Are We Being Heard? An Assessment of An Educational Science Blog

Background:

In 2007, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) created a Science Blog as its first social media channel. This blog provides educational information to readers about health and safety practices in the workplace and encourages comments about its postings. The blog currently has more than 22,000 subscribers.

Program background:

Although the Blog steadily grew in subscribers, there had been no assessment of it with regard to audience, no determination of its effectiveness as a conversation platform, and no investigation of how it might be effectively used in the future for marketing agency products and services to consumers.  As a result, the investigators proposed a study to determine its value and impact as a communication channel. 

The objectives of the research were:

1. To assess patterns of use and overall effectiveness of the Blog.

2. To determine its use as a conversational platform.

3. To gain insight that will improve the quality of the Blog in the future.

4.  To add to the body of literature on social media for future research. 

Evaluation Methods and Results:

Methods:

In Phase I, the NIOSH investigators assessed existing options available for blog evaluation and existing research on the topic. In Phase II, the researchers developed a survey using questions that had been pre-approved by the U.S. Office of Management and Business (OMB) for use by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in collecting information from webpage visitors. The CDC questions were originally developed for website usability studies and allowed for some changes to help tailor the questions to a particular program at CDC. The survey asked what kinds of information were most useful, how readers used the information posted on the blog, if there was any lasting impact from blog posts, and suggestions for improvements including blog topics and design changes. The online survey was launched from July 10, 2009 to September 10, 2009 and the results analyzed.

Results:

The findings from this research indicated that the Science Blog was a valued social media resource. Sixty percent of participants planned to continue using the blog in the next six months. A significant proportion of readers reported that they would make changes in the workplace based on information obtained from the blog. These and other data including lessons learned and recommendations will be discussed in this presentation. Major outcomes included a manuscript submitted to a peer review journal, a blog posting dedicated to the results, and feedback to the NIOSH blog team.

Conclusions:

The NIOSH Science Blog is a valued social media channel to provide workplace safety and health information, potentially change workplace practices, and expand the agency’s reach to new consumers.

Implications for Research and/or Practice:

This evaluation established a methodology for the evaluation of blogs used to disseminate scientific and educational information to stakeholders and the general public. This methodology could be adapted by other agencies to evaluate similar social media endeavors. It provided valuable information for developing marketing strategies and expanding the reach and relevance of this social media strategy for connecting with users.