For me the big implications for project/campaign work in health promotion is in what this means for strategy.
I have found that if you can make a few strong links with keen people, these initial contacts will guide you or take your message onto others of similar mind an d purpose who will be likely be interested in what your saying or trying to achieve.
This has always been the case but this dynamic has been amplified by Web 2.0 and social network media.
Margaret Mead's famous quote, "Never underestimate the power of a few committed people to change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
The power of a few has been upped by Web 2.0 and social network media.
Before social media, if we had the money, we used mass media to get the word out to the multitudes in the hope that we would link up with the few who were ready to interested. This was relatively effective compared to other choices. Hence so much advertising and mass media.
New social network media tools and the networks they have created and supercharged are now relatively more effective than mass media.
I realised this reading Craig Thomler's blog. He recently gave a presentation on Social Media in Government. Watching the video of his talk really lifted my thinking to this conclusion. The shock of this realisation also got me going through some old notes about ideas I encountered a few years back from R. Craig Lefebvre.
The power of a few has been upped by Web 2.0 and social network media.
Before social media, if we had the money, we used mass media to get the word out to the multitudes in the hope that we would link up with the few who were ready to interested. This was relatively effective compared to other choices. Hence so much advertising and mass media.
New social network media tools and the networks they have created and supercharged are now relatively more effective than mass media.
I realised this reading Craig Thomler's blog. He recently gave a presentation on Social Media in Government. Watching the video of his talk really lifted my thinking to this conclusion. The shock of this realisation also got me going through some old notes about ideas I encountered a few years back from R. Craig Lefebvre.
The increasing influence and effectiveness of social media will reinvent the way that health promotion works. The tried and true methods of based on the linear Source -- Message -- Channel -- Receiver (SMCR) process is becoming outdated.
Craig Lefebvre work seems to point to newer paradigms. His paper The New Technology: The Consumer as Participant Rather Than Target Audience is a good read. Wriiten back 2007, it was a harbinger towards Health Promotion 2.0.
His blog post Social Models for Marketing: Social Networks from Oct 2009 is also a recommended read.
Craig Lefebvre has a flock of writing on social media that are interest to anyone who wants to use social media in social advocacy or health promotion on his blog under the tag social media. I'm working through and reworking my way through them and their hyperlinks.
So my big questions is...how will you use social media for your health promotion work?
ReplyDeleteHow will you use social media for my health promotion work?
ReplyDeleteIn small ways with Facebook, Twitter and email groups and in big ways in projects. So many choices. The challenge is to choose and find partners who understand and funders who will back innovation. It's not possible to write about all thse options, particularly in this comment box. Sarah watch this blog as my ideas and partnerships evolve.