Education is a vital part of a successful public health initiative. From informing the public about hygiene and avoiding infectious diseases to providing guidance about major reforms like the Affordable Care Act, public health communicators play a vital role in the overall well-being of our society.
One of the most important and effective tools for spreading important messages is social media — but only if it is done properly. Understanding the best practices for social media communication is important across the spectrum of public health careers. Used correctly, social media can expand the reach of your message and contribute to lasting behavioral change and a well-informed public. Do it wrong, and not only will your message fall flat, but you could alienate your target audience or lose them forever.
Common Social Media Mistakes
One of the biggest mistakes public health organizations make when using social media is failing to understand their audience. It is important to understand exactly who your audience is and which channels and messages are most effective for reaching them; it’s also important to understand exactly how people use social media.
Social media is not the same as traditional media. When you advertise via traditional channels, such as television, your audience tends to be passive consumers. They choose which channels or programs to watch, but have little control over the commercial messages they receive. Social media, in contrast, is a more active media. Users seek out the information and entertainment they want, and tend to be very selective in what they choose to consume. For the most part, social media users select their own experience and choose the organizations and people they want to engage with online.
Understanding this concept allows public health organizations to be more effective in their social media messaging, and avoid two other major mistakes: Being boring and expecting change from social media alone. Quite simply, if your content isn’t engaging, your audience is not going to connect with you and consume your message. If they do receive your message, it is unrealistic to expect they will make a behavioral change based on social media alone. Again, understanding how and why people use social media is important. Most people use social media to connect with others, not to be sold something. Your messages must focus more on creating a framework or support for behavioral change and audience engagement than on convincing people to immediately make a change.
Best Practices for Public Health
Knowing what your audience does not want from social media, how do you go about giving them what they do want while still getting your message across? By keeping a few important guidelines in mind.
Be engaging.Audience engagement is more than the number of eyeballs that see your message. It’s a communication style, a conversation between your organization and your audience. You learn from each other, by asking questions, gauging reactions and even accepting criticism or resistance to your message. Effective social media marketing isn’t just about sharing what you have to say, but listening to what your audience has to say and learning from it.
Be interesting. You aren’t going to get audience engagement if you are boring. Take the time to create messages that grab attention and tap into your audience’s interests. Don’t just link to a fact sheet and direct readers to “check it out,” but pull information from the sheet to create Facebook posts and tweets to will start a conversation or entice readers to click.
Be dynamic. Mix up your message types. Ask question, offer fun facts, link to other sources — do something different every time to build audience engagement andexcitement for new content.
Use multiple platforms. Different people use different social media platforms and use them for different purposes. Some people might only use Facebook for professional purposes while Twitter is more entertainment; other people only use Instagram or Pinterest. Tailor your message for multiple platforms and use them all to reach as many people as possible. You may find certain platforms are more effective in prompting behavioral change than others.
Be authentic. You might think teens and young adults you’re trying to influence will be impressed by “text speak” or your use of current lingo, but they will see right through you. Not only do such messages feel phony, they can be hard to understand. You can speak your audience’s language without pandering to them or reducing the power of your message.
Social media is an important part of any public health marketing or outreach effort. Before you launch a campaign, take some time to explore the different platforms and develop ways to effectively spread your messages and meet your organization’s objectives through audience engagement. By effectively using social media you’ll be able to influence behavioral change better than ever before.
