JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

Social media is a powerful tool used to share health policy and advocacy efforts and disseminate health information to virtual community members and networks. Yet, it remains an under-utilized tool by nurses for health advocacy.

Objective:

This paper aims to describe the process of mobilizing social media platforms such as Twitter for health advocacy within a school of nursing community center and more so to share the lessons learned during this process.

Methods:

We performed a comprehensive review of Tweeter analytical data to examine the impact of our social media posts. We then consolidated these analytic reports with our meeting logs to describe our systematic, iterative, and collaborative design process to implement social media efforts and generate key lessons learned.

Results:

Our review of monthly Tweeter analytical reports and regular team meeting logs revealed several themes for successful and less successful practices in relation to our social media-based health advocacy efforts. The successful practices noted by the team included: Using personable, picture-based Tweets; Using a series of posts on a particular topic rather than an isolated post; Leveraging team members and partners collaborations in shared posts; Incorporating hashtags in tweets; Using a balanced mix of texts and graphics in posts; and Employing inclusive (non-destigmatizing) languages in tweeted posts. Among the many lessons learned, we also experienced limitations including lack of comprehensive statistics on Twitter usage by residents of Baltimore and/or Maryland and limits in collating the estimates of actual impact made on the intended community members by our posts.

Conclusions:

Twitter has been successful so far in our promoting health advocacy content and the social media team aims to tap into and utilize other social media platforms that have a wider reach than Twitter. We will continue making necessary adjustments in strategies, techniques, and styles to engage the audience as we expand onto new platforms like Instagram and TikTok.