Using Online Social Media and Social Networks as a Public Health Intervention
12 Pages Posted: 27 Jun 2015
Date Written: June 2015
Abstract
We performed a public reporting data-based intervention using social media and social network marketing campaigns to influence women in Los Angeles to seek public information on maternity care hospital quality. More than four million women give birth in the US every year, and more than three fourths of all American women will become mothers at some stage in their lives. Yet on key objective evidence-based metrics such as the proportion of women who received antenatal care within the first trimester, low birth weight infant deliveries, infant mortality, and maternal death rates, progress has either been away from or incompletely towards federal targets.
We used cutting edge social media and social network listening tools to understand the extent and types of communications that pregnant women engaged in online. We leveraged these understandings to design commercial marketing campaigns to drive consumer interest through targeted communications on Facebook, Twitter and Google search platforms. Our campaigns reached a little more than 140,000 consumers each day across the three platforms, with a little more than 400 click-throughs each day. Facebook and Google search had broader reach, better click-through rates, and lower costs than Twitter. Our results suggest that commercially available 2 online advertising platforms in wide use by other industries may play a low cost role in targeted public health interventions.
Keywords: Maternity care, public reporting, hospital quality, social media, social network, marketing campaign, micro-education
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