Doing More with Less through Partnerships and Social Media During Economic Downturn

Objective: Describe ways to improve communication among partners and with target audiences through web-based technology.

Methods: One goal of the Utah DPCP is to implement a cohesive, targeted, and multidimensional communications intervention to improve diabetes knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and reduce incidence of diabetes and diabetes-related complications. Despite a significant cut in the communications budget, partnerships led to the launch of a social media/marketing campaign with potential for greater reach and more dynamic communication with the target audience.

Results: Google Documents and Twitter have enabled the development process to be more transparent and dynamic. Partners and audience members viewed the plans, provided feedback and helped network with potential partners before the campaign was even launched. These partners guided the development of “The Faces of Diabetes,” which aims to share the stories of those affected by diabetes and provide online mentoring. Traditional media outlets, diabetes educators, librarians, public schools will direct people to the Web site which will host these stories, allow people to upload or type their own and host an ongoing discussion. RSS feeds, YouTube and Disqus have been identified as communication tools for the stories and discussion.

Conclusion: Evidence has shown that patients' health decisions are increasingly impacted by Internet-based information. As diabetes professionals engage patients through these mediums, we have more opportunities to influence these health decisions.