ZN

Over the past year I have been investigating on of the most intriguing and challenging stories to spread on the internet last year.

The story is how the H1N1 pandemic was communicated and (mis)understood by the public and a wide range of stakeholders. My perspective on this question is that of a communication and not a medical professional. However I started to understand increasingly how the two are connected.

I have also recently been reading Michel Specter’s “Denialism” – How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet and Threatens our Lives. A full chapter is devoted to vaccines and the risks associated with the growing anti-vaccine movement but interestingly this story predates the H1N1 crisis. Already then he had identified the growing public skepticism towards vaccines in the US and Europe, mainly due to the MMR story and Andrew Wakefield but also because often stakeholders (ranging from public officials to companies) don’t engage directly with their biggest challengers: the anti-vaccine lobby. This lobby has grown considerably in strength and has benefited from the confusion surrounding the pandemic communication around H1N1. People didn’t fully understand the levels of danger connected to the H1N1 threat and were concerned about what actions they needed to take and what potential consequences they might face by taking or not taking the vaccine.

The result is a great deal of confusion, the promotion of myths and a genuine risk to public health if communication isn’t improved before another, more serious, pandemic takes place.

Today everyone needs to look back at this ‘information pandemic’ and reflect on the root causes of the confusion and fear it created. It will take a prolonged and engaged discussion from those of all sectors of society to have an open, transparent and science-based approach to future issues that might affect us in the near future. On Tuesday I will be speaking on this subject at the Vaccine Network Conference (http://www.vaccine-network.org/workshop/2010-speakers) organised by the Merieux Foundation. I hope this will help move things in the right direction.

A new discovery during the birthday celebrations of our colleague Nico:

I just picked up this recent post from Helen Dunnett (disclaimer: she is a client of ZN and we think she is great) on some feedback she received from various audiences in political communication when approaching the internet as a core communication tool.  Over the past year she has been sharing her experience and enthusiam about the web and it’s power to transform communication with her rapidly growing network. 

Her comments will be very useful for those trying to find the best way to explore the web as a core strategic tool in getting the right message out to the right audience.  We have, in the course of our many meetings with a number of players in the Brussels political scene been confronted by many similar questions so it is great to see them put from a client perspective, from someone who has been able to make the case for this and seen the benefits for her own organisation follow.

After reading the objections she has faced my suggestions to the bold communicators interested in taking this further are the following:

1) Everyone now accepts that the internet is an important and powerful tool in shaping perception on critical issues.  The key problem is they don’t know how to act on this knowledge.

2) A personal and direct exposures to the tools and the social networks that are driving this change is key to enable communicators to form the correct strategy.  So like or not, you need to sign up to a number of online networks (linkedin.com – which most people do passively, facebook.com, and others that you find interesting) and actively use the tools (by posting on forums in linkedin for instance). 

3) The right tools for you and your organisaton keep on evolving so it is best to do some background reading of ebooks and follow some blogs (Helen’s own called learning curve or the one written by my colleague Steffen could be a good starting point). 

4) Meet regularly with people (agencies, consultants, colleagues) so you can learn about what works and gain insights from other people who have faced similar situations than you.

5) Get started.  Take some small, below the radar, steps with some online initiatives to get comfortable with the territory.  Start a blog, take it personally and see for yourself how it can help to get your message accross.

6) Get help.  Once you have decided to move forward in this space, surround yourself with a strong team with the right advice and experience as well as technology, create a plan and sell this to your management.  Then go forward and start learning.