SAMHSA Workshop Uses Social Media to Engage Participants Before-and-After Session

How do you engage your audience(s), create conversations and share information when you can't meet face-to-face? Social media make it easier than ever. And a new tool is helping conference planners engage audience(s) BEFORE in-person sessions start and continue conversations after the workshops are finished.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Office of Communications uses a new web-based tool to solicit feedback on a variety of issues, including topics of discussion for one of SAMHSA's workshops at CADCA’s 21st annual National Leadership Forum.

Now through Jan. 28, Forum attendees can visit the site, suggest discussion topics about How SAMHSA can better use social media to partner with coalitions on behavioral health issues, and vote on the topics they would like to see discussed during the workshop Federal/Coalition Partnerships: SAMHSA, Social Media and YOU! on Thursday, Feb. 10, at 11 a.m.

Recommendations and feedback will help SAMHSA evaluate its evolving social media strategy to better meet the needs of community coalitions.

Workshop presenters Deanna Stephens and Andrew Wilson, from SAMHSA’s Office of Communications, will use the suggestions and feedback to inform a dialog during the session and to continue the conversation online after the session ends. They also will look at how SAMHSA uses a combination of traditional “push” messaging and messaging that solicits direct feedback from users about what questions they want answered from behavioral health experts and/or what SAMHSA can be doing to better meet the needs of community coalitions and other stakeholders.

Plan to participate by suggesting and voting on topics and by attending the session on Feb. 10. It's your chance to be part of the future, today.