New Media Lounge: Spreading the Use of New Media in HIV Prevention, Testing, & Care Programs

Background:     At the 19^thAnnual International AIDS Conference, AIDS 2012, AIDS.gov held a HIV and New Media Satellite Session. AIDS.gov released the HIV and New Media Declaration to galvanize the HIV community to begin to assess the potential for using new media for HIV prevention and awareness activities. The HIV and New Media Declaration states, “We call upon the HIV community to declare that new media and emerging technologies are critical to help us connect, create, listen, learn and engage as we move towards and AIDS-free generation.”    

Program background:

AIDS.gov provides technical assistance (TA) to the HIV community on how to effectively use new media to extend the reach of HIV prevention and care messages particularly to those communities most at risk for HIV infection. We have used HIV conferences to provide technical assistance in person using a new media lounge model. In providing TA over the past five years we have used the following methods to to increase the adoption of new media in this field: conference presentations and panels, exhibit booths, and provided short group TA in new media labs to share best practices and lessons learned. These methods did not always provide sufficient time for one-on-one interaction actions and/or the setup did not attract people who wanted in-depth conversation.  Inspired by a lounge we saw from IBM, we changed our model to provide the opportunity for individual and small group TA. The goal of the lounge is to provide an informal space to share best practices, provide technical assistance on specific issues, and to get conference attendees started using new media for their work. The lounge starts with a short paper-based or electronic assessment of TA needs. Next the TA provider reviews the assessment and provides appropriate resources, strategies, and action steps. Upon session completion, each participant completes a short evaluation.

Evaluation Methods and Results:         We conducted lounges at the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care, the National African American MSM Leadership Conference on HIV/AIDS and other Health Disparities. At both of these conferences we were able to increase the number of in-depth technical assistance sessions. Most sessions lasted 30 minutes and ended with the participant having a list of specific action steps on how to improve their efforts or on how to develop a social media plan.

Conclusions:     Successful conduct of new media lounges stems from 1) Working with conference organizers to be integrated into the conference schedule, 2) ensuring that new media is part of the overall program content, 3) providing engaging materials, 4) placement in a high traffic area and 5) short waits for TA.

Implications for research and/or practice: We recommend this method for early adopters of new media who want to build the capacity of others in their discipline to adopt social media strategies.