Evaluating a Social Media Campaign for a Parent Educational Video on Bronchiolitis

Abstract

Bronchiolitis, or lower airway swelling, is a common cause of pediatric hospital admissions. Parents have expressed wishes for more information regarding bronchiolitis but had difficulty finding reliable information, suggesting the need for more effective and easily accessible information resources. Knowledge translation (KT) tools like videos provide research-based information and may be conveniently disseminated to large audiences through social media. The purpose of this project was to evaluate the effectiveness of a social media campaign to promote a video on bronchiolitis. A social media campaign was conducted from 14 October to 30 November 2019. User interactions were recorded for the Facebook and Twitter accounts, website, and YouTube of Evidence in Child Health to Enhance Outcomes (ECHO), Alberta Research Centre for Health Evidence (ARCHE), and Translating Emergency Knowledge for Kids (TREKK). Baseline metrics were collected from 1 August to 30 September 2019 and post-campaign metrics were collected from 1 December 2019 to 31 March 2020. Mean monthly changes, standard deviations, and percent changes between periods were generated for the baseline, campaign, and post-campaign periods. Overall, there was a visible increase in user interactions throughout the campaign period. There was an overall downward trend in user interactions following the campaign. These findings suggest that social media may be a useful method of KT tool dissemination when consistently used. The downward trend post-campaign highlights the need for further research to investigate methods to maintain continuous interaction following a campaign.