24. For more information contact: NAHO/ONSA 220 Laurier Avenue West, Suite 1200 Ottawa, ON K1P 5Z9 1-877-602-4445 (toll free) (613) 237-9462 [email_address] www.naho.ca twitter.com/NAHO_News
Notes de l'éditeur
I’D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT HOW THE NATIONAL ABORIGINAL HEALTH ORGANIZATION HAS BEEN USING SOCIAL MEDIA OVER THE LAST YEAR AND A HALF TO PUT A FACE TO THE ORGANIZATION. MOST OF US WERE USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN OUR PERSONAL LIVES, BUT NOTHING PROFESSIONALLY. A YEAR AND A HALF AGO, OUR DIRECTOR AT THE TIME ATTENDED A SOCIAL MEDIA FOR GOVERNMENT CONFERENCE. TAKING THAT KNOWLEDGE BACK TO THE OFFICE, WE PROCEEDED TO PUT SOCIAL MEDIA INTO PRA IT HASN’T BEEN EASY, I’D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT THAT AND OUR SUCCESSES. SO, I THINK I’D LIKE TO TALK ABOUT A FEW TOPICS: WHY WE THINK SOCIAL MEDIA WORKS FOR NAHO. A LITTLE BIT ABOUT OUR STAKEHOLDERS IDENTIFY SOME OF THE COMMUNICATIONS CHALLENGES WE FACE AS AN ORGANIZATION. SHOW YOU SOME OF THE TOOLS WE’RE USING THAT CAN BE CALLED SOCIAL MEDIA.
HALF OF THE CANADIAN POPULATION IS UNDER THE AGE OF 40 – SO YOU CAN SEE WE ARE DEALING WITH A VERY YOUNG POPULATION.
HERE’S A GREAT SLIDE ON DEMOGRAPHICS. THERE ARE OVER 1.1 MILLION ABORIGINAL PEOPLE IN CANADA MAKING UP ABOUT 4 % OF THE TOTAL POPULATION. GEOGRAPHICALLY, ABORIGINAL PEOPLES LIVE EVERYWHERE IN THE COUNTRY – MORE THAN 50 % IN URBAN CENTRES.
WE HAVE SOME GREAT CHALLENGES WITH REGARD TO COMMUNICATIONS. WE TEND TO SEE THESE CHALLENGES AS OPPORTUNITIES WITH REGARD TO SOCIAL MEDIA, HOWEVER. WE RECENTLY SURVEYED OUR WEB SITE USERS. THE COMMENT ON THIS SLIDE CAME FROM THAT SURVEY. AS AN ORGANIZATION THAT CLAIMS TO BE COMMUNITY BASED, THIS STOOD OUT A BIT FOR US. WE ARE NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. SO WHY DO I THINK SOCIAL MEDIA WORKS FOR US? OUR POPULATION IS SMALL – ONLY 4 % OF THE POPULATION, BUT IT IS EVERYWHERE – FROM DOWNTOWN TORONTO TO GRISE FJORD IN NORTHERN NUNAVUT - THE INTERNET CONNECTS THEM ALL. THIS IS, TO ME, WHAT SOCIAL MEDIA IS ALL ABOUT .
THIS REFERES TO THE NAHO WEB SITE SURVEY OF SPRING OF 2009
From the 2004 Report on Aboriginal Community Connectivity Infrastructure by the Aboriginal Canada Portal survey team in cooperation with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
THIS IS A SCREEN SHOT OF OUR MOST RECENT WEB SITE. WE’VE REDESIGNED ACCORDING TO SOME FEEDBACK FROM THE SURVEY I MENTIONED. THIS NEW SITE HIGHLIGHTS OUR SOCIAL MEDIA ACTIVITY.
Unlike media, social media is interactive, easily changed, accessible, available in real time, easily linked, reusable, etc. Blogs, wikis rss, online chat, video sharing, social networking, photo sharing, micro blogs… Traditional media such as printed publications and broadcast television are experiencing shrinking audiences as social media expands.
Twitter users: About 6 million. Kazeniac, Andy (2009-02-09). " Social Networks: Facebook Takes Over Top Spot, Twitter Climbs ". Compete.com. http://blog.compete.com/2009/02/09/facebook-myspace-twitter-social-network/ . Retrieved 2009-02-17.
AGAIN, SO ABORIGINAL PEOPLES ARE USING SOCIAL MEDIA – THERE ARE MORE THAN 15,600 MEMBERS OF THIS FACEBOOK GROUP.
HERE’S SOME EXAMPLES OF OUR SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS. BLOGS ARE GREAT. THIS IS COLLEEN, ONE OF OUR COMMUNICATIONS OFFICERS AND A BLOGGER. MANY STAFF AT NAHO ARE BLOGGERS. COLLEEN TENDS TO BLOG ABOUT HER EXPERIENCE AT NAHO, INCLUDING HER PROJECTS, TRIPS, CONFERENCES. ALL OF THE NAHO BLOGS ARE OPEN FOR COMMENTS. IN MY OPINION, IF THEY’RE NOT, THEN IT’S NOT EXACTLY SOCIAL MEDIA – IT’S JUST A WEB PAGE.
NAHO COORDINATES THE NATIONAL ABORIGINAL ROLE MODEL PROGRAM. 12 YOUTH ARE CHOSEN ANNUALLY AS ROLE MODELS AND MAKE COMMUNITY VISITS. WE GIVE THE ROLE MODELS THE OPPORTUNITY TO BLOG ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCE. SOME DO AND SOME DON’T. THIS IS THE KEY TO SUCCESS WITH THINGS LIKE BLOGS – YOU CANT MAKE PEOPLE DO IT. NOT EVERYBODY IS COMFORTABLE WITH SOCIAL MEDIA. WE TRIED TO HAVE A COUPLE OF OUR RESEARCHERS BLOG. SOME PEOPLE ARE JUST NOT COMFORTABLE WITH BEING “OUT THERE”.
THE MOST POPULAR FEATURE ON OUR WEB SITE IS AN ABORIGINAL HEALTH NEWS SECTION. THIS IS REALLY A BLOG. ONE OF OUR COMMUNICATIONS OFFICERS UPDATES THIS THROUGHOUT THE DAY. COMMENTS ARE DISABLED ON THIS SECTION. WE DO PLAN ON ADDING A USER RANKING FEATURE TO THIS. YOU CAN, HOWEVER, SUBSCRIBE TO THIS AS AN RSS FEED.
I THINK THAT WHEN YOU ARE IN THE PUBLIC SPHERE USING PUBLIC DOLLARSM YOU HAVE TO BE TRANSPARENT ABOUT WHAT YOU DO. ALSO, PEOPLE JUST WANT TO KNOW WHAT YOU ARE UP TO IF YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE WORKING ON THEIR BEHALF. WE HOLD A LOT OF EVENTS AND GIVE A LOT OF PRESENTATIONS, BUT WE CERTAINLY DON’T HAVE TIME TO BE WRITING AND DISTRIBUTING REPORTS ALL THE TIME. TECHNOLOGY IS CONSTANTLY CHANGING WHAT WORKS TODAY MAY NOT BE THE BEST TOOL TOMORROW. WE STARTED OUR PHOTO BLOG IN FLICKR. WE’VE SINCE MOVED TO PICASA. WE TAKE PICTURES OF EVERYTHING. WITIHIN MINUTES, WE HAVE THE PHOTOS POSTED ON THIS BLOG FOR EVERYONE TO SEE. PEOPLE CAN ALSO SEE WHO WE ARE AND WHAT WE ARE TO ALL THE TIME.
TWITTER IS THE BIG THING RIGHT NOW AND I DON’T THINK THAT’S GOING TO CHANGE ANYTIME SOON. IT’S A VERY INTERESTING TOOL. BEFORE I WAS AT THE SOCIAL MEDIA CONFERENCE LAST YEAR, I HADN’T EVEN HEARD OF TWITTER, NOW IT IS A HUGELY IMPORTANT PART OF OUR COMMUNICATIONS WORK. TWITTER HAS LINKED US WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLES ORGANIZATIONS AROUND THE GLOBE, LINKED NAHO WITH HEALTH PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS AND RESEARCHERS, AND GIVEN US A SUPPORTIVE AND HELPFUL COMMUNICATIONS COMMUNITY THAT WE HAVE COME TO DEPEND ON. THE LAST CONSULTANT I HIRED I MET ON TWITTER.
ONE OF THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT THE INTERNET IS THAT IT HAS REALLY DEMOCRATIZED VIDEO. IT IS VERY EASY AND INEXPENSIVE TO MAKE WEB READY VIDEO. WE HEAR TIME AND TIME AGAIN THAT VIDEO WORKS LIKE NOTHING ELSE TO COMMUNICATE WITH ABORIGINAL PEOPLES. RECENTLY, WE LAUNCHED OUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL WHERE WE ARE POSTING ALL OF THE VIDEOS WE’VE WORKED ON IN THE PAST. WE’VE ALSO STARTED MAKING OUR OWN SHORT VIDEOS – MOCK MEDIA INTERVIEWS WITH OUR CEO. ITS FUN, EASY AND REALLY INEXPENSIVE. WE RECENTLY VIRTUALLY LAUNCHED A WEB SITE BY USING VIDEO ON YOUTUBE.
Radian 6 is a tool for measuring and analyzing and reporting on social media presence and impact.
A TOOL TO CUSTOMIZE YOUR ON LINE EXPERIENCE IT ALLOWS THE USER TO COMPILE ALL OF THEIR NEWS FEEDS, E-MAIL ACCOUNTS, AND TOOLS SUCH AS SEARCH ENGINES, MAPS, WEATHER INFO.
THE NEW BIG THING FOR NAHO IS THE ADOPTION OF GUIDELINES FOR PARTICIPATION IN SOCIAL MEDIA. REALLY – ITS PRETTY SIMPLE.