Engagement Metrics for Digital Public Health Communication Channels: A New Quantitative Methodological Approach

Background:  In the digital age, public health research often directs communicators and educators to the use of websites, social media, and mass emails as the most successful channels to reach their audiences.   While the metrics of digital reach and exposure are well established, public health agencies and organizations have not consistently measured engagement on websites, social media, and other digital channels; and inconsistent engagement analysis has also been an issue in the wider digital analytics community.  However, a number of experts have developed new engagement measurement models that are meaningful, evidence-based, scalable, and tightly tied to agency/organization goals and objectives – whether it relates to campaigns, websites, or apps.

Program background:  The metrics of the newly introduced Engagement Score and Engagement Rate evaluate digital channel engagement on the basis of critical digital goals and objectives, effort involved in the engagement, and whether engagement stems from marketing-based activities or is organic.  The presentation will explain how these metrics can be integrated into all digital activities, how they can effectively be used to measure depth of channel activity, and how they work along with exposure/reach metrics to provide a compelling story of public health campaign and content success.  Why this methodology is superior to other methods of engagement analysis will be discussed, as well as replication across digital channels and ease of implementation.

Evaluation Methods and Results:  Three examples of application of these new metrics will be provided, showing how they are calculated, how they inform digital public health campaigns and content development, and how they can be utilized to diagnose implementation and content issues as well as successes:  

1. Engagement on standalone public health websites, as well as a comparison to qualitative measures on websites.
2. Channel engagement on a mobile app.
3. Engagement in all channels used in a public health campaign, and their integration with a website.

Conclusions:  This study shows the efficacy of newly introduced engagement metrics as it applies to a variety of channels and situations, how it can be used to compare with qualitative data, and how real-time qualitative data can be added to supplement results.  The need for consistent industry engagement metrics when measuring awareness and behavioral change is addressed in this discussion as a valuable competency of our public health industry and an advantage of this methodology.  Implementing programs employing Engagement Score and Engagement Rate is easier and more accurate than other measures and can quickly be adapted to all channels.

Implications for research and/or practice:  Engagement should be measured in tandem with exposure/reach for all digital channels and campaigns in order to provide the fullest picture of digital content uptake.  With a more consistent, unified set of metrics, baselines can be established for all sites, campaigns and channels in order to determine efficacy and effectiveness.  These measures can ultimately be evaluated along with qualitative measures in order to provide a full suite of key performance indicators.