141st APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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Recorded Annual Meeting Presentations (RAMP) are now available for purchase.
Only $90 for presenters, $140 for registered attendees and $200 for non-attendees.

Online Program

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I vetoviolence: Using social media to change the violence prevention conversation


Monday, November 4, 2013 : 1:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m.

Paula Williams, MA, Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA
Christine Cotter, MPS, Health Communications, Westat, Rockville, MD
Nicole Soufi, BA, Health Communications, Westat, Rockville, MD
Amelia Burke-Garcia, MA, Health Communications, Westat, Rockville, MD
Alan Williams, BA, Division of Violence Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, GA
Background/Purpose: Violence is a serious public health problem in the United States. On average, 24 people per minute are victims of rape, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner – that's more than 12 million women and men. The power of social media for violence prevention is the ability to move beyond information dissemination towards engagement in the conversation.

Methods: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Injury Center's Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) launched the VetoViolence Facebook page in December 2010, and it's currently the fifth largest CDC Facebook page with nearly 17,000 fans. CDC uses this outlet to share resources, start conversations, and highlight other violence prevention organizations, while gathering feedback from the growing community. With daily community interaction, it's clear the page is filling a need in the social space.

Results/Outcomes: Since September 2012, we've implemented new content strategies resulting in increased fans, likes, comments and shares and learned which content drives engagement. We're analyzing change over time and generating measurable results that can be applied to other public health campaigns.

Conclusions: This presentation will look at the changes in conversation that have taken place on the page during the year and will discuss how the results/outcomes of the past year's will inform future efforts, and what these outcomes can mean for the public health space. It will also look at how these initiatives informed messaging, identified audiences, and affected levels of interaction among fans.

Learning Areas:

Public health or related research

Learning Objectives:
Demonstrate and evaluate the use of social media for violence prevention highlighting the CDC VetoViolence campaign and others as case studies.

Keyword(s): Violence, Violence Prevention

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I serve as a Digital and Social Media Associate at Westat and the Project Manager for our work with CDC on the VetoViolence Facebook page. Among my digital media interests has been the development and execution of strategies and tactics that have successfully engaged and expanded the VetoViolence community, including content development, Ask the Expert forums, and the execution of a user-generated content contest.
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.

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