Extending Traditional Clearinghouse Services: Leveraging the Web and Social Media to Disseminate Information

Background: This presentation will demonstrate how the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD) is improving its website and expanding its social media presence in response to a decline in the use of traditional means of receiving and responding to public inquiries and requests for information. 

Program background: As a growing number of people get their health information online instead of through traditional channels, the passive approach of waiting to be contacted by phone, email,  or postal mail has become less reliable as a means for disseminating evidence-based information about deafness and other communication disorders. In particular, changes in health information-seeking behavior and greatly increased use of social media have forced health information clearinghouses to embrace the new paradigm or risk becoming marginalized. To leverage the advantages offered by the Web, Facebook, and Twitter, organizations must be willing to invest staff time in optimizing each of these channels. Web and media outlets that are not active will quickly lose visitors’ interest and confidence. NIDCD defined potential engagement tactics that could be implemented quickly and with current resources. This resulted in building a Twitter handle for the main NIDCD brand and a Facebook page dedicated solely to its “Noisy Planet” campaign. Prior to launch, NIDCD defined methods and frequency of engagement, scheduled monitoring activities, and outlined guidelines for responding to fan/follower comments (including what to do with negative or inappropriate posts). At the same time, data gathered from the American Customer Satisfaction Index identified issues that might have been hindering users from finding all the information they wanted. Two usability audits have driven a redesign of how links to site content are presented. 

Evaluation Methods and Results: Performance of the NIDCD website is evaluated through analysis of WebTrends and Google Analytics data and data from ongoing usability testing. Data available from Twitter and Facebook is used to evaluate public engagement with NIDCD content and initiatives. 

Conclusions: NIDCD’s investment in its website and social media presence is beginning to bear fruit. NIDCD posts at least once daily on Twitter and has 269 followers as of 4/2. The Noisy Planet Facebook page has 222 likes and 14 people talking about it. Traffic to the Public Site in the first quarter of 2012 is up 13% from the fourth quarter of 2011, and traffic specifically from tweets increased by 88% during that time. The ongoing Public Site redesign will enable visitors to more easily find information, allowing the site to become the front line for the Institute’s clearinghouse.

Implications for research and/or practice: New strategies for disseminating evidence-based health information are critical to NIDCD's efforts to fulfill its mandate of translating research results into actionable health information for a variety of target audiences. A combination of improved web performance and strategic use of social media shows promise in providing new ways for stakeholders to access and engage with information.