The 142nd American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting & Exposition will be held November 15-19, 2014. The theme for the meeting is “Healthography: How Where You Live Affects Your Health and Well-Being.” The annual meeting provides many opportunities to learn more about current issues in public health, including topics related to HIV prevention, care, and treatment. (See this list of sessions focused on HIV/AIDSExit Disclaimer.) The meeting also gives participants chances to identify opportunities and share experiences with using social media for public health.

APHA has been a leader in incorporating social media to engage with members throughout the year. Following on the 2013 APHA-HIV.gov collaborative Social Media Lab, there are several opportunities for meeting attendees to learn about social media this year. Below are three ways that you can learn about successful and emerging practices related to social media to further your outreach.

APHA and HIV.gov Social Media Lab

Once again, APHA, in collaboration with HIV.gov, will host a free Social Media Lab, providing a chance to ask your social media questions in a one-on-one session. New this year are small-group sessions focused on ways to plan, measure, and improve your social media strategy.

Here are some ways attendees can use the Lab:

• Get set up with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or any other social media platform that may be a good for your audience;
• Learn how to manage social media to generate awareness about your organization among key stakeholders;
• Find out how to evaluate the impact of your social media outreach;
• Find examples of how others are using social media in public health.

The lab will be located just outside the Great Hall (where the main plenaries will take place), on the first floor of the convention center. It will be open for technical assistance on November 17 and 18, from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Advance registration is welcome but not requiredExit Disclaimer.

Not attending the conference yourself? You can share this flyer with your colleagues who may be attending - and ask them to share your questions with Lab staff!

APHA Social Media Meetup

Meeting attendees can connect at an APHA Social Media Meetup on Sunday, November 16, at 5:30 p.m. Come meet fellow social media users, learn how different areas of public health are using social media tools to reach at-risk audiences, network and learn about social media experiences from all over the country, and relax. RSVP hereExit Disclaimer.

We look forward to seeing you at APHA!

Learning Online, from Near or Far

Whether or not you can attend in person, APHA will be active on FacebookExit Disclaimer, TwitterExit Disclaimer, InstagramExit Disclaimer, and its annual meeting blogExit Disclaimer so you can stay in touch with what’s happening in and around the meeting. If you use Twitter or Facebook, the official hashtag is #apha14Exit Disclaimer, and you don’t need an account to read many of the posts.

Attending the APHA meeting is one way to learn about new media and public health. If you are not travelling to the conference, or you want to get started in learning right now, please visit the HIV.gov New Media pages for tips and resources.How does the use of social media across public health topics inform your approach to using social media in response to HIV? How do you stay abreast of examples of social media use in response to public health concerns?