How AIDS.gov is Using Twitter to Reach the Masses

Part of the AIDS.gov KnowledgeSite

Twitter is a wildly popular microblogging service. The Pew Internet & American Life Project found that 11% of U.S. adult Internet users are using Twitter. In addition, the Twitter user base grew 1,382% between February 2008 and February 2009.

AIDS.gov began using Twitter (twitter.com/AIDSgov) in September 2008. By August 2009, more than 2000 twitterers were following the agency’s account. In addition, that month, AIDS.gov was following over 600 individuals and organizations, including other federal agencies, people involved in conducting HIV/AIDs education, social media experts, select community organizations and news sources.

As is the case with all its social media-related activities, AIDS.gov is carefully evaluating its audience on Twitter. In an assessment completed in August 2009, the agency found that:

70-percent of its followers were individuals and 30-percent represent organizations or agencies
One-quarter of followers had personal or professional interests in HIV and sexually transmitted disease-related issues
33-percent had health-related interests
7-percent are interested in advancing the goals of communities of color or LGBT populations

Key Activities:

AIDS.gov uses Twitter to:

Share HIV/AIDS information
Rapidly respond to health concerns
Ask questions
Connect people around common interests
Connect people at conferences/meetings
Promote HIV/AIDS services and events
Raise awareness about HIV/AIDS
Spark discussion

To support the federal government’s response to the Winter/Spring H1N1 (Swine Flu) outbreak, AIDS.gov retweeted messages posted by @CDCemergency conversation on Twitter with the hash tag: #swineflu. AIDSgov also promoted National HIV Testing Day and World AIDS Day on Twitter.

Results:

To date, AIDS.gov has successfully leveraged Twitter to reach large numbers of people with HIV/AIDS information. For example, AIDS.gov’s tweets focusing on World AIDS Day reached over 31,046 Twitter users.

According to research conducted by AIDS.gov, individuals and organizations reached via Twitter were appreciative of content broadcasted by the agency – especially the information regarding HIV testing. They were also encouraged to see widespread public participation on Twitter in World AIDS Day events and other AIDS.gov sponsored activities.

AIDS.gov also used Twitter to reach people during 2009 HIV Testing Day (link to case study on Living the Path). For this event, the agency sent tweets to 1,900 followers. AIDS.gov’s tweets were “re-tweeted” widely and reached people using 650.000 accounts. In addition, popular celebrities such as Jimmy Fallon tweeted about the White House’s National HIV Testing video. These “celeb-tweets” reached more than 1,476,068 Twitter accounts.

Finally, more than 200 tweets featured the hashtag #NHTD09. A complete list of the tweets featuring the tag is available at: http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23NHTD09

Industry:

Healthcare

Primary Communications Discipline:

Public Relations

Organizations Involved:

AIDS.gov

Campaign Dates:

Ongoing

For More Information:

Responding Rapidly to Public Health Emergencies Using New Media – Swine Flue, AIDS.gov, April, 2009, http://blog.aids.gov/2009/04/responding-rapidly-to-public-health-emergencies-using-new-media-swine-flu.html
What is Twitter?, AIDS.gov Blog, December 2008, http://blog.aids.gov/tools-twitter.html
Twitter and status updating, Pew Internet and the American Life Project, February 12, 2009, http://www.pewinternet.org/Experts/~/link.aspx?_id=2CB2AFA2A1484EFB9CE986F0A4F67EC5&_z=z

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