Micro-blogs (Twitter)
October 2008 - June 2009
Analysis: Twitter is an online social networking and micro-blogging Web site that is used to provide information, commentary and descriptions of events and highlight certain audio and video content. Twitter users send updates, or ‘tweets,’ which are 140 characters or less in length. Individual users can ‘follow’ another user’s updates. NCHM’s Division of eHealth Marketing (DeHM) manages three Twitter profiles as of July 2009. These three accounts have provided more than 400 updates to a combined 600,000 followers since October 2008.
As of FY09 (Q3), the CDC Emergency Twitter account ranks #1 in followers with 547,305 and over 231 updates sent. A "clickthrough" is when a tweet (or linked post) on Twitter has been clicked on and the user arrives on a CDC landing page for more information. Over 244,799 clickthroughs from CDC's Twitter accounts occured during the height of H1N1 outbreak in April 2009.
| Followers | Updates | |
|---|---|---|
| CDC eHealth | 10278 | 129 |
| CDC Emergency | 547305 | 231 |
| CDC Flu | 9909 | 53 |
Date |
Tweet Clickthroughs |
|---|---|
| Jan-09 | 61 |
| Feb-09 | 1,810 |
| Mar-09 | 1,036 |
| Apr-09 | 244,799 |
| May-09 | 136,416 |
| Jun-09 | 15,841 |
