engleski

Use of Social Media in Public Health Campaigns

One of the defining phenomena of the present times reshaping the world as we know it, is the worldwide accessibility to the internet. The lovechild of the World Wide Web is social media. The power of social networking is such that, the number of worldwide users is expected to reach some 2.95 billion by 2020, around a third of Earth’s entire population. Social network penetration worldwide is ever-increasing. In 2017, 71 percent of internet users were social network users and these figures are expected to grow. Social media has become ubiquitous, with more people accessing Web-based content by following links on social media than through direct searches. Thus, as a platform used by the public and by health care professionals, it presents an ideal opportunity for health promotion. Social media also brings substantial change to the way organizations and individuals can communicate. Researches postulated that social media had direct public health relevance because social networks could have an important influence on health behaviors and outcomes. However, public health agencies have not yet harnessed the full potential of social media. There is a wealth of opportunity to use social media for health promotion, through targeted messages, the ability to interact with the public, target hard-to-reach groups, and create dynamic campaigns. There is a great deal of enthusiasm for, and interest in, using social media for public health communications, but there is little understanding of the connection between online engagement and behavior change. Few research studies have examined the success of social media in influencing health promoting behaviors. Internationally, public health organizations are keenly experimenting with using social media as tools for both information sharing and behavior change. What remains to be seen is how best to reach out to social media users and what types of messages cut through the online clutter. Strong evidence indicates that public health social marketing campaigns conducted through mainstream media can have a direct and positive effect on behavior. Building the evidence base for conducting health promoting campaigns through social media will require both applying what is known to work in traditional media channels and developing new methods that incorporate the unique features of social media. To begin to understand how best to develop effective online social marketing campaigns, this presentation provides a summary of success factors and key lessons learnt from selected social media campaign case studies.

health promotion ; social media ; public health campaigns

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