{
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    "title" : "How Creating On-The-Fly Digital Content Can Fill an Immediate Audience Need |Digital.gov",
    "description": "How Creating On-The-Fly Digital Content Can Fill an Immediate Audience Need",
    "home_page_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/","feed_url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2016/08/25/how-creating-on-the-fly-digital-content-can-fill-an-immediate-audience-need/index.json","item" : [
    {"title" :"How Creating On-The-Fly Digital Content Can Fill an Immediate Audience Need","summary" : "When some U.S. athletes at this month’s Olympic Games started showing up at their events with dark red circles on their torsos, sports commentators and the media hungrily sought answers to what the marks could be. In less than a day after the spots were…spotted, the story of the mysterious circles was becoming clearer: they","date" : "2016-08-25T11:00:32-04:00","date_modified" : "2025-01-27T19:42:55-05:00","authors" : {"yasmine-kloth" : "Yasmine Kloth"},"topics" : {
        
            "content-strategy" : "Content strategy",
            "product-and-project-management" : "Product and project management",
            "user-experience" : "User experience"
            },"branch" : "bc-archive-content-3",
      "filename" :"2016-08-25-how-creating-on-the-fly-digital-content-can-fill-an-immediate-audience-need.md",
      
      "filepath" :"news/2016/08/2016-08-25-how-creating-on-the-fly-digital-content-can-fill-an-immediate-audience-need.md",
      "filepathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/blob/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2016/08/2016-08-25-how-creating-on-the-fly-digital-content-can-fill-an-immediate-audience-need.md",
      "editpathURL" :"https://github.com/GSA/digitalgov.gov/edit/bc-archive-content-3/content/news/2016/08/2016-08-25-how-creating-on-the-fly-digital-content-can-fill-an-immediate-audience-need.md","slug" : "how-creating-on-the-fly-digital-content-can-fill-an-immediate-audience-need","url" : "/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2016/08/25/how-creating-on-the-fly-digital-content-can-fill-an-immediate-audience-need/","content" :"\u003cp\u003eWhen some U.S. athletes at this month’s Olympic Games started showing up at their events with dark red circles on their torsos, sports commentators and the media hungrily sought answers to what the marks could be.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn less than a day after the spots were…spotted, the story of the mysterious circles was becoming clearer: they were the result of cupping—a \u003ca href=\"https://nccih.nih.gov/health/chinesemed\"\u003etraditional Chinese medicine (TCM)\u003c/a\u003e practice that involves placing cups on the skin to create suction.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2016/08/600-x-385-Instagram%5c_NCCIH%5c_cupping.jpg\"\n    alt=\"NCCIH Instagram post on cupping.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eOur communications team at the \u003ca href=\"https://nccih.nih.gov/\"\u003eNational Center for Complementary and Integrative Health\u003c/a\u003e (NCCIH), the Federal Government’s lead agency for scientific research on health care systems, practices, and products that are not generally considered part of conventional medicine (like TCM), quickly identified that there might be an opportunity for our agency to be a part of this conversation.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs we watched the stories on this ancient practice break around us, and as our press officer began to receive a string of inquiries from the media, we knew that we needed to provide our audiences with high-quality, evidence-based information on the topic. And fast.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile the reactive nature of throwing the hook and latching into a breaking story to share information is not new, it can be helpful for organizations to know \u003cstrong\u003ewhen\u003c/strong\u003e to jump on to an opportunity that might require a nuanced approach. In the case of the Olympics, the challenge was compounded by additional rules put in place by the U.S. Olympic Committee about what non-Olympic sponsors \u003ca href=\"http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/here-are-many-many-ways-your-business-can-get-trouble-tweeting-olympics-172699\"\u003ecan and can’t say\u003c/a\u003e about the Olympics on social media.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAs we tried to figure out our role, our team walked through the following thought process:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"margin-bottom: 15px\"\u003e\n  Do we have information on cupping?\u003cbr /\u003e No. Not more than a sentence.\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"margin-bottom: 15px\"\u003e\n  Ok. But is there a need for evidence-based information on this topic?\u003cbr /\u003e Yes. Press inquiries are ringing off the hook with reporters wanting to know about the science behind this practice.\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"margin-bottom: 15px\"\u003e\n  Can we pull together a fact sheet based on literature searches and information we have that would be helpful to the public?\u003cbr /\u003e Yes.\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"margin-bottom: 15px\"\u003e\n  Can we share this information without mentioning the Olympics?\u003cbr /\u003e Yes.\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cblockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\"\u003e\n  \u003cp lang=\"en\"\u003e\n    Learn what the science says about \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/hashtag/cupping?src=hash\"\u003e#cupping\u003c/a\u003e, a traditional Chinese medicine practice: \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/0CZvqaaU4Y\"\u003ehttps://t.co/0CZvqaaU4Y\u003c/a\u003e \u003ca href=\"https://t.co/cYvnxOq1f4\"\u003epic.twitter.com/cYvnxOq1f4\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/p\u003e\n  \u003cp\u003e\n    \u0026mdash; NIH NCCIH (@NIH_NCCIH) \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/NIH_NCCIH/status/762739039799808000\"\u003eAugust 8, 2016\u003c/a\u003e\n  \u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOK, then let’s do this!\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe key in all of this was recognizing that \u003cstrong\u003e1) there was\u003c/strong\u003e \u003cstrong\u003ea legitimate gap in information that we knew we could fill (what does the science say about cupping)\u003c/strong\u003e and \u003cstrong\u003e2) this was information people were looking for.\u003c/strong\u003e Within a couple of hours, the team:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOrganized interviews with the media;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eDeveloped content where content did not exist in the form of a \u003ca href=\"https://nccih.nih.gov/news/cupping\"\u003equick “In the News” page on cupping\u003c/a\u003e;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCrafted and pushed out posts to our social media platforms (by using the hashtag \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/search?q=%23cupping\u0026amp;src=typd\"\u003e#cupping\u003c/a\u003e, we put ourselves in the relevant conversations without ever mentioning the Olympics).\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn the weeks since we posted the cupping information, we learned:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003ePosts to our social media sites reached tens of thousands of people and generated more than 1,000 views to the Web site;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eTime spent by people on the new cupping Web page was 97% higher than the site average for 2016;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eThe content reached new audiences;\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eOur Facebook and Twitter posts were the highest performing content for that week.\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003cdiv class=\"image\"\u003e\n  \u003cimg\n    src=\"https://s3.amazonaws.com/digitalgov/_legacy-img/2016/08/450-x-475-Facebook%5c_NCCIH%5c_Cupping.jpg\"\n    alt=\"NCCIH Facebook post on cupping; this Admin view shows that it reached over 17,000 people and shared 120 times.\"/\u003e\u003c/div\u003e\n\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhat these results tell us, particularly with regard to the actual time spent by people on the cupping Web page, are that:\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"margin-bottom: 15px\"\u003e\n  We accurately identified a need for information that we knew we could fill and that fit within our organization’s scope;\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"margin-bottom: 15px\"\u003e\n  The content developed was made up of information and resources people wanted to read and explore;\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli style=\"margin-bottom: 15px\"\u003e\n  We shared the information across our digital platforms in a timely manner that made it relevant to the ongoing conversation about cupping.\n\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn an ideal world, we would have seen this coming. But a big part of \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2016/02/01/the-content-corner-four-ways-to-help-your-content-stand-out/\"\u003edeveloping digital content\u003c/a\u003e for successful platforms is balancing being prepared (think well-developed and thought-out \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2015/03/02/the-content-corner-catching-a-wave/\"\u003econtent calendars\u003c/a\u003e with \u003ca href=\"/preview/gsa/digitalgov.gov/bc-archive-content-3/2016/08/08/the-content-corner-on-the-fly-content-strategies-round-offs-back-handsprings-and-double-twisting-layouts-not-required/\"\u003ecrafting relevant and timely content\u003c/a\u003e for those on-the-fly, newsworthy moments that you just can’t predict. Like when a world-renowned gymnast walks onto his apparatus with his skin covered in large, red, angry-looking circles and everyone wants to know: \u003cem\u003eWhat are those?\u003c/em\u003e\n\u003cem\u003eYasmine Kloth is a Digital and Social Media Strategist at the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, National Institutes of Health (NIH).\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n"}
  ]
}