According to the CDC (http://www.cdc.gov/swineflu): In response to an intensifying outbreak in the United States and internationally caused by a new influenza virus of swine origin, the World Health Organization raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 5 on April 29, 2009. A Phase 5 alert is a “strong signal that a pandemic is imminent and that the time to finalize the organization, communication, and implementation of the planned mitigation measures is short.”
This is an important time for effective communication with the public. You have built a base of key stakeholders that you can reach using GovDelivery and we want to help you reach these groups effectively. Additionally, because GovDelivery works with the majority of federal health agencies and with many public health professionals across all levels of government, we are doing what we can to help make you aware of opportunities you have to get official content out to your website visitors and email/mobile alerts subscriber base.
As a GovDelivery client, you can take several steps to to get H1N1 (Swine) Flu information out effectively.
Recommendation 1: If you do not already have one, create a dedicated email subscription item for Pandemic Flu Updates and publicize that subscribe link on your website.
- See this example from the Minnesota Department of Health: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/idepc/diseases/flu/new.html
- Make the subject lines of your emails as specific as possible. Ideally, include the abbreviation for your organization name (Example: MDH for MN Dept. of Health) followed by a summary of the email content. Example: MDH: CDC Confirms H1N1 virus in Minnesota. This helps ensure that your emails will be clearly understood.
- Please email pandemicflu@govdelivery.com to let us know about your new item. It will be incorporated into cross-governmental information sharing we are coordinating that will pull together all pandemic flu alerts from across the country into a single data feed and widget.
Recommendation 2: Make sure you reach existing subscribers by sending Pandemic Flu updates out to all relevant topics when you send your emails. You may also consider uploading existing subscribers from relevant items such as “Emergencies,” “disease outbreaks,” and “Illness Prevention” and even more general topics such as “Press Releases” to your “Pandemic Flu” subscription list.
Recommendation 3: Embed this widget from www.pandemicflu.gov (managed by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services) on your website and homepage. This widget pulls in content sent by HHS to subscribers of the PandemicFlu.gov News Releases using GovDelivery’s “Information Sharing Widgets” feature. The content is from HHS, CDC, the World Health Organization, and any other source HHS believes is providing relevant information.
GovDelivery recommends that you use this provided code to embed the widget on your page.
Recommendation 4: If you are a federal, state, or local health agency that is releasing your own Pandemic Flu updates, contact GovDelivery if you would like to have a widget created that incorporates your updates with PandemicFlu.gov updates. GovDelivery is currently offering our “Information Sharing Widgets” feature at no cost to help with communication around Pandemic Flu.
Recommendation 5: You can add a “Share this Email” link to the footer of your GovDelivery emails. This capability encourages reposting of your content to social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Contact help@govdelivery.com to have this feature turned on. GovDelivery is currently offering this feature at no cost to help with communication around Pandemic Flu.
Recommendation 6: Stay tuned. GovDelivery will be issuing further recommendations to assist you in your communication efforts over the coming days.
Again, please contact help@govdelivery.com with any questions, concerns, or ideas as to how GovDelivery can assist your communication efforts.
