CDC Social Media Tools, Guidelines & Best Practices

The use of social media tools is a powerful channel to reach target audiences with strategic, effective and user-centric health interventions. To assist in the planning, development and implementation of social media activities, the following guidelines have been developed to provide critical information on lessons learned, best practices, clearance information and security requirements. Although these guidelines have been developed for the use of these channels at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), they may be useful materials for other federal, state and local agencies as well as private organizations to reference when developing social media tools.

Guidelines for the following tools are available:

• Twitter Guidelines and Best Practices. [PDF - 250KB]
  [Revised January 2012]
• Social Media Toolkit [PDF - 2.42MB]
  [Revised September 2011]
• Button and Badge Guidelines and Best Practices [PDF - 245KB]
  [Revised June 2010]
• Facebook Guidelines and Best Practices [PDF - 666KB]
• Health-e-Card Guidelines and Best Practices [PDF - 194KB]
  [Revised June 2010]
• Motion Graphics Guidelines and Best Practices [PDF - 372KB]
• Text Messaging Guidelines and Best Practices [PDF - 99KB]
  [Revised June 2010]
• Virtual World Guidelines and Best Practices [PDF - 260KB]
• Widget Guidelines and Best Practices
• YouTube and Online Video Guidelines and Best Practices [PDF - 357KB]
  [Revised June 2010]

Additional reference detailing CDC-specific security information related to social media is included in the following document developed in conjunction with the Office of Chief Information Security Officer (OCISO).

• Social Media Security Mitigations [PDF - 154KB]