Twelve tips for public health education using social media

Abstract

With nearly half the world’s population using social media, platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook have become popular sources of information gathering and sharing for the general public. In medicine, social media is increasingly used to educate patients due its wide reach and interactive nature. Early studies showed that these social media-based initiatives can even promote behavioral change by increasing public knowledge and self-efficacy. Several barriers such as time and technical skills, however, prevent healthcare workers from using social media platforms to promote public health education. The following twelve tips may help reduce these barriers and create more opportunities for patients to easily access quality medical information on social media. Creating an effective public health education platform on social media involves identifying clear goals, understanding the social context of all messaging, recruiting a motivated team, creating a style guide, vetting content for accuracy, and interacting with social media followers. These tips will help build an accurate and quality social media public health education campaign.

Keywords

• Social Media
• Public Health Education
• Twelve Tips
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook