1. Toward the Heart: Social Media Tool for Harm Reduction Knowledge Exchange in British Columbia, Canada Despina Tzemis, Michaela Montaner, Jane A Buxton Harm Reduction Program Email: outreach@towardtheheart.com Webpage: towardtheheart.com Twitter:@towardtheheart

2. Outline Background: BC’s Harm Reduction Program Objective Methods Webpage: Toward the Heart Electronic Magazine (e’Zine) Naloxone webpage launch Discussion Questions 2

3. Who we are 3

4. BC Harm Reduction Program BC CDC coordinates: ▫Harm Reduction Strategies and Services Committee ▫Drug Overdose and Alert Partnership Committee Committees: ministry of health, health authorities, first nations input, & people who use drugs, among other stakeholders. Develop evidence-based policies, training resources, proper messaging & distribute supplies to reduce drug related harms. www.towardtheheart.com 4

5. Objective To describe and evaluate the dissemination tools used by the BC Harm Reduction Program to facilitate best practice harm reduction knowledge exchange between the province, health authorities, service providers, and clients 5

6. Methods Google Analytics Email monitoring (MailChimp ) Descriptive: Facebook and Twitter 6

7. www.towardtheheart.com 7

8. 8

9. There is more than just needles… 9

10. Supplies available http://towardtheheart.com/ Safer sex Safer InjectionSafer Inhalation 10

11. Google Analytics (Apr 1 – Nov 12) Overview Tot. visits 5,332 (3,841 unique (72%)) Avg. 2.87 webpages viewed/visit Avg. visit duration 2:36min Canada (59%), USA (23%) BC 2,594(82%) 11

12. Google Analytics (Apr 1 – Nov 12) Traffic sources 12 Referral 1.Facebook 215 2.Google 180 3.HelloCoolWorld 150 4.BCCDC 144 5.PacificAIDSNetwork 42

13. http://towardtheheart.com/join-us 13

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15. Email monitoring Issue 1 – July 5 th Total emails sent: 326 Email clicks: 138 (42%) Email fwd tool: used 33x to send to 50 recipients 15

16. 16 47 23 16 14 13

17. Link with Google Analytics Issue 1 – July 5th Issue 2 – Sept 24th 17

18. Link with Google Analytics Hmmm.... 18

19. www.towardtheheart.com/naloxone 19

20. 20

21. E-mail monitoring Campaign – Naloxone Webpage (August 31 st ) Sent: 168 Open: 79 (47%) Clicks: 37 (22%) Bounce: 14 (8%) Note: campaign may have conflicted with summer holiday. May also explain the second peak. 21

22. facebook.com/towardtheheart @towardtheheart 22

23. Discussion Evaluation of webpage ensures good use of limited human, fiscal, and technical resources Expert needed to evaluate webpage Challenge to allocate time for social media in workday Ensure enough time for supervisors to review/approve campaign materials Need annual update of e-mail distribution list in environments with high turnover 23

24. Conclusion Toward the Heart is a successful tool for disseminating info to Harm Reduction sites in BC Toward the Heart is a resource for harm reduction programs in Canada, the US, and others around the world 24

25. Thank you! Questions? Contact information: Despina Tzemis, Harm Reduction Program despina.tzemis@bccdc.ca www.towardtheheart.com 25