Social Media for 2009 H1N1 Flu: The Role of Technology in Information Sharing

Background: The dissemination of critical health information is a top priority for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dissemination of this health information often requires flexibility in the channels and formats used.  During the 2009 H1N1 influenza event, sharing information through technical solutions such as content syndication and widgets became particularly important as means of increasing dissemination of flu-related health messages. Because of these technical mechanisms, individuals and public health partners such as state, tribal and local health departments, hospitals, universities and federal agencies served as essential channels for distribution of CDC information.

Program background: This presentation addreses two tools developed to ensure the availability of up-to-date, accurate health messages during the 2009 H1N1 flu event: widgets and content syndication.  First, CDC widgets are online applications that, when embedded in a webpage, display content from CDC. Once added to a webpage, widgets require no technical maintenance, and allow users to share updated, interactive health information.  Throughout the course of the 2009 H1N1 flu event, CDC built and maintained seven widgets specific to flu-related information. Second, Content Syndication is an online tool developed to assist CDC’s public health partners in communicating and managing the latest science-based health information online. This tool enables partner organizations to display current CDC health and safety content, allowing visitors to the public health partner’s Web site access to CDC content without leaving the partner Web site. During the 2009 H1N1 flu event, CDC provided over 100 pages of flu-related Web content for content syndication, and worked with partners ranging from Flu.gov to state and local health departments. These results provide support for adoption of content syndication technologies and the production of widgets for use in communicating about public health emergencies.

Evaluation Methods and Results: Using a web analytics tool, metrics were collected to measure views of CDC content on other pages and overall views of widget content.  From April 22, 2009 to April 1, 2010, syndicated flu-related content was viewed more than 442,000 times.  In the same period, flu-related widgets were viewed more than 5.7 million times.

Conclusions: These activities demonstrated that content syndication and widgets have the ability to increase the dissemination and reach of CDC information and contribute to an increase in CDC.gov traffic from partners’ sites and the introduction of CDC.gov content to new audiences. 

Implications for research and/or practice: These results provide support for adoption of content syndication technologies and the production of widgets for use in communicating about public health emergencies.