Inter-Agency Federal Social Media Promotes Women’s Health Campaign

May 21, 2014

Image of hands in the shape of a heart
Last week, we discussed National Women’s Health Week (NWHW) as an example of a coordinated campaign that used digital tools. Social media has made building campaigns easier by enabling us to quickly reach out to groups with similar missions as well as to engage with citizens. Here are the highlights from the webinar and some initial metrics, and in case you missed it, you can replay the webinar here.

Brooke Leggin, Web and Community Manager at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office on Women’s Health is part of the team that coordinates National Women’s Health Week. According to Brooke, the week was created because “even though women make many of the health care decisions for families, they often neglect to make their own health a priority.” Their social media toolkit provided multiple opportunities to share the message. As a result:

  • More than 1,800 women pledged to be a well woman.
  • 354 people and organizations supported our Thunderclap for a social reach of nearly 1.5 million people.
  • More than 13,000 unique Twitter accounts contributed over 28,000 tweets in support of NWHW.
  • Nearly 800 media stories about NWHW appeared.

At** the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Office of Women’s Health**, we promoted our resources by engaging across our agency, across government and with outside partners. Examples included:

  • Coordinating multiple FDA channels including our blog, consumer update and social media supported the women’s health message.
  • A #HealthTalk twitter chat with National Institute’s of Health (NIH)’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and Office of Research on Women’s Health, HHS Office of Minority Health and Everyday Health resulted in 409 contributors, 39.52 million impressions and a reach of 1.3 million.
  • A Pinterest shared board challenge included contributions from The Heart Truth, the American Public Health Association, Cleveland Clinic and Everyday Health. The challenge boosted our existing Women’s Health Board to 500 followers and 268 repins.

Jessica Milcetich, social media and digital strategist at the General Services Administration works to promote resources from multiple agencies through her work with USA.gov. This year, they created a women’s health pledge that was shared over 150 times on social media. The pledge promoted the availability of FDA’s Women’s Health Advice Kit and so far, more than 4,200 publications have been ordered.

It is clear that social media will continue to play a growing role in coordinated campaigns. Tell us: how have digital tools enhanced your campaigns and observances?Alison Lemon is a Knowledge Manager for the SocialGov Community and a Senior Analyst for Social Media with the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health. You can follow their work @FDAWomen.

May 21, 2014