USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
Harold Thomas
Austin, TX
August 3, 2015
NATIONAL COMMUNITY HEALTH
PARTNERS (NCHP)
 Through funding from the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), we work nationwide and in the U.S. territories to provide
capacity building assistance to communitybased organizations
 Our mission is to educate and assist in
identification and correction of social and health
issues associated with health disparities that
affect vulnerable groups, communities and
populations
COMMUNITY HIGH-IMPACT
PREVENTION
 An initiative to extend High-Impact Prevention
(HIP) to CDC-funded community organizations
 HIP has emphasized sustainable, high-impact
HIV testing and screening programs, linkage to
and engagement in care & services, scalable and
effective interventions and public health
strategies for high-risk populations and Persons
Living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA)
TRAINING OBJECTIVES
 Define social media for the
purpose of community
engagement
 Understand why we should
use social media to reach
target populations
 Understand how to use social
media to meet the needs of the
community
 Demonstrate social media
strategies
TRAINING AGENDA
 Module I:
 Module II:
 Module III:
Using Social Media for
Community Engagement
Benefits and Challenges of
Using Social Media for
Community Engagement
Assessing Readiness &
Planning
MODULE I:
USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA?




Effective tools to prevent new HIV infections
Wider net for outreach, recruitment and retention
Additional adherence and peer support
Safe way for participants to discuss topics related
to stigma, advocacy and testing
USES OF SOCIAL MEDIA
 Outreach
 Recruitment into
programs/services
 Retention in prevention and
care activities/programs
 Support Medication Adherence
 Community Building
USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR
OUTREACH
 Create targeted messages
 Promote HIV testing services
 Specific event promotion
 Program awareness
 Recruitment of volunteers
 Others?
OUTREACH: DEMONSTRATION
 Project





U LA
http://social.projectula.org/www/projectula/de
fault.aspx
STI/HIV, reproductive health, LGBTQ
information and resources weekly (text
messages, chat forums)
Request condoms to be delivered at home
(phone, website)
Anonymous home testing kits (phone,
website)
Teen blog written by local teens
OUTREACH: DEMONSTRATION
OUTREACH: DEMONSTRATION

Outcomes
 21% increase in students reporting feeling
compassion towards PLWHA
 38% increase in students who knew where to
get an HIV test
 Daily website activity between 800-2,600
visits per day linking youth to critical health
information
USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR
RECRUITMENT
 Testing
 EBI Program
participants
 New volunteers
 Community partners
 Donors
RECRUITMENT: DEMONSTRATION

QBoyz
 http://www.qboyz.org/Home/Blog
 Testing
 Mpowerment EBI
 HIV positive support groups
 EBIs/volunteer are face-to-face (F2F),
recruitment online, in-person, via phone
 Grindr is the recruitment vehicle for testing
 Blog is the recruitment vehicle for EBIs and
support groups
RECRUITMENT: DEMONSTRATION
RECRUITMENT: DEMONSTRATION
RECRUITMENT: DEMONSTRATION
RECRUITMENT: DEMONSTRATION

Outcomes
 26.8% decrease in anal intercourse without a
condom
 45% decrease in anal intercourse with nonprimary partners without a condom
 24% decrease in anal intercourse with
boyfriend/s without a condom
USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR
RETENTION
 Support groups
 Medical support
 Behavioral Interventions
 Other care & prevention
services
 Others?
RETENTION: DEMONSTRATION

TWEET Care Project
 HIV positive transgender women of color
 Newly diagnosed or out of care
 Peer Leaders
 Holistic health needs (hormones, etc)
 Twitter is the vehicle
RETENTION: DEMONSTRATION
RETENTION: DEMONSTRATION

Outcomes
 HRSA funded demonstration project
 413 followers
 Increased attendance? (hard data not yet
available)
USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO SUPPORT
ADHERENCE





Overall health
Medical appointments
Complete laboratory work
Pick-up of medication(s) refills
Reminders to take medication encouragement
 Anonymity – (i.e., Yahoo
Groups®)
ADHERENCE: DEMONSTRATION

“PrEP Facts: Rethinking HIV Prevention and
Sex
 Individuals on or thinking about starting PrEP
 Private group
 Moderated
 Facebook is the vehicle
ADHERENCE: DEMONSTRATION
ADHERENCE: DEMONSTRATION

Outcomes
 Close to 6,500 members
 Routinely receive information about
HIV/AIDS, etc on their FB feed…
 To be determined…
USING SOCIAL MEDIA FOR
COMMUNITY BUILDING
 Clearinghouse for accurate
and up-to-date information
 Referrals
 Campaigns/Issues
 Mobilization
Module III:
Assessing Your Agency’s Readiness
WHY IS ASSESSING YOUR AGENCY’S
READINESS IMPORTANT?
 Creates an opportunity for growth
 Helps identify which additional resources
are needed
 Allows agency to establish a realistic
timeline
 Helps describe how does Social Media fit
into agency’s Strategic Plan
 Help the agency to establish attainable
goals
WHERE DO YOU START?
 How does your agency intend to use Social
Media?
 Does your agency have the technology?
 Does your agency have the person-power?
 Who in the agency is going to receive the
message(s)?
 How are you going to evaluate your
efforts?
HOW DOES THE AGENCY INTEND TO
USE SOCIAL MEDIA?
 To communicate to funders what the
agency is planning.
 To clarify what it wants to accomplish
 To strengthen community engagement and
response
 To comply with changes in the landscape
of HIV/AIDS
DOES THE AGENCY HAVE THE
TECHNOLOGY?
 Does it have the technology and
infrastructure?
 Online marketing tools (email, social
media, event marketing, online surveys,
digital storefronts)
 Which avenue use to get message(s) across?
 Who will read & respond quickly and
accurately?
WHO IN THE AGENCY IS GOING TO
RECEIVE THE MESSAGE(S)?
 Incoming messages and/or
feedback
 What are their qualifications
to properly respond?
 How soon will questions and/or
comments be answered?
 Audience driven: funders,
consumers, community at-large
HOW IS THE AGENCY GOING TO
EVALUATE ITS EFFORTS?
 What is the agency’s return on their investment?
 When? Who? Where? What? How much?
 Paid staff vs. volunteers vs. other duties as
assigned?
 In-house vs. outsourcing
 What tools will be used for measurement?
 SMART goals?
QUESTIONS?

Do you have any questions about today’s topic?
Organization
al
Infrastructur
e
Grant
Grant
Writing
Writing
Board
Board
Development
Development
Strategic
Strategic
Planning
Planning
Public
Health
Strategies
Prevention
with
Positives
Outreach,
Outreach,
Recruitment
Recruitment &
& Retention
Retention
Medication
Medication
Adherence
Adherence
Faith
Based
Faith Based
Leadership
Leadership
Stigma In
Stigma
TheIn The
Community
Community
Group
Group
Facilitation
Facilitation
Motivational
Motivational
Interviewing
Interviewing
EXAMPLES OF TRAININGS WE OFFER
E-LEARNING CENTER

National Community Health Partners is building
e-learning courses to help community based
organizations implement High-Impact
Prevention practices while working with both the
HIV+ and at-risk populations
SOCIAL MEDIA
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YOUR TO DO LIST
Dr. Keith Bletzer, Evaluator
3 month survey
Please respond!
THANK YOU!
Harold Thomas
Project Director
National Community Health Partners
3365 N. Campbell Avenue, Suite 141
Tucson, AZ 85719
hthomas@nchponline.org
(520) 795-9756
(877) 749-3727