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Department of Health - Social Media Action Plan - Part 3: Reference guide

Profiles of the major social media platforms and tools and their use

Department of Health, Final Version 1.0, 2010

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia Licence.

Highlights from the Reference Guide are extracted below:

Introduction

The Department of Health's Social Media Action Plan was developed to enable and facilitate the Department and its staff's active participation in social media.

This policy and toolkit aims to:

• Develop acceptable use policies & codes of conduct for participation in Health 2.0; and
• Build digital media expertise & skills, practices and approval processes In addition, it supports the department’s requirements to:
• Plan adequate resources to support and maintain Health 2.0 activities around identified business need; and
• Harness digital media to communicate quickly and effectively during health emergencies and crises.

The Social Media Action Plan comprises three parts:

• Part 1: Policy – overarching code of conduct, governance and approval that guide acceptable use policy within the Department of Health;
• Part 2: Staff toolkit – best practice guidelines and templates that can be used by business units implementing social media; and
• Part 3: Reference guide – descriptions of the major social media platforms and tools and tips for how they can be used by the Department of Health.

This Social Media Action Plan will support the Department of Health and its agencies in implementing social media activities more effectively and successfully. It is aimed at all staff who engage with social media, recognising the many different degrees of engagement and usage that exist and are required.

This policy should be read in the context of the Victorian Government's Public Service Social Media Protocols and the State Services Authority's Guidance for use of social media in the Victorian public sector, and will be updated to reflect any changes in those documents.

Context

In this document, we present a set of profiles of key web 2.0 tools, explaining not only what they do but also how they are being used in the Health sector around the world. We introduce them and set the context for web 2.0 by providing an overview of the growth in web 2.0 tools and products over the past 10 years.

In the dynamic and evolving web 2.0 environment, the examples given may quickly lose relevance. Our aim, therefore, has been to show not only the wide variety of tools and of uses, but also the potential that these tools offer. Our focus is on proven, established tools with clear application and relevance for the Department of Health:

• Social networking sites (content) (e.g. YouTube, Flickr)
• Social networking profile sites (e.g. Facebook, MySpace)
• Microblogging (e.g. Twitter)
• Blogs
• Online forums
• Webchats
• Wikis
• Video (government sites)
• Podcasts
• Mapping and location based information
• Mashups
• SMS and mobile devices
• Web apps, games and widgets

In addition, we discuss three techniques which are seen across a variety of web 2.0 platforms:

• Ratings
• Tagging
• RSS (syndication)

Meanwhile, new tools appear (and disappear) almost daily. A short section is included detailing some of the emerging tools (as at June 2009). However, a printed document can never reflect the constantly evolving world of web 2.0.

Alternative Formats

The complete Department of Health - Social Media Action Plan - Part 3: Reference Guide is also in pdf format (7805kb) - 119 pages. (This document requires the use of Adobe Acrobat Reader). .

Further Information:

For more information, contact:

• Gerardine O'Sullivan, Manager, Health Web Communications Unit, Email: gerardine.o'sullivan@health.vic.gov.au

Health Web Communications Unit, Department of Health.

Last updated: 30 August 2010

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