268437 America's Health Rankings: Understanding the needs of the end-user to build a dashboard's relevance

Monday, October 29, 2012 : 11:00 AM - 11:15 AM

Scott Weier, MPH, MBA , The Glover Park Group, Washington, DC
Julie Fisk, MBA , Rockfish Interactive, Rogers, AR
Tom Eckstein, MBA , Arundel Street Consulting, St. Paul, MN
Sarah Milder, MPH , Arundel Street Consulting, Saint Paul, MN
Background: For a dashboard to be meaningful, it must be relevant to the target audience, easy to access and self-explanatory to use. This is challenging when the audience is a general public that is saturated with information daily and unlikely to interact with content that does not appear to be targeted and customized. Objectives/Purpose: The purpose of building a strong content strategy is to deliver the intended message through a dashboard that engages the general public through a unified approach, maximizing search optimization, earned media and social media engagement, resulting in a dashboard with staying power that is used often. Methods: Based on usability testing findings, an integrated campaign was designed to align website information to traffic and engagement tools, such as search optimization, earned media and social media outreach prior to America's Health Ranking's release. The launch included national/localized news press releases, media events and satellite tours. In parallel, an online push informed the public of the availability of the annual update. Post-launch, coordinated efforts continue to integrate the dashboard to current health news and events through targeted activities with partners, bloggers and social media. Results: Within two months post-launch, press outreach generated 400+ million impressions, with 350+ print stories and 130 broadcast hits on America's Health Rankings. Subsequent activities, such as content optimization, social media efforts and partner coordination helped to maintain awareness and use of the dashboard. Outreach activities, both initial and subsequent, had direct impact on web traffic, driving a 200% increase in utilization two months post-launch and a 1000% increase in organic traffic compared to 2010. Discussion/Conclusions: The coordinated content strategy is transforming America's Health Rankings from an annual event to a year-long reference dashboard. Continued activity throughout the year maintains its importance to the public and policymakers and increases its use throughout the year.

Learning Areas:
Communication and informatics
Epidemiology
Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
1. Participants will be able to describe the importance of how people search for and consume health information 2. Participants will be able to discuss the effects of content strategy for relevant messaging across audience pillars 3. Participants will be able to demonstrate the importance of leveraging traditional earned media and social media efforts to optimize website utilization

Keywords: Health Indices, Media Campaigns

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am a vice president at the Glover Park Group, specializing in strategic health communication. My areas of expertise include health policy, health promotion and social marketing. I have a joint MPH-MBA from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and have supported brand strategy for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, United Health Foundation, The California HealthCare Foundation, The SCAN Foundation, and DC Central Kitchen, among others.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.