The very small circle of social marketing bloggers can now welcome a very big player to the field. Jay Bernhardt, the director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Marketing, has started a blog.
While this is the “first-ever blog on the CDC internet site,” the government bureaucracy has ensured that Jay can’t actually publish an RSS feed or use blogging software. As he says, “NCHM and the CDC are working hard to improve our electronic
communications. We are now only a few years behind the innovation curve
and we are getting closer to the every day. [sic]” Despite the technical constraints, Jay and the CDC are to be commended for their attempt to bring the nation’s largest social marketer (I think!) closer to its constituents.
I look forward to Jay weighing in on the issues facing social marketers and providing us with more insight into the social marketing initiatives conducted by the CDC.
Make sure you take a look around NCHM’s website, which is packed with information on health marketing — the CDC’s “brand” of social marketing.
Nedra helps nonprofits and public agencies create positive change on health and social issues through social marketing and transmedia storytelling strategies at Weinreich Communications since founding the company in 1995. She helps organizations make a difference for the populations they serve by strategically designing programs that draw on state-of-the-art behavior change techniques, digital media approaches and the power of stories. 
