Using Social Media to Educate and Increase Awareness About the Harmful Effects of Tobacco and its Relationship with Covid-19
Abstract
Tobacco use is the leading cause of deaths, diseases, and health care costs in our society. The Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program at Nova Southeastern University launched a pilot social media campaign in June 2021 to encourage widespread distribution of information on the harmful effects of tobacco use across multiple social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn). This initiative is student driven and faculty supported. Its goals are to increase social consciousness about the harmful effects of tobacco use through the widespread sharing of messaging and to motivate tobacco users to seek readily available cessation services provided through the AHEC Program. One of the topics of the campaign was Tobacco and Covid-19. Six messages and a video were developed to be disseminated across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. To evaluate the performance of the social media posts, two key performance indicators were used, engaged users, which are unique visitors that have engaged with the posts (liking, commenting, sharing) and impressions, which are unique users that have viewed the posts. The social media messages were posted on the Everglades Area Health Education center social media platforms and links of the messages were shared with more than 60 organizations. From October to December 2021, the total number of engagements was 464 and the total number of impressions was 8,668 on the Tobacco and Covid-19 posts. Implementing a powerful social media campaign in tobacco cessation is vital to increase education, and awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco.
Faculty Sponsors
Dr. Claudia A. Serna, Ph.D., D.D.S., M.P.H., MCHES, CPH, Dr. Steven Zucker, D.M.D., M.Ed.
Project Type
Event
Location
Alvin Sherman Library
Start Date
4-6-2022 12:00 PM
End Date
4-7-2022 5:00 PM
Using Social Media to Educate and Increase Awareness About the Harmful Effects of Tobacco and its Relationship with Covid-19
Alvin Sherman Library
Tobacco use is the leading cause of deaths, diseases, and health care costs in our society. The Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program at Nova Southeastern University launched a pilot social media campaign in June 2021 to encourage widespread distribution of information on the harmful effects of tobacco use across multiple social media platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn). This initiative is student driven and faculty supported. Its goals are to increase social consciousness about the harmful effects of tobacco use through the widespread sharing of messaging and to motivate tobacco users to seek readily available cessation services provided through the AHEC Program. One of the topics of the campaign was Tobacco and Covid-19. Six messages and a video were developed to be disseminated across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. To evaluate the performance of the social media posts, two key performance indicators were used, engaged users, which are unique visitors that have engaged with the posts (liking, commenting, sharing) and impressions, which are unique users that have viewed the posts. The social media messages were posted on the Everglades Area Health Education center social media platforms and links of the messages were shared with more than 60 organizations. From October to December 2021, the total number of engagements was 464 and the total number of impressions was 8,668 on the Tobacco and Covid-19 posts. Implementing a powerful social media campaign in tobacco cessation is vital to increase education, and awareness of the harmful effects of tobacco.
