Materials from today’s presentation for the Northwest Center for Public Health Practice.

Promised Links

• Slideshare.net link
• Facebook: Best Practices For Government
• HHS – New Media
• Twitter
• Facebook
• 8 Great Public Health Campaigns Using Social Media

Other Promised Resources

General Resources

• My Twitter resources page

Archiving Tweets

In order to meet public records requirements, you should keep an archive of tweets made on behalf of any government agency. Here are some easy ways to do that:

• TwapperKeeper

  As long as your traffic is modest (you’re not a trending topic), TwapperKeeper is a great tool to use to archive hashtags (#) and keywords (no #). In addition, you can back up your tweets. Sign in with your Twitter account to set up an archive. Ideally, you would log in once a month and export the prior month’s tweets.

• TweetBackup

  This service backs up your tweets; you’ll sign in with your Twitter account. Currently you can only export posts (max 3200 – limit imposed by Twitter), not your friends list. Formats: CVS | RSS | Text | HTML. For $1/month, TweetBackup will also back up images uploaded to TwitPic or YFrog.

• TweetScan

  This service can backs up your tweets (including DMs), followers, favorites. You have to authorize the application; after it performs the back up (max 1000 tweets at a time), it is available for download for seven days. Format: TiddlyWiki

• The Archivist

  This is a Windows desktop application (so you’ll need to be able to install software on your computer to use this tool). Use it for archiving searches (not your tweet stream). However, there is also a web version of the app. If you set up an archive on your Twitter name, you’ll also capture all @ replies directed to you. Author: Microsoft’s MIX Online team.

• twittinesis.com

  Works will all major blogging services to export tweets to a blog. I keep a publicly searchable (Google does rock) archive of my tweets on a dedicated WordPress.com blog.

• RowKeeper

  Track up to 500 Facebook or Twitter updates, keywords or hashtags per month for free; results populate a spreadsheet in your Google docs account. For organizations with multiple accounts or high volume, a paid model provides unlimited data, starting at $250 a month, but there are also plans starting at $5 a month.

Finding Public Health Twitter Lists

As noted in our session, I search Twitter using Google. Here are some public health lists that you might find interesting:

• APHA a Twitters (APHA – @PublicHealth)
• Public Health Departments (APHA – @PublicHealth)
• Public Health and Safety (via Twibes)
• Public Heath (via Listorious)
• Public Health (via Mashable)
• Public Health (via WeFollow)
• 50 Public Health Experts To Follow On Twitter

Twitter Tools

• TweetStats

  The best tool for competitive analysis.

• TwitterCounter

  Visualize follower numbers, tweets.

• Klout

  A measurement of Twitter influence.

• HootSuite

  Social media dashboard. Schedule tweets, track statistics, customize URLs, etc.

• CoTweet

  Designed specifically to allow several individuals to manage one Twitter account.

• URL shorters: bit.ly (you can also use your own URL and their software), tiny.url
• Sharing images: TwitPic, YFrog, TweetPic

Intro: Twitter In Plain English