Evaluating Social Media On a Public Health Budget

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:  Integrating social media for health communication campaigns has been a slow process, as restrictions on two-way communication and fear of the “openness” of the medium have led public sector communicators to shy away from using it. However, increasingly, organizations and agencies looking to reach their target audiences in relevant ways are implementing social media into their programs as a necessity, not just a “nice to have”. However, across the board, agencies, communicators and brands alike are all struggling with how to evaluate this medium – and for public health communications, the issue becomes even more challenging as budgets become leaner and the use of social media has to be weighed against the cost-efficiency of investing in other communication channels. Drawing from both public and private sector case studies, this presentation will look at the value of social media for public health campaigns and how to evaluate social media in order to make the case for it in your campaigns.

Methods: 

• Formative research on best practices for evaluating social media for health communication programs;
• Private sector case study example(s) of social media evaluation in action;
• Public sector case study example of social media evaluation in the public health context.

Results:  An effective evaluation system was used to measure the impact of social media on CDC’s pre-teen vaccination campaign. The goal for this campaign was to increase awareness amongst parents and caregivers of 11-12 year olds. Social media was seen as a great way to promote the campaign’s assets and materials and drive visibility and awareness for the issues amongst its key target groups. A publisher outreach campaign was implemented to identify and reach out to 50+ advocates and influencers online and engage them around this campaign. Once launched and rolled out, an evaluation system was applied to determine the reach of the campaign. Results included a determination of campaign asset value, an overall impression level and a cost analysis for the campaign.

Conclusions:  Social media is an effective medium for reaching target audiences and creating buzz around a campaign. As a medium that is inherently organic, measuring its success can be challenging. However, this presentation will look at case studies for how to measure the impact of social media on health communication campaigns and demonstrate how it can be a highly effective and efficient medium for communication.

Implications for research and/or practice:

• Be able to demonstrate the impact and value that social media can have on public health campaigns;
• Be able to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of social media for public health campaigns.