The Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) is a government agency under the Ministry of Health and Care Services, and acts as a national competence institution. The institute has three main tasks, to provide (i) knowledge, (ii) emergency preparedness, and (iii) infrastructure to protect life and improve public health. Considering that social media has become a part of the everyday life of large parts of the population, it has also become an important platform to listen to and communicate with the public. Social media is the channel the NIPH most frequently use for direct contact with the population and allows real-time feedback on their work. Moreover, it enables a dialogue with social media users, where the institute can answer relevant questions and correct misinformation. The main goal of the strategy is to streamline the NIPH's activity on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, with the aim to provide knowledge on social media to contribute to good public health efforts. Additional aims are to listen to and get feedback from the public, improve the visibility of the institute and its work, as well as a possibility for recruitment. Currently, the NIPH is present on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Twitter is used only to publish information, while the institute has a more active presence on Facebook and Instagram and aims to answer all questions directed to the NIPH. To ensure quality information, the social media team can send questions that appear in the RelationDesk tool to in-house specialists when there are specific comments and questions on social media that concerns their field of expertise (for example vaccines). By March 2022, the NIPH had 205 000 followers on Facebook and Instagram. The tool used in managing the different social media accounts is RelationDesk by Retriever. RelationDesk is a social media management tool that mirrors activity on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. The tool has a range of functionalities, such as sending answers in all channels, see comments to posts and where one is @mentioned, displaying which posts and comments are being followed up and which have been answered. The tool displays in real time what colleagues are answering and allows assignment of messages to colleagues, which avoids double work.
It is viewed as important that a strategy should be anchored with the leadership or management of the organisation in question and an understanding of the importance of social media in the organisation in general. Such support will be important if for example more resources are needed to follow up the strategy.
One should consider available resources that can be dedicated to social media work when implementing a social media strategy. Moreover, in case of a crisis, it is likely that the activity will increase and that extra persons are needed in the social media team.
Persons involved in a social media team should be familiar with the social media platforms in question. Furthermore, it will be important to have training available with specific instructions and guidelines for the work.
For the strategy to be successful it is important to bear the responsibility that follows, and that dedicated resources are provided to ensure short response time and that comment sections are not left unmanned.
In general, Norwegian authorities enjoy a high level of trust in the Norwegian population. This high level of trust is presumed to play a role in enabling the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH) to be open about uncertainty with regards to for example the Covid-19 pandemic. Moreover, during the pandemic, the NIPH was approached by both Facebook Norway and Twitter Norway to be the official source for Covid-19 information, which they accepted. On the one hand, a high level of trust is a good point of departure for the communication on social media. On the other hand, less trust can also enable social media users to be critical and ask questions. Overall, an aim has been that the work should amplify the perception of the organisation as a trustworthy source of information
A sense of team spirit is evaluated as beneficial, both to ensure a coherent approach to the social media work and an informal arena to discuss and air frustrations and challenges.
It is important to have dedicated resources that are responsible for the social media accounts to be able to do a good job during normal activity. In the event of a crisis, there should be a preparedness plan that ensures that more people can be recruited to the social media team – either from own ranks or temporarily recruited from outside the organisation.
During the spring of 2020, there was a significant increase in social media activity with comments and questions about the Covid-19 virus from social media users. Accordingly, it became clear that more personnel were needed to follow up the strategy and the aim to answer all questions on Facebook and Instagram. In the period 2020 to 2022, about 25 persons have at one point been involved in the social media team. A rota system was established with day duty (8 am to 4 pm), evening duty (6 pm to 10 pm) and weekend duty (10 am to 6 pm). Every person working on the social media team had to familiarise themselves with the social media strategy and practical guidelines, such as style and tone in replies. During the pandemic, the NIPH has moderated almost 100 000 comments, published 12 000 replies with an average response time of 1 hour and 45 minutes.
The strategy and the work on social media have been evaluated through annual reports and statistics, as well as continuous discussions in the social media team. The internal evaluation is that the presence on social media has a value. The NIPH has increased its number of followers, numbers of questions and comments, as well as the work has received national attention with several awards for trustworthy communication.
The broad lines of the strategy have endured, and there have not been major changes to the strategy. There have been minor revisions with a new part on emergency preparedness and what should be in place quickly for the next crisis. Moreover, there has been changes regarding when to end a conversation, in which it has become clear that at one point it is necessary to conclude a conversation and to be clear and adamant when it is time to make an end.
The number of enquiries per person on duty have at times been overwhelming. Over time, this can be tiresome and requires enough resources to keep a low response time.
It has been a challenge to bear the sense of responsibility that follows the strategy and the aim of replying to all questions. All eyes have been on the institute during the pandemic, and it has been important to weigh the words and be sure about the answers provided.
In addition to many critical voices, there have been many instances of people spreading fake news, disinformation, spam, as well as fake profiles. While the NIPH has been able to handle this, there has at times been large amounts of disinformation and conspiracy theories. This has required many discussions about how tolerant the NIPH should be, what to hide, delete and whether to close the comment section of a particular post.
Half a year into the pandemic, there were signs of fatigue in the social media team. Although the social media team replies on behalf of the institute, their names are not exposed and signs with "best regards the NIPH", one can feel impacted as an individual.