Melody Taba
The Sydney Health Literacy Lab & Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute have unveiled their new co-designed framework for social media health communication to young people. It’s useful for all health communicators or health organisations.
Compared to previous generations, young people today are more likely to use the internet and social media for health information, with 82% of Australians aged 14-24 using online sources of health information. Despite using them frequently, young people often overestimate their digital health literacy skills and report difficulty finding credible health information online. This may leave them vulnerable to the large volume of health misinformation which proliferates on social media platforms.
Thus, there is a need for health organisations to ‘meet young people where they are at’ and share reliable and appealing health communication to them. However, there is a general lack of engaging official health communication for young people, especially on platforms young people prefer.
A framework to improve social media health communication to young people
To improve this, researchers at the Sydney Health Literacy Lab and Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute co-designed a framework with young people and professional health communicators to support health organisations in communicating more effectively, especially during emergencies.
The process involved three workshops with 21 young people (aged 18-24) and four health communicators from Australian health departments. The project also partnered with three youth co-researchers (including one young influencer with 67,000 followers across TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube) who co-facilitated the workshops and analysed the data with the team to ensure the framework remained youth-centred.
Their five final recommendations were published online, and also in the Health Expectations journal.
In summary:
Recommendation 1: Involve young people
Young people like content created by other young people. Health communicators can feature “regular” young people in their content and involve them behind the scenes in the content creation process.
An example popular with young people in our workshops included this TikTok by NSW Health as it featured a “regular” and “relatable” young person, as well as an authentic and youthful tone.
@nswhealth Happy International Youth Day! Send this to a mate who helps keeps others safe in style 😷 #IYD2022
Recommendation 2: Pitch at the right level
Health communicators should consider young people’s social contexts and health literacy needs when creating content. Messages need to be simple, relevant, and include easy calls to action that young people can do.
An exemplar identified by young people was this Instagram post by Qld Health due to its simple language and straightforward suggestions.
Recommendation 3: Capture attention fast
Young people only spend a few seconds on a post before scrolling. Health communicators should use a hook and strong visual to capture attention fast, before delivering the message elsewhere in the post.
Young people praised this Instagram post by SA Health for its eye-catching visual and minimal text which encouraged users to seek more information in the caption and linked website.
Recommendation 4: Use current social media marketing techniques
Young people expect engaging and trending content on social media, even from public health agencies. Health communicators can collaborate with influencers, use humour, memes and trends that young people use. It’s important the content is created by someone young or very familiar with the trend to avoid coming across as cringeworthy.
This Instagram post with Marco Varone and Vic Gov DoH is an example of collaborating with a non-health influencer to reach a young and highly engaged audience.
Recommendation 5: Engage more with the public
Young people want to see health organisations engage on social media. They desire two-way conversations, over impersonal, one-way messaging from a faceless entity. Health communicators can prioritise online community management, including by replying to comments and direct messages.
Young people told us this style of Instagram post by Qld Health using a “street interview/vox pop” format was an effective way to engage with the public. It blended online and offline community interaction.
By integrating these strategies into their social media health communication practice, health organisations can better reach young people and promote health behaviours and skills that they will carry into adulthood.
Dr Melody Taba is a Research Fellow at the Sydney Health Literacy Lab and a member of the Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute.
Image: TatumKenna.com
Leave a Reply