How Connected Is Your Agency?

The internet has transformed our lives. It has allowed us to do research in minutes, send information and pictures in seconds, and connect with people across the globe in real time. Access and utilization of the World Wide Web has allowed for ideas and theories to cross physical miles and become part of a virtual network for which there is no sense of spatial or time limitations. First seen as a place for techies and information gathering, the internet has evolved into a “place” where social and behavioral change can occur.

While integration of the internet and new media (think text messaging, blogging, vlogging) into our personal lives has completely occurred, those of us in the AIDS service field have not always used it to its’ full advantage in our professional lives. Yes, I know that there are barriers: our employer does not allow access to the internet while at work, our office computers might have the slowest internet connection on earth, providing direct services does not allow us to integrate the internet into our professional lives, etc, etc.

I know these barriers because I have lived them, but, let me tell you that once you have the professional opportunity to integrate the internet and new media for client recruitment, outreach, feedback, and evaluation, you will never look back. New media is the vehicle through which the world is now communicating and is one of the major avenues through which social change is occurring.

Sites like MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, may not sound like obvious places to conduct HIV/AIDS prevention education, but they are places where hundreds of thousands of people congregate on a daily basis; what better audience to have? These four entities are much more than just websites; they are the vehicles through which the world is now communicating and modes of social change. Take a chance; set up a case management blog, twitter your daily prevention education activities, promote an HIV/AIDS 101 workshop on Facebook, you might be very surprised by the feedback you receive.