Accepted for/Published in: Journal of Medical Internet Research
Date Submitted: Nov 5, 2019
Date Accepted: Nov 11, 2020
Facebook-based social marketing to reduce smoking in Australia’s First Nations communities: reach, shares and likes
ABSTRACT
Background:
Facebook is widely used by Australia’s First Nations people, and has significant potential to promote health. However, evidence-based guidelines for its use in health promotion are lacking. Smoking prevalence among Australia’s First Nations people is nearly three times higher than other Australians. Locally-designed programs in Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services to reduce smoking often use Facebook.
Objective:
This paper reports on an analysis of Facebook post reach and engagement with smoking prevention and cessation messages posted by Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Services in the Northern Territory, Australia.
Methods:
Each service posted tobacco control content at least weekly for approximately six months. Posts were coded for the following variables: which service posted, tailored First Nations Australian content, local/non-local content, video/non-video, communication technique and emotional appeal. The overall reach, shares, and reactions were calculated.
Results:
Our results found that reach and sharing of posts was associated with the health service posting the content. Compared to posts developed by the health service, posts with non-localised content had greater reach (Adjusted IRR 1.92, 95% CI 1.03-3.59). Reactions to posts (IRR 1.89, 95% CI 1.40-2.56) and shared posts (IRR 2.17, 95% CI 1.31-3.61) with non-localised content also had more reactions, after controlling for reach. We found mixed evidence about other factors, including use of First Nations Australian-specific content, positive emotional content, video, tagging and the use of hashtags.
Conclusions:
Facebook posts with non-localised content can be an important component of a social media campaign run by local health organisations. With the exception of non-localised content, we did not find a definitive set of characteristics that were clearly associated with reach, shares and reactions. Beyond reach, shares and likes, further research is needed to understand the extent to which social media content can influence health behaviour.
Citation
Per the author's request the PDF is not available.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.