Ebola shows how (not) to communicate in a health crisis

IFRC - the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - has spoken plainly about communication problems during the Ebola outbreak in Eastern Africa.

Ebola is scary because there is currently no proven cure. This has led to panic and strict controls, including border closures. That has limited the options for agencies, like IFRC, that are trying to help solve the crisis and treat the victims.

Though this story is full of development sector jargon, the message is clear: get people involved at all levels and don't just issue commands, but also listen and get local people involved.

"the communication approach in these circumstances should be “less top-down and less giving orders,” and not just limited to the agencies and their volunteers on the ground. It should be a multi-stakeholder effort, involving the corporate sector, the media and community leaders, with the government in a lead role. [Everyone] has a role to play here."

Read more on Devex.com

40 ways to improve your social media posts

A simple but powerful list. What are your secret tips?

1. Write with a consistent, natural and conversational tone of voice. 

2. Focus on your readers. Understand their interests, needs, desires and motivations. 

3. Focus on timely topics but add your own voice. 

4. Add value to a post by encouraging discussion, asking a genuine question (advice or opinion).

5. A post should be clear and easily understood.

6. Avoid simply promoting your own company or work. 

Twitter (follow me: @Scott_McQuade)

7. Post 4-10 times a day.  

8. Avoid repeating a tweet more than once a day. Don’t automate the same tweet.

9. Include 1-3 relevant hashtags in tweets to help people who search by key words.

10. Include links, to get 86% more engagement.

11. Use images for twice the engagement rate.

12. Shorter tweets get read and re-tweeted more (under 100 characters).

13. Use no more than 130 characters, so people can retweet and add hashtags etc.

14. Live tweeting of events helps people follow along: nominate a clear, simple hashtag.  

15. Post during working hours for 30% more engagement.

16. Ask for re-tweets of important posts: it drives 12x more re-tweets. 

Facebook (like my Facebook page) 

17. Consistent quality matters more than quantity.  

18. No more than 4 posts a day.

19. Short messages work best. Long messages are okay if they’re compelling.  

20. Timing matters, but your audience is international. Spread posts throughout the day. 

21. Don’t forget weekends! Readers are more engaged when they have more time. 

22. Photos attract readers, responses and re-shares. 

23. Emoticons receive a 59% higher engagement rate, but use sparingly.

24. Explicitly ask readers to like/comment: it drives higher engagement.

Google+ (put me in your Google+ circle)

25. Include an image to grab attention.

26. Include links or post web articles (web links usually include images).

27. Pose a comment or question to encourage discussion.

28. Monitor discussions and return to the post to interact with readers.

29. Hashtags are automated, but make sure they are appropriate and delete if needed. Include 1-3 hashtags at the end of your post, but only if needed.

30. Keep it short: 1-3 paragraphs. Only a few lines are immediately visible, so get to the point.

31. Share with specific circles as well as making posts public. Include usernames in the post or comments to draw their attention or give thanks, but do it sparingly.

LinkedIn (if I know you, let's get LinkedIn)

32. Only share high quality content. 

33. Share new, informative material. Readers are happy to learn.  

34. Be a thought-leader by only talking about your area of expertise. Join relevant communities.

35. Only discuss professionally relevant topics. LinkedIn is not a general discussion forum.

36. Start conversations with a thought-provoking statement or question. 

37. Avoid simply promoting a corporate initiative or service or posting a news story. Instead, put it in context, pose a question and invite comments.

38. Prepare to engage with discussants: don’t post and run. 

39. Don’t simply post a link to a website. Put the content on LinkedIn for better engagement.

40. Share your expertise: add your own tips below!

Most of these commonsense principles also apply at Tumblr, YouTube and other social media sites.

Big data for development

Communications can provide insights into poverty, so studying communications patterns can be helpful for designing development policies and programmes. That’s just one point emerging from a study at Harvard University’s Engineering Social Systems programme which is looking into ‘big data’, the new buzz word in academia, government, development and media circles.

And they are not alone. Academics from New York University and the University of New South Wales have published a series of ‘provocations’ to spark discussion about access to data and how it is used. “Will large-scale analysis of DNA help cure diseases? Or will it usher in a new wave of medical inequality?”


The United Nations has launched the project Global Pulse, which aims to evaluate masses of data in order to generate early warning signals about developmental challenges, ranging from crop failures to social discontent that can trigger civil conflict.

Big business is also hot on the trail. Mckinsey & Co. have published a paper on ‘the next frontier of data’. Of note, they don’t define big data by the size, since what is big today will be manageable before long: “big data refers to datasets whose size is beyond the ability of typical database software tools to capture, store, manage and analyze”. With the benefits of exploiting such data predicted to exceed $300 billion to the US health sector annually, it is no wonder McKinsey is taking interest.

Ultimately it is all about you and me. Big data reflects the increasing capacity to track our every move, especially online. From spending patterns and vacation histories, to web browsing and more, the interests and habits of the greater public have never before been so well documented. It is opening a big opportunity for planners and policymakers, as well as marketers, strategists and also those who would exploit the information for less agreeable purposes – legal or otherwise. It is thus important and potentially very valuable that legislators and regulators both support open access to data for legitimate research, but also necessary to protect personal privacy, safeguard the integrity of data and set standards on its collection and the application of findings.

Further reading of interest: Bloomberg Business Week, on the dangers of insufficient information.

Publisher Tim O’Reilly on Google+ reports on a recent discussion of success factors, including the power of visualising  data. 

See also:

• 10 ways to report data better
• The 5 best free tools for making slick infographics
• Infographic insights
• Infographics need stories

10 ways to report data better

Turning numbers and trends into stories and knowledge can be challenging to journalists and scientists alike, but also fascinating for their audiences. A blog by Troy Thibodeaux, Associated Press journalist and blogger on the  Poynter University journalism website, provides a detailed and helpful list of tools to probe and present data.

The tools are divided into the following categories:
1. Spreadsheets, for basic presentation and analysis
2. SQL, for relational databases and more
3. Data cleaning tools, for removing impurities
4. Visualization tools, for the big picture
5. Mapping software, to see where you are
6. Scripting language, to help present this information
7. Web framework, for getting it online
8. Editing tools, to write code, and more
9. Revision control, to spot mistakes and save backups
10. Document analysis tools, to handle large document sets as data, provide an interface and overcome formats like PDFs.

See also:

• The 5 best free tools for making slick infographics
• Infographic insights
• Infographics need stories
• Big data for development