Optimizing engagement of “willing messengers”
Effective health information dissemination using social media and networks
Keywords:
preventive health care information, social media, social networks, consumer behavior, message strategy, healthcare marketing, COVID-19Abstract
During the COVID-19 pandemic, health information – to include preventive health care information (PHCI) designed to prevent or minimize illness – moved swiftly through social media and networks (SM&N) during an “infodemic” characterized by misinformation (unintended) and disinformation (purposeful). This inaccurate information fueled refusal to vaccinate and/or mask, use of medications lacking scientific support, and increased morbidity (Ferreira, 2022). Misinformation and disinformation about the vaccine alone accounted for daily costs between $50 Million and $300 Million in 2021due to mortality, morbidity, costs to the healthcare system, and economic losses due to missed work (Bruns et al., 2023).
While there is a vast body of research concerning the types of appeals used to combat misinformation during the pandemic (Smith et al., 2023), appeals are only as effective as the targeting employed. Combatting the costly effects of pandemic-period disinformation and misinformation on SM&N begins with targeting corrective and/or accurate health information to those most likely to spread information. Accordingly, marketing communication professionals need to know the characteristics and preferences of consumers who actively shared COVID-19 PHCI on SM&N during the pandemic, a group we have termed “willing messengers”.
This research identifies demographic characteristics, source preferences, and platform preferences of willing messengers. Findings indicate uninsured Americans, users employed in healthcare, and adults ages 34 and younger regularly shared pandemic-related PHCI on SM&N during the pandemic. The more likely a user was to regularly share such content, the more likely she was to prefer a message source similar (appearance, lifestyle, intellect) to her. The more likely a user was to regularly share such content on SM&N, the more likely he was to consider America’s most used SM&N (Facebook, Twitter (now X), Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn) important for that activity.
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