. Which is showing its part of something bigger. And it's allowing you to reach different audiences in a different way. Than recognizing that some of your audience is gonna be on other tools there been other social media tools anyone to be strategic about who you're going to target where. Somebody mentioned that. When you are thinking about how you strategically do these things etc. it's important and I think a lot of people say I want a credit card or account or start a Facebook page or whatever. Been wanting for all of you to think about is that the end of the day what social media is about is going where the people are. Some programs and all of that the answer may not be started or account but instead to look at existing federal another twitter accounts be just what your message out on. Says you're countering things out, thinking that should you do that you'll hit looking of data and figure out the demographics, I would also really highly recommend that everyone does really a survey that looks a related social media platforms that are in existence just so that when you're talking to people you aren't saying, sounds like a huge investment they are actually showing your taking time and effort to really see what art exists and what isn't necessarily regrading the wheel. Okay we had -- someone asked if it is spelled -- anyway. I can't speak right now but basically it QU a NP. CAFC. And it's amazing website. It change my world. A lot of time just on their. And here's another -- they hear his Internet they have amazing footage especially helps Pacific studies is really particularly useful. There's another McKinsey had some other studies on social media. And online outreach.

[Indiscernible - low volume] Catherine just suggested Google apps Lanark which is a really good idea. The other thing that Google has is giving out the apps Lanark not sure you can track some of the training conversations online, or topics or keywords, but people are searching for which is useful. As well. So anyway, I think we're getting close to being -- hitting our time. Sunless there any other questions or how about this, if there are any other questions, here is our contact information and we are happy to answer specific questions that you have for comments or anything if you're working on cool projects you want to share. Would love to see it. And, just gonna brainstorm or ideas. The big days for joining. That I hope you enjoy the rest of your Wednesday afternoon so when a turnover to make here to close it out. Hope everyone found it useful. Be on the lookout for a survey, we want to get it runs feedback of the Center for new media webinar series as a whole and started out earlier this year we will have questions about the webinar itself. And we'll look ahead to see what you want to see from us down the road. If you miss any and are interested over the past couple months, just put -- click on the resources tab and you'll find all of our past webinars so you have the e-mail bill for you to do that give me questions and think you get for participating today. Have a good day.

Thank you guys.

[Event Concluded]
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Webinar: Online Outreach Tactics

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