The Fantastic Five - Key Principles

Health organization generally have a common goal and that is to tackle health problems and concerns and promote awareness through sharing clear information. Social media is continuing to expand every day with new features and users. Utilizing social media to promote health organizations are what many places are doing. Why wouldn't they? Social media is a great way to reach large masses of people in a timely and efficient manner. However, it is not just as simple as post and be known, there are guidelines that should be followed to ensure optimal success. Below, in a special edition of Cody's Corner, there are five key principles that I have devised, along with justifications as to why they are important as well as examples. 

Cody's Corner

Target

Using the word target may seem very general but it acts as an umbrella because there are many "target" parts that need to be considered when utilizing social media for health organization and professional promotion. 

Target Audience - Who are you trying to reach? Is your target audience African-American teenagers in South Carolina or is it Pacific Islanders above the age of 40 living in Hawaii? You must be very specific, but not too specific where you're leaving people out who can also use and will value the health information. (Don't worry, we'll discuss this further in evaluation.) 

Goals - I feel as though goals deserve to be in the Target category because without goals, your organization will be working towards nothing. Having goals will allow your health organization to know what their purpose is behind everything that they do, as well as help you analyze what is and isn't working well so shifts can be made that the goals may be reached without depleting resources. Set short term goals and long term goals. Objectives are nice to have too! Keep setting goals too. You don't have to achieve an goal before you can make another and honesty, I encourage you to keep creating new goals (but do not go overboard to where none of the goals are being accomplished because there are so many). This will also bring us back to evaluation. - I promise I'll quit saying that word.. maybe. 

An example of a health organization that is clearly has their goals and target population defined is Susan G. Komen's breast cancer organization. Their purpose is to raise awareness and funds for breast cancer research and their target population is focused on women in the ages where they are most susceptible of getting breast cancer. 

Paint your Profiles

Having an eye-catching, well organized, well thought out social media profile makes browsing your site a breeze. your target audience will be appreciative and thankful at the clarity provided to them. make sure links are clear, working and easily accessible. The most valuable information (highly favored like your health organization's official website link or common topics should be visible). 

Copyright, World Health Organization, 2015

Be sure that your organization logo is the profile photo for each social media site. Not only does this make your social profiles be easily identified, but it also creates uniformity and consistency across all of the networks which looks very nice. Contact information should also be readily available on each individual networking site! The World Health Organization does a great job of this especially on their Facebook, Twitter and Google+ accounts! This photo is currently their header picture. 

Communicate Effectively
To communicate effectively, you and your organization must know your voice. Realizing what you stand for and who you stand for is important. Becoming empathetic meaning putting yourself in someone else's shoes and trying to see things from their perspectives will help you better envision why you set the goals you did. Do not "dumb down" information in a way that is demeaning to those less educated, but instead, be clear and concise and write at a level that children can comprehend. 

Engaging with your audience is important because it shows that you as a health organization care about their feelings, their health and what is important to them. Spark debates and conversations but do not show bias. Finally, do not bombard your followers with non stop information. Using queue apps will let you draft your posts to where they are published on a certain interval. Communicating effectively is important because it helps the people you are targeting by clearly conveying the health information. An example would be a health organization sharing information on their social media site and then responding to their followers comments and questions.

Be Transparent

Being transparent is also an important principle to remember. You're asking, well what does that mean? As a leader, it means being honest and up front about matters. As a health organization, it is your job to own up to mistakes that may have been made, as well as make things known down to the tiniest detail about what you're doing especially if it involves monetary resources. People will want to know where their donations are going and what they will be used for. Being transparent lets your followers put their trust in you with continued support for the organization. When sharing information, make sure it is relative to the organization's message and goals. Sharing posts of the staff and behind the scenes "footage" will help your followers relate to the overall organization, too. 

Concern Worldwide is a prime example of an organization that is transparent. They offer data and info graphics all across their website that shows how their resources are spent and how they are allocated.

Evaluating
Evaluation is as crucial as defining your target audience and goals, but it just goes last because it's usually done after the first four principles are considered. However, evaluations can happen anytime honestly. You obviously don't want to evaluate anything if there are no goals.. Just making sure we are on the same page! Two specific ways that I think helps health organization evaluate their progress effectively are through SWOT Analysis and Analytics. Previously mentioned in yesterday's post, I'm going to quickly touch on these two because in all honesty, they are simple tools. 
  SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. It allows your organization to identify strengths which are internal to the organization; weaknesses that are also internal but can be fixed; discover opportunities from the external environment like collaborations with other organizations and finally threats are identified as external. Threats can hinder your health organization's growth and productivity. 

Analytics are just statistics and graphical information that showcases how well a post is performing online. Concepts such as how many likes a post received, or how many times it was shared. These are important to look at because it will give your health organization a better idea of the content that is most favored and what is least favored. The most favored content will also be considered a strength, while the least favored is considered a weakness! 

Advocate Healthcare based in Chicago is an example of an organization utilizing data and analytic for the betterment of their company. They saved an estimated 200 million dollars one year after beginning to examine data like health history. 

Closing Remarks

With these five principles, I know you will be successful at utilizing social media with in your health organization. Remember, "there is no such thing as failure, only feedback" - Dr. Stephen Firsing.  

Have a happy and healthy day! 
-Cody

Strategy & Evaluation of Social Media Integration for Health Orgs.

We've covered Blogger, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and several other social media sites that are useful for Health Organizations and professionals. As the seventh blog entry begins, strategy and evaluation of social media usage and integration in the health field will be discussed. Strategy is synonymous with the word tactic and can be defined as a plan chosen to bring about a desired future, such as an achievement of a goal or solution to a problem. Plan. Goal. Are these words ringing a bell? Evaluation on the other hand is measuring how well or how bad things are occurring and reminds me of the SWOT analysis (we will discuss this later on).  

Strategy

Strategy is crucial. It is important. Are there other synonyms for the word important because I would use them here. As a health organization or professional, before you begin to plan out your strategy or tactics, you must listen. Listen to what is being said by peers, consumers, the people that you are targeting. I'm just going to assume that you've defined your target audience... By listening, you begin to feel and understand what others are feeling. It's becoming empathetic. You need to understand what health information can be best suited by doing so, you're able to better strategize what is needed. By not listening, you begin to create a downfall for your organization as well as turn people who look up to your organization against you. 

Strategy also includes deciding the best way to reach your audience. People access information in so many different forms these days, so by listening, you're able to know what your target audience is asking for and the best way they can receive it. Voicing information the correct way too is extremely important. If you "know your voice" and how to use it appropriately, then reaching your target audience(s) with accurate health information will be simple. Your voice should reflect the views and characteristics of the overall health organization.  

Having strategies set in place show that your health organization is prepared for pretty much anything that is going to be thrown at it. There are so many strategies that can help a health organization or professional transparently, appropriately and effectively communicate with large masses of people. Using ideas from others (with credit), being inspired by other organizations, bringing up controversial topics that spark discussion and shares/retweets are just a few of the ideas to allow your social media campaign to flourish.  

Evaluation 

While strategizing is important, so is evaluating. Seriously. What is working well and what are the positive outcomes that are happening because of what you're doing? What is going wrong because of what you're doing (if any.. lets hope none)? What are the internal strengths and weaknesses? Are there any external threats or opportunities? You're probably thinking "Cody, where are you going with this and what are you talking about?" Well, I just described the SWOT Analysis. I feel it is the basis of any sort of evaluation. 



SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. This is a great way to evaluate how effectively the social media campaign is working for your health organization. You can identify your organization's strengths which will allow you to expand. Identifying weaknesses will allow you to retract or abolish a certain part or attempt to fix it. Knowing opportunities from the external environment like collaborations with other organizations or a potential grants will help boost your organization from the outside in. Threats are identified as external and can cause the organization to retract or decide a different path to take to avoid the obstacle. 

Finally, keeping an eye on what's trending or happening on your social media sites and viewing analytics will help you better evaluate your health organization's messages or information being shared. What is is being retweeted, shared and liked the most? - These are good things and you want to continue to share posts and information that is relatively the same to your most popular and highly favored posts. Posts that aren't being shared, retweeted or liked may need to be retracted (these are actually internal weaknesses) and may need more monitoring/editing. 

Examples

World Health Organization - WHO's strategy of knowing their target audience is shown through all of their social media accounts by providing information on a variety of topics and in a variety of places. Their website is also easily changeable to reflect other languages. They are also extremely savvy in advocating their messages as well as getting people to understand their perspectives and advocate too. 

Many Public Health and Healthcare organizations like Relay For Life and United Healthcare implement SWOT analysis to determine many factors such as what are the strengths (what is being done effectively and efficiently), weaknesses (what is bringing the organization down or hindering it's expansion, opportunities and threats. Doing these analysis are crucial. 

Take Away

There are three things that I want anyone reading to take away from this. 
1. Goals/Audience - Please, just do this. Write out some goals and figure out who your target audience is and what your purpose is... (i.e. knowing your voice and understanding why you're doing what you do). 
2. Be Concise - Be clear, concise, short and sweet, but also provide as much information as possible in a manner that is understandable for people with fifth grade reading levels. Do not share information in tone that is demeaning, but yet, engaging and that people of all ages are able to understand and relate to if need be. 
3. Go, Stop, Fix - Continue going with what is making your organization successful and receiving positive feedback. Stop what is just not working whatsoever or hindering your organization from communicating health information effectively. Fix what you know can be fixed. It is okay if ideas, groups and even the health organizations views, messages, etc. evolve. Change can sometime be good! 

Have a happy & healthy day! 
-Cody 

Google+ You Plus Health!

I've heard of it, but what is it?

Google+ also known as Google Plus is the search engine giant's very own social networking site that does much more than people think it can do. 
Author, marketing consultant and development trainer Martin Shervington dubs Google+ as a phenomenal tool for human communication. Communication is a key aspect in Health Organizations and for Health Professionals because without communication, research would not be fulfilled, patients would be left clueless about current health information and there would be no connection among health organizations. Google+ can be a great addition to a health organization's social networking project looking to communicate with a larger audience online. 

Really Cody? Persuade me to use Google+

Well, that's what I am here for. With Google+, you and your health organization will be able to effectively communicate new ideas and information as well as collaborate with other organizations and as a team with this service. Google+ integrates with all Google services including YouTube, search engine results, and Google Apps, therefore the information you share is generated across several platforms through Google+ notifications. 

With Google+ you can create circles that allows you to identify relative users and separate them accordingly. Your health organization can have a circle that is strictly staff members as well as a circle that is made up of other health organizations looking to communicate. This article will help greatly in setting up circles in Google+. However, it's first concept is identifying your target audience.

O.K. So What's Next?

Crucial to beginning any social network for you organization, you must identify a target audience and define the goals of creating this social network. I know I harp on this often (okay more than often) but it is seriously the most important aspect of doing basically anything. If you do not have any goals set, you are working toward achieving nothing. The goals for your health organization also need to be shared internally. Long term and short term goals should be created in order to propel your organization forward and positively effect the lives of those you're targeting. 

Once you have established your goals and target audience, you can began building Google+ Profile. The video below is easy to follow along and will show  you step by step how to create your Google+ profile so you and/or your organization can begin utilizing the tool for communication amongst your target audience! 

Once you've created your profile, your organization can begin sharing photos, videos, text posts, pretty much anything. An interesting tidbit is that many places offer a "Share to Google+ Now" button. For instance, if your health organization found an interesting article regarding vaccines and that is your focus, usually near the "Facebook" or "Tweet this" buttons, you'll find a "G+" button! 

Cody's Corner

Tips for an effective Google+ Experience

• Goals & Target Audience - I promise I will stop harping on this soon. Maybe not. The most important tip I can give after research and experience is you must define goals and who you're targeting. It will make your experience so much easier. Knowing why you're creating a Google+ and what's going to be shared and who it's shared with will make future plans and brainstorms a much easier process. 
• Relative Content - Once you have defined your goals and objectives, begin posting content relative to your goals. Sharing information is a great way to communicate ideas with large masses of people (aka the people that follow you and/or view your profile). Following people who share relative information too is a great idea to get your brand out and noticed. Christine Degraff, a senior web developer created this article full of detail on how following and circles work!
• Search & Social - With Google+, users are able to search for your organization exactly or related topics and search engines do the work for you by finding new clients to interact with. This allows people to begin following and interacting with your posts the second the search results pull up.
• HIPAA - As mentioned in previous posts, when discussing health information, it is crucial to be weary of sensitive information! It is illegal to discuss personal health information with users over the internet, including Google+. Do not disclose any personal information regarding yourself, a staff member or a community member via any internet services. This is tied with Goals & Audience as the most important tip. :) 
• Engage & Evaluate - Communicate with users, share information posted by other organizations, be very broad but also specific. Do not target one person specifically on issues. Evaluate how well people are responding to the health information you're sharing. 

The CDC & Google+

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention has a beautifully made Google+ profile. With almost 40,000 followers and boasting 5 million page views, the CDC is greatly paving the way for other health organizations to begin utilizing this underrated social media site. The CDC shares information regularly with their latest posts regarding topics dealing with summer such as food preparation, BBQing and swimming! They have created hashtags (not used on Google+) but are shared in the photos so that users can easily pick up relative information on other sites. The CDC knows who their target audience is, they do not discuss sensitive (different from controversial) information. They include photos, texts posts and links to external places including their actual website, and they also engage with people who comment on posts. 

Wrapping things up, Google+ is a different styled social media site but when used appropriately, can be a great asset to your health organization. 

As always, have a happy "+" healthy day,

- Cody

Can Instagram Be an Insta-Great tool for Health Orgs?

Instagram. Instagramming. Insta-like. Regram. If you're familiar with the world of Instagram, a relatively newer social network, you'll know that Instagram is a great place to share photos and recently introduced, short video clips! With Instagram, Health Organization and Professionals can show a more creative and fun side to their establishment through posting and sharing of photos and videos! The more eye-catching site makes Instagram stand out from it's components such as Facebook and twitter. 

The purpose of Instagram is for users to share photos and videos via the media rich platform's mobile application showcasing a different side to user's lifestyle and experiences. Health Organizations and Professionals can surprisingly utilize Instagram effectly for their own uses. Instagram is a great tool to share photos of what the organization has been doing, giving a behind the scenes look at the staffing, and keeping things fun, but also professional when trying to attract new clientele. 

Instagram is a social media platform that allows users to share information via photos and videos. It is somewhat text based through photo & video "captions" but that is as far as it goes unless you decide to use other apps to share photos with text already in them. 

Health Organizations and professionals can create their very own profile by downloading the app to a smartphone. Once they've created a log in, they can easily begin sharing photos, updating their profile, ethically gaining followers and following others but it is not that simple. Wait. Yes it is, there are just a few things that must be considered before beginning the Instagram account. We will get to that in Cody's Corner: The Advice Column further down!

Cody's Corner

Tips & Tricks for Using Instagram Effectively

• What is the goal?
• Who is your target audience? What are you trying to establish by creating this Instagram account? 
• Create an eye catching profile -
• Make sure you that you have your company or organization logo as well as a description of the overall goal of the organization or mission statement. A link to your webpage or Facebook page will also be appropriate.
• Follow!
• Following organizations who are relative to you is a great way to get into the swing of things and also even build your follower base
• #Hashtags but don't #OverDoIt
• Hashtags are a great way for people to search keywords on topics they are looking for, especially health related information. Hash tagging your photos will allow them to show up in the searches for those key words! An example would be - if your organization is working on a brain cancer campaign, using the hashtag #braincancer will help others searching to discover your organization's campaing.
• Overusing hashtags however, can be annoying and tacky. This may show users that your health organization is only out to gain popularity (while this is true, they will view you as doing it unethically).. 
• Engage!
• Engage with people online. Like other health organization and professional's photos as way to show you're interested in what they are promoting or sharing. If someone comments on a photo or video, be sure to respond back to the comment! 
• Evaluate
• As always, monitor what people are responding to more and what they are not responding to. You can easily determine this by how many likes and comments the photos get! Find out what your followers want to see. If your focus is weight-loss, your followers are following you to see weight-loss tips and health recipes, not see photos about global warming. 

The World Health Organization is a great example of an organization utilizing Instagram effectively. They post regularly about projects they are working on including photos of the staff giving us a behind the scenes look. They do not clutter our feeds with non stop posts, but are steadily updating the profile. They have descriptive captions for each post and also use relative hashtags but do not over do it. 

The Instagram profile is the place where someone may stumble upon first. Having a decent looking profile with a photo of your company logo, some background information and a link to your website is a great start (even if it's a link to your organization's Facebook page). Sharing nicely taken photos with proper hashtags and informative captions is also key to success. Engaging with your followers and also following people back that are relative to your organization will increase the success of your health organization. 

As always, have a #happy and #healthy day! 
-Cody 

Hashtags, Health, Oh My!

Hashtags. Retweets. Mentions. Just a couple of keywords that are always used in the fascinating world of twitter! With roughly a billion users and over 320 million active users monthly, twitter is a great tool that can be utilized by Health Organizations and professionals looking to expand their organization or brand, and provide their target audiences with information specific to them and the company! Once you've learned the twitter lingo and gotten a few tips up your sleeve (which by the way is super easy), you'll be well on your way to fully implementing twitter as a part of your social media campaign. 

Twitter is a microblogging social media site that allows it's users to post status updates with a 160 character limit. Twitter allows users including health professionals and organizations follow one another, therefore people interested in you, will follow you! Twitter offers condensed communication through tweets but also allows for direct or private messaging among two users. 

Twitter moves at a very fast pace meaning that tweets are constantly being sent by users. Certain topics may trend or be discussed by many users at once on the site. When a user sees a tweet they find interesting or can relate to, they may retweet it which shares the tweet to their followers (GREAT because more people see the information) or they may favorite it (twitter's version of the Facebook "like") and they are able to access their list of favorites at anytime! 

Utilizing twitter for your health organization will allow you to share information quickly, concisely and connect with the people that you follow and people that follow you! As a health organization or professional, you can tweet out information regarding new health findings, studies, concepts relative to your target population or to your company. You can pretty much tweet anything.. (well we will become more specific in a second)! Several tips are listed below to help jump start your awesome, fun, and tweet-filled twitter experience!! 

Cody's Corner!

• Goals & Education

• You know the drill. Define your goals of utilizing and implementing twitter within your organization! Once that is determined, educate yourself and your staff on how twitter works (i.e. retweets, mentions, hashtags)
•  Goals include finding out your target audience! 
• Balance
• According to Social Times, since twitter moves at such a fast pace, you need to balance the amount of time you spend formulating a tweet (not that it's rocket science but you want to be clear) and actually tweeting things out.
• Character Limits
• Twitter limits you to 160 characters and there's even less if you have to mention people, use hashtags or include links so be concise!!
• Mentions
• Mentioning a user on twitter is like public communication, anyone who follows you can see it and the user you mentioned will be notified of the mention! It's a great way to include others when tweeting relative information
• Hashtags
• Twitter's version of keywords. Important. Important. #Important. Especially when you're just starting out tweeting, using hashtags will help you get discovered by others using that same hashtag or searching that hashtag! (but, make the hashtags relative)
• Links
• Often times, health organizations will need to include links in their tweets, however links can be excruciatingly long, often times consuming the character limit, use link shorteners like Google or Bit.ly to shorten URL links! 
•  Apps & Tweet Overload
• It can be annoying when a user mass tweets 10 things in a row to their followers. If you have several tweets you want to share with information, try utilizing an app that will queue your tweets for you and send them over a period of time. That way, your followers are not bombarded all at once by information! 
• HIPAA
• When discussing health information, it is crucial to be weary of sensitive information! It is illegal to discuss personal health information with users over the internet, including twitter and even if it's through private message. 
• If the information you want to tweet or direct message has to do with a user's health status, do not discuss it. 

American Medical Association

1. The American Medical Association twitter account is a great example of a health organization effectively using twitter. With over half of a million followers, the AMA focuses on sharing health information to a broad group of people. Their target audience is people in general because after looking at several of their tweets, they include political aspects and how they tie into the medical field as well as tweets toward medical students. You may just be a general health twitter account like that AMA and that is fine, but just make sure when tweeting you aren't showing any favoritism. The AMA tweets often too, but doesn't bombard their followers with a constant feed of status updates. They also include links in their tweets and their links have been shortened to provide more room for headline type information.
   
   As always, have a happy & healthy day!
   - Cody

Link Up with LinkedIn

 Link Up Your Health with LinkedIn

Viewed as the professional or business sibling of Facebook, LinkedIn is a great tool for health professionals and health organizations seeking to expand their companies. With currently over 300+ million users online, LinkedIn can supplements an organization by providing information across the professional network and "linking up" or connecting with other professionals and organizations across the world.The concept of linking up with people online has a different take with this social network. LinkedIn allows people who are searching for employment, contracts, internships, and the like there of to use their "links" to expose their expertise as well as get discovered by companies and organizations. 

LinkedIn for health professionals and health organizations is a great tool to use because it will allow you to expand your horizons of opportunities, but also allows for information to be passed on in a more professional manner. There are over 1.5 million health organizations and professionals using LinkedIn with many groups being endorsed by the MHA Degree Organization.


Health Organizations and professionals can employ this technology through a variety of ways. First and foremost, you 
 will need to begin and build your company page. This allows you to provide the organization's name, missions and other information. You will also need to begin sharing information about your products and/or services you are offering. Delegating overseers of certain areas of the technology is crucial to a successful outcome of LinkedIn. Success means flourishing new connections, ample opportunities and endorsements by larger or "big name" organizations as well as reaching out to the consumer/people you're targeting. As with any social network, it is extremely important to make sure the consumer feels that you as a health organization cares about their well-being. 

Cody's Corner

Tips for using LinkedIn Effectively

• Get everyone involved in your organization online with LinkedIn! 
• You organization will have increased visibility
• You can delegate ambassadors for your organization
• You can build trust amongst you and your members

• Connect
• Get to know fellow organizations that are in the same boat as you.
• Determine their goals and work together 
• Become connected with larger organizations that can take you under their wing and show you the ropes. 
•  Evaluate
• In this case you should monitor how well LinkedIn is working and what isn't working.
• Tracking where your consumers click and what type of information they respond most frequently too. 
• This will provide you with data on what to keep posting or what to retract from posting.

 

World Health Organization

 A perfect example of a health organization successfully utilizing LinkedIn is the World Health Organization or WHO. Scrolling through there profile, the first thing a user will notice is that they post regularly, mostly daily, and often a few days apart. However, their use of LinkedIn is not stagnant. Among clicking around the profile, LinkedIn shows the user how they are connected to the organization based on Links. This is where once again, linking up with people and organizations is very important! The Organization also has their other websites and social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Google+ and Instagram linked in their about section. This makes it easy for users to simply click and go to a new social media page instead of having to use a search engine! People are all about convenience! 

As with many other social networks, there are positives and negatives to each. LinkedIn seems to have a grasp on successfully connecting people and organizations. LinkedIn also helps people find many opportunities and promote different products and ideas. Remaining knowledgeable about your goal, connecting and interacting with the LinkedIn community and evaluating what is and isn't working, you should find a prodigious amount of success for your organization when utilizing LinkedIn. 


Have a happy, and health day!
-Cody

Facing Health with Facebook!

The breadwinner, the most talked about, the very tip top of the echelon of social media. Facebook boasts itself as the social media site with the most users. 

One billion. 1 billion. 1,000,000,000. Is that the correct number of zeros?? Facebook has increasingly grown since it's debut in 2004 when it only had 1 million users. Fast forward to 2015, roughly eleven years later and Facebook now boasts a whopping 1 billion+ users! If there are one billion registered people on the site, would it not be a great idea to utilize Facebook as one of the many resources for your health organization?! 

Facebook continuously evolves welcoming new members and new features daily. If you are a regular user like me, you may have a personal Facebook account that you use to connect with old friends from high school, colleagues, family members and maybe your 85 year old grandma that lives in Alaska. I'm kidding... my grandma does not have Facebook, nor does she live in Alaska. However, it is a simple, easy and effective way for health organizations to communicate with large sums of people including teenagers, adults and the elderly (who by the way are more common than you think.) 43% of elderly adults, ages 65+ are utilizing the social media platform. 

Facebook offers users and potential users like health organizations the option to create a business page or commonly known as a fan page that allows normal users like myself, to "like" the page so I may view informational posts and interact with others on it. Creating a Facebook page for your organization will give you and your health organization a voice online allowing you to connect with people and create new customers!  According to a survey done by National Research Corp, approximately 40% of respondents said they rely on social media to find out health information with 93% of those turning directly to Facebook! 

There are several guidelines or tips that should be followed for a more successful experience with the technology as well as success for your health organization..

Cody's Corner

1. Goals - I cannot stress this enough. Before you even begin to think about creating the Facebook page. What is the health goal or the purpose of making this Facebook page and who are you targeting? Contemplate the goals, brainstorm them, write them down, print them out, laminate them, put them in a safe. 

2. The T.R.E.C. Method © (Copyright, Cody Norris, June 2015)

• Transparent - Be clear with the consumers you are trying to reach. Do not beat around the bush with the health information you are providing. An example would be to inform the people where you are donating your breast cancer fundraiser monies to and how much is going to be kept for the organization. Transparency is key and your consumers will thank you for your honesty. 
• Relatable - You could put the word relative in here but just make sure the information you share on your Facebook page relates to your organization, and is also relative to your target audience -- oh yeah, your target audience needs to be defined in your goals.. *stresses immensely at the fact that you may not have defined your goals yet* 
• Engage - Engage. Comment. Talk to the people who are interested in your organization! Show them that you value what they have to say, what they feel, what they want to know more about etc. At the end of the day, you didn't just create this Facebook page for you or your organization but you created it for the betterment of the people you are serving. 
• Credibility - Credible. Factual. Peer reviewed. Scholarly journal articles. Nothing is more dissatisfying than seeing an awesome, eye-catching article title shared on Facebook then noticing it's from a satirical news site of site of little to no credibility. 
• News sites are going to have biases. That's okay! Just try to incorporate a variety of view points and writers. (Unless your target audience is liberals, then I suggest not using or even thinking about Fox News; or CNN if your audience is predominantly conservatives.) 
• This is an example of a credible source of information regarding Facebook and well-being in young adults. 
• This is NOT an example of a credible source of information. 
• Usually, .org, .gov, and .edu sites are great repositories of credible information. 

3. Evaluation - So you need to assess your successes and failures! What is working? What isn't working? Are you posting too much? Are you not posting enough? Is there prominent engagement on your posts? Try being a little more concise in your posts and maybe ask questions that spark a conversation between your consumers! 

Local Businesses at "Work" with Facebook!

A remarkable and local business dubbed Rivertown Fitness Center is a prime example of an organization that focuses on the health and wellness of individuals in the conway community through the gym facility but also through daily Facebook updates. The owner, Shannon Sharpe, is on Facebook when not physically engaged with clientele, sharing the latest information regarding fat burning workouts, healthy summer recipes and other related fitness tips! I am currently a member here and have been for three years. I also did an internship at the facility last Fall for HPRO 201. The way RFC does business compared to corporation gyms like Planet Fitness is a completely different ballgame. RFC has been successful for over 15 years and still continues to grow! Their utilization of Facebook is not the main reason for their success, but is a complementary tool to their achievements! 

I hope you enjoyed this post, and remember, always define your goals first no matter what you are trying to complete! 

Have a happy, and healthy day!
- Cody 

Blogging for Health Organizations!

Social Media has evolved and expanded drastically over the years with many forms being utilized by people, companies and even health organizations. Social media allows people to connect with one another and distribute all sorts of information with the world.

Health professionals and health organizations can use Blogger to share information or posts about what they are currently doing in the community, introducing different ideas and volunteers and share information and findings through out their blog. Specifically, Blogger allows users to embed different types of media like photos and videos. If the organization recently assisted in relief efforts in a country and desired to blog about it, they could include photos of what they did to make the blog more appealing to readers. Blogger is an archive of posts so as something new is posted, the previous posts is put under the new one. Therefore readers can still access older posts if the user makes them available to read.

Blogging Tips:

*Define your goal(s):

·      What is the purpose?

·      What will you write about?

·      Who is the target audience?

- Not having a set goal or working towards accomplishing something, you may eventually fail.

*Being consistent:

·      Information is relative to the overall blog topic

·      Posts are shared in a relative similar time frame.

·      Once a week? Once a month? Once a day? – You decide and stick with it!

- If your blog is about providing water to a village in the Galapagos Islands, you should not be posting information about the new iPhone.

*Spell Check and Grammar:

·      Write well

·      Use spell check

·      Proper grammar is important

·      Proofread

­- If blog posts are unorganized, inconsistent, full of grammar and spelling errors, the credibility as a health organization/professional will decrease.

This website is a great resource to get you and your health organization jump-started on building a blog! http://goo.gl/OwSPLc

United States Department of Agriculture

The USDA is a great example of an organization utilizing blogging. They have successfully created a header with their organization logo, provided tabs to access different pages, a sidebar with different topics they’ve posted about as well as a body with the most recent postings. The USDA has even included links to their other social media sites. When building up a brand or company on social media, it is crucial to link every social media account with one another because not only does it increase traffic by allowing visitors to quickly click to your other sites, but it also keeps them from having to go back to a search engine to find more information about yourself or organization.

Take a look here to get a better understanding of the USDA’s blog!

http://goo.gl/tPCIes