Social Media Strategies for Promoting Public Health Conversations

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: How can social media be used to guide a public conversation on public health and environmental health issues? Can we observe existing trends, identify interested audiences, provide them with meaningful information, and successfully influence them—and influence their online friends and followers—to engage in a guided public conversation on public health and environmental health? These questions are examined through the lens of the National Conversation on Public Health and Chemical Exposures, supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. The National Conversation is an 18-month real-world and virtual conversation discussing the safe use and management of chemicals in the United States; a cornerstone of the National Conversation is the solicitation of public input to inform an action agenda. This presentation reviews how social media are being effectively used to attract and persuade audiences to lend their voices to this unprecedented public dialogue.

Methods: Initial research examined the ways in which social media were used to discuss the National Conversation in its first 6 months. Research was used to inform a communication strategy based in best practices and using social media that met three objectives: 

1. Raise awareness among interested audiences.
2. Persuade these audiences to participate in virtual Web dialogues.
3. Persuade these audiences to download a community conversation toolkit, then host or participate in real-world community conversations.

Initial research indicated that social media had not yet been used to promote the National Conversation beyond a handful of interested people. This same research, however, identified three primary social media channels (Twitter, Facebook, and blogs) and four audience segments already engaged in online discussions of the issues central to the National Conversation: 

• Public health advocates
• Environmental health advocates
• Healthy home/healthy living advocates
• Scientists, researchers, and chemists

Evaluation tools include an array of Web-based analytics tools to track all mentions of the National Conversation through social media and URL tracking to measure clicks from social media channels to the National Conversation’s Web pages. These metrics provide a constant source of data that help refine messages and delivery to meet the strategy’s three objectives.

Results: Metrics captured from Facebook, Twitter, and blogs indicate that initial outreach messages, customized to different audience segments, succeeded in easily surpassing the number of social media interactions during the first 6 months of the National Conversation. The data will illustrate that trusted online relationships can be established, and these followers will faithfully spread information to their friends and followers.

Conclusions: Health communication best practices applied to the development of audience-specific messages and delivered through targeted social media channels can measurably guide a public health conversation.

Implications for research and/or practice: Though implications about the ultimate success of these efforts cannot be finalized until the National Conversation comes to a close in 2011, data suggest that social media are an effective—but not magic--bullet; care and time are needed to engage audiences effectively and build a trusted presence.