1. Testing New Approaches Delivering CIS through Social Media Channels Martin Ledwick Cancer Research - UK

2. Some Learning Objectives Become familiar with the ICISG social media guidelines Develop an understanding of the uses for different new media channels Become aware of some of the pitfalls and advantages of different channels

3. New approaches, what do we mean? Traditionally CIS have been delivered through phone, face to face, by letter and email People are using social media more and more to seek and find information Social media channels pose particular challenges and opportunities to get information to people

4. New approaches, what do we mean? Forums Blogs Chat rooms Social Networking

5. Social media Guidelines on the ICISG website http://www.icisg.org/resources/socialmediai ndex.html

6. Social media Guidelines on the ICISG website Can’t we answer people’s questions though twitter Do we need a website, can’t we just use Facebook We need to change with the times, who still uses the phone? Surely running a forum is no different to answering email enquiries

7. Planning social media some questions to ask yourself Are there any legal issues, are you liable? Are there any privacy issues to consider? What are the workload considerations? How much work might this channel generate over time? How does it fit in/ link with other services we offer? How do I coordinate using social media across the organisation? What do I want to achieve and which is the right medium to use? Which channels are right for my audience? Which channels are right for my organisation? Have I got an exit strategy if something unexpected goes wrong?

8. Forums How visible will posts be, registered users only or to everyone To moderate or not to moderate Terms and conditions What to do if users post bad/harmful/marketing information What about users “sailing close to the wind” to push their own agenda Information, support or both How do you keep the community vibrant http://cancerchat.cancerresearchuk.org/index.jspa

9. Blogs Have to be interesting, newsworthy and chatty Use to highlight news and stimulate discussion Myth-busting Can you sustain regular blogging? Can you use it to respond to detailed questions? Have you a policy for whether or how to respond to comments posted? http://info.cancerresearchuk.org/news/science-blog

10. Twitter How much can you realistically say in 140 characters? You can link through to other stuff Great for giving a running commentary or reporting on events Great for promoting other activity But you must be genuine, the twitterati don’t like tweets that are not real time, topical, interesting…and they can smell a fake tweet really easily http://twitter.com/CR_UK

11. Facebook and other social networking sites Promoting your organization and its services Engaging with the social network community Peer to Peer Support Can you use it for detailed answers to questions? What are the privacy issues? What are you going to do if lots of people ask you questions through your facebook page? What are you going to do if people criticize your organization through your facebook page? http://www.facebook.com/cancerresearchuk

12. Visiting other online spaces rather than starting your own Yahoo answers Be a visiting expert on other forums Become a Wikipedian

13. Issues common to all channels Have a coordinated approach and ensure lots of different parts of your organization don’t do their own thing without coordinating what everyone else is doing Being prepared to keep channels engaging with plenty of coordinated “genuine” activity on them Being prepared and adequately resourced to respond (or not respond) to questions posted through each channel How will you respond to messages posted that are critical of your organization