JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Because social media use among teenagers and young adults has proliferated in recent years, it is critical to explore how to use this tool to communicate health information to this population. Social media posts can contain various types of information within each post, and that information can be communicated using different modalities. Researchers and practitioners understand how young people react to these various modalities when presented with health information on social media. Young adults demonstrate the highest rate of unrestrained motor vehicle fatalities, making the promotion of seat belt restraint a priority for public health practitioners.

Objective:

Based on the elaboration likelihood model, we examined how young population reacted to various components of posts in the pilot of a promotion intervention Instagram campaign BuckleUp4Life.

Methods:

Using thematic analysis, we examined different appeals in three components (photo, text, and caption) of 198 posts in BuckleUp4Life and compared the number of likes for different appeals.

Results:

We found six appeals were used in the posts: rational, ego, social, fun, positive emotional and fear appeals. The results demonstrated that in photos, fun appeals were most popular. Rational and positive emotional appeals were the most appealing in text and captions.

Conclusions:

Based on these findings, we recommend that public health practitioners utilize fun photos with rational and positive emotional appeals in text and captions, rather than fear or social appeals, when promoting seat belt use through social media, especially Instagram.