Department of Health Twitter Policy

Twitter is a 'microblogging' platform which allows users to post and exchange short messages (up to 140 characters in length) and converse publicly with other users via a mobile phone or web browser. Twitter allows users to share links to online information, publish photographs and share other media such as video.

With the exception of direct messages exchanged between users, all messages (or ‘tweets’) are public and visible to all for review, comment and sharing.

Department of Health Twitter Accounts

The Department of Health uses Twitter for the distribution of health information, alerts, news and event updates and general enquiries.

In certain circumstances, (for example health emergencies), the Department may also use Twitter to engage directly with the public and its stakeholders.

The Department currently operates the following Twitter accounts:

• @VicGovHealth – for health sector information including health alerts, careers, news and events
• @BetterHealthGov – for consumer health information including healthy living, conditions and treatments, relationships and family and healthy recipes.

Twitter Content

The Department of Health Twitter accounts are managed by the Digital Services and Strategy Unit (DSSU) in the Strategy and Policy Division.

If you follow either of the Department’s Twitter accounts you can expect around 5 tweets a week covering topics including but not limited to:

• Health Alerts from the Chief Health Officer on a range of health matters. Owing to the additional importance placed on health alerts over other messages, they will be identifiable by the words 'HEALTH ALERT' in upper case followed by the alert information in lowercase.
• Posts about news, publications, Ministerial speeches and events and publicity campaigns
• Posts about new content on our other digital channels - for example videos on YouTube
• Invitations to provide feedback on specific issues on which we are consulting, and
• Occasional live coverage of events.

The Department also utilises other information channels and does not solely release news and announcements via Twitter.

Availability

The Department updates and monitors its Twitter accounts during office hours, 8:30am – 5:00pm Monday to Friday. Twitter may occasionally be unavailable and we accept no responsibility for lack of service due to Twitter downtime.

Following

The Department does not automatically follow organisations or individuals who follow it.

The Department may follow relevant organisations including government agencies, organisations in the Australian Health sector and other parties where there is a clear link in communicating and receiving information.

The Department will generally not follow individuals unless they are known in a professional capacity and satisfy the business rule above.

Being followed by the Department does not imply endorsement of any kind.

Unfollowing

As part of account maintenance and monitoring, the Department regularly reviews accounts it is following. This may result in unfollowing accounts.

Lists

In the interest of organising our followers into meaningful categories and providing stakeholders and the public with useful industry and topic information, the Department may create publicly viewable lists of organisations following its twitter accounts.

Inclusion on lists does not imply endorsement of any kind.

Should an organisation not wish to be included on a list created by the Department, it may request to be removed from the list by sending a direct message to the relevant Department twitter account.

Privacy

The Department does not capture or record the contact details of parties following its Twitter accounts. Any information identified or deemed confidential or private is treated in accordance with the Department’s Privacy Statement and Twitter’s Privacy Policy.

@Replies and Direct Messages

The Department welcomes feedback and ideas from its followers.

The DSSU team reads all @replies and Direct Messages and ensures that any emerging themes or helpful suggestions are forwarded to the relevant people in the Department.

Where the Department is not able to reply individually to messages received via Twitter and where common topics and requests exist, the DSSU may issue a general notification to all parties.

The Department does not engage on issues of party politics nor provide health and medical advice.

The usual ways of contacting the Department for official correspondence are detailed in the Contact Us and Media Centre sections of the Department of Health website.

Election periods and Caretaker mode

The same approach will be taken to Twitter as other communication channels during election periods and Caretaker mode. During this time, the Department will notify its followers about the reason for reduced volume of content with a tweet to announce the start and end date of Caretaker.

Hashtags (#)

It is a convention among Twitter users to distinguish content using semantic tags (keywords), preceded by a # sign. This enables users to search and filter information based on keywords and share information more meaningfully. Hashtags also allow users to quickly identify ‘trending’ topics (as displayed on the Twitter.com homepage).

The Department will use hashtags when:

• Providing live coverage of events (live-tweeting), and
• Providing emergency communications through appropriately authorised staff. In this event it is likely that a common hashtag will already have been established and we would follow suit.

Link shortening

Unless they are already very short URLs, tweets will be shortened using link compressing sites for example ow.ly.com.

Re-tweeting

Reactive re-tweeting

The Department may occasionally be asked to re-tweet content from other Twitter users. It will consider these requests on a case by case basis but generally aim to honour such requests from:

• Other government Departments
• Stakeholders, and
• Non-profit organisations (NGOs).

In the interests of commercial propriety and competitiveness the Department will generally not re-tweet content from profit-making organisations.

Proactive re-tweeting

The Department actively seeks opportunities to re-tweet content that contributes to the dissemination and exchange of useful information about health and related topics.

Content includes but is not limited to:

• Research findings and statistics
• Relevant industry/business networking events, and
• Relevant celebrations/commemorations e.g. awards, themed days (e.g.national ride to work day).

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  Department of Health Twitter Policy