Shaping the Vaccine Message through Social Media

Background:  Social media has enabled a shift from one-sided broadcasting of information toward a participatory form of conversation between authors and the public.  The term “social media” encompasses the online tools that people use to share content, issues, opinions, insights, experiences, perspectives, and media itself, thus facilitating conversations and interaction online between groups of people.  These tools include blogs and microblogs (such as Twitter), message boards, social networks, social bookmarking, podcasts, image sharing, wikis, and more.  Attendees will develop strategies for using these tools to make the tenor of online discussion more positive about immunization.

Setting: Internet

Population:  Internet users

Project Description:  Presenters will describe the social media landscape, providing examples of social media venues that have been the site of conversations about vaccines.  Attendees will leave the session with an understanding of how other immunization organizations have made use of social media tools to educate the public on vaccine issues, with a special focus on how the Shot of Prevention website was conceived and constructed, how it currently operates, and how attendees can contribute to it.  Attendees will be able to identify social media tools they can use given the time and resources available to them, and how to implement usage of these tools.  They will also understand the importance and mechanisms of connecting with allied organizations online to improve the credibility and visibility of each.

Results/Lessons Learned:  Through the use of social media, organizations have successfully cross-marketed online messages and facilitated conversations about the benefits of vaccines.  Media coverage of vaccines and online exchanges among members of the public have become more science-based as a result.  In addition, online misinformation about the safety of vaccines has increasingly been met with well-informed condemnation.