Director's Blog
Health Marketing Musings
from Jay M. Bernhardt, PhD, MPH
To help prepare for National HIV Testing Day (June 27, 2008), AIDS.gov is sponsoring a Webinar for Bloggers (sometimes called a 'blogginar') on Tuesday, June 17th at 2:00pm eastern time. Beginning with a similar webinar last year, AIDS.gov has been communicating directly with bloggers so they can help encourage their readers to get tested. Since one in four Americans living with HIV is unaware of having it, this effort is a crucial piece of protecting and improving the health of people in the US. It also is an excellent example how Web 2.0 strategies can be used to impact health.
Using blogs as a channel for educational and persuasive health messages is becoming common in today's communication landscape. With more than 70 millions blogs in existence worldwide and 12 million Americans actively reading blogs, this medium is reaching new and diverse audiences. One trend that is driving this new form of information exchange is the shift in trust from 'expert' information sources of information to insights from 'people like me.'
As health communicators and social marketers, we all should be actively seeking opportunities to deeplyengage our customers and communities through Web 2.0 exchanges and this upcoming AIDS.gov webinar is a great way to start. At CDC, we also have been reachingout to bloggers to ensure that accurate health information is available for online exchanges on important health issues, such as last year's seasonal flu campaign.
If you are available, please join AIDS.gov for this event. The goal of the webinar is to heighten awareness and understanding of HIV testing, and to encourage bloggers to share this information with their readers prior to National Testing Day. The event will feature Dr. Bernie Branson, an HIV testing expert from the CDC, Dr. Celia Maxwell from Howard University, and blogger Mr. Andre Blackman. Bloggers and other participants are encouraged to submit questions to the panel when they register and during the webinar.
I encourage anyone with an interest in HIV/AIDS to sign up for this important webinar on June 17, 2008, by following the registration link above. This is a great way to learn about how to use webinars to reach bloggers for other health issues as well. To learn more about how AIDS.gov is using Web 2.0 technologies to improve health, visit the AIDS.gov blog.
Posted by Jay on Friday, June 13, 2008 at 10:00am ET
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Jay,
Congratulations for your initiative and I apologize for my bad English.
Blogs are a positive tool to maintain a conversation about health with people who live in the Web 2.0 and want remain there. And, I think, Public Administration should use more and more the blogs to contact with a special target of people that don't read the newspapers and watch TV less and less. From Spain, "Madrid Salud", the local agency of public health of Madrid City Council, has started a blog, pioneering among the web initiatives of Spanish Public Service, to promote healthy habits in the population and to complete other programs and activities. We still are a baby in 2.0, but it's very interesting learning of you.
Aitor Ugarte, Assistant Manager of Madrid Salud.
Received from Aitor Ugarte on Tuesday, June 17, 2008 at 10:59am ETComment
Jay,
I would like to back Aitor's statement. Blogs are a very powerful tool and creating awareness among people through blogginars so that the blog owners can forward it to there audience is a very effective strategy. Internet Marketing companies with effective marketing models on seo solutions can create a world of difference and some already are doing welfare for free though very rare. Creating awareness amongst the masses on the internet is an evolutionary method which if used properly will be able to save lots of lives.
Received from Ashar Malik on Monday, August 25, 2008 at 8:50am ETComment