Evaluation and Assessment of Social Media

Social Media Evaluation Impacted Health Behaviors

Social media campaigns have been employed to conduct mass population education of large proportions of the population. Before the percolation of social media across the global population, conventional media, such as newspapers, television, and radio, were the main forms of communication mediums but have become passive with the growing popularity of social media as a source of information. As a result, social media campaigns have been adopted as a communication channel about core health concerns to either create awareness of the health concerns, prevent risky health behaviors, and raise funds to address the growing health concerns (Wakefield et al., 2010). Some health social media campaigns that attracted global intention include the New Zealand Health Sponsorship Council Online Anti-Smoking Challenge, Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness and funds to fight ALS, and the Know Your Lemons campaign. The effectiveness of social media campaigns to accomplish certain health objectives prevent the negative change in health-related behaviors across a population.

Ice Bucket Challenge

The Ice Bucket Challenge started to create awareness and funds to research Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The challenge was initiated in 2014 in Washington, DC, and increased the funds raised for research by 187%. ALS is considered a progressive disease of the nervous system that affects the brain’s nerve cells and spinal cord, resulting in muscle loss. ALS, in some cases, is inherited, while other causes of the diseases are not known. Inherited ALS affects 5% to 10% of the people diagnosed (Frederick, 2021). The onset of the disease begins with the twitching of muscles and weakness of a limb or slurred speech. Eventually, ALS affects the involuntary control of muscles required to facilitate breathing, eating, and breathing. Some of the symptoms of ALS are difficulty in walking and performing daily activities, inappropriately crying, yawning, and crying, and cognitive-behavioral changes as the disease progress.

The Ice Bucket Challenge resulted in global awareness of ALS. It resulted in expanding research that brought the researchers closer to diagnosing, treating, and eventually curing the disease. The cost invested in the Ice Bucket Challenge resulted in the accomplishment of milestones with the discovery of the new gene that was connected to ALS (Frederick, 2021). Researchers employed the funds raised to employ new clinical trials to test potential treatments and expand the research association by 50%. The funds collected were awarded as grants to 237 scientists worldwide, building the body of knowledge about ALS genomics significantly.

The ice Bucket Challenge was started by three men living with ALS who would post videos to dump buckets of ice on themselves and call out an individual to do the same and contribute to the course. The challenge gained global traction where more than 17 million people performed the challenge and posted the video on social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube (Frederick, 2021). The videos were viewed by 400 million people more than 10 billion times. The challenge was successful in creating awareness of the challenge and raised $115 million for research.

New Zealand Health Sponsorship Council Online Anti-Smoking Challenge

The New Zealand Health Sponsorship Council Online Anti-Smoking Challenge was initiated to prevent people in the age group between 12 and 24 years from smoking and encourage the cessation of smoking (Health Sponsorship Council’s, 2010). The Health Sponsorship Council (HSC) is a governmental agency that encourages New Zealanders to adopt and maintain healthy attitudes and behavior through the HSC’s tobacco control program, Smoking Not Our Future. The ‘Smoking Not Our Future’ program aimed to engage the audiences in online games that facilitated the audiences’ interaction with the message. The use of online games was preferred for the campaign since it allows the active engagement of the participants in the game and the limited spending accrued to this approach of mass awareness compared to the cost of media placement in conventional mediums (Wakefield et al., 2010). Further, games are suitable for the targeted age group, 12 – 24 years, that is more actively involved in online gaming.

The use of tobacco is associated with a high risk of developing lifestyle diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, and cancer, that are not curable. Other diseases associated with smoking are heart disease, lung disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and stroke. Smoking has been associated with an unsustainable global budget on healthcare dedicated to dealing with diseases caused by smoking (Health Sponsorship Council, 2010). In America, 16 million people live diseases caused by smoking. Smoking increases the risk for tuberculosis, the decline in the immune system efficacy, and certain eye diseases. Smoking is associated with the development of rheumatoid arthritis.

Smoking Not Our Future involved the development of three games that encouraged anti-tobacco attitudes. Games are engaging cognitively compared to other forms of communication that could have been employed to increase the campaign’s impact. The games developed by HSC were Kiss Off, Butthead Bash, and Kanvas. The gaming experiences are likely to increase the retention of the anti-smoking message in the players’ minds and prevent the onset of smoking. The payers were also encouraged to share the game among peers on social networks to promote the campaign’s reach.

Know Your Lemons campaign

The Know Your Lemons Campaign was initiated by the Sofii Foundation. The campaign aimed to increase breast cancer awareness and encourage more women to go for regular check-ups for early detection and treatment. The Worldwide Breast Cancer (WBC) non-profit organization focused on women’s global education and empowerment to identify symptoms of breast cancer and encourage better management of the disease (Burnett, 2019). The catchy name of the campaign encouraged the participation of all the members of the society who would be otherwise reluctant to engage in women’s health matters. WBC set up a members Facebook group where people would read regular updates, contribute financially to the cause, and participate in conversations about the subject.

The campaign’s objective was to encourage women to check for signs and symptoms of breast cancer regularly. The campaign also involved developing an application that aids in the detection of breast cancer and rendering advice on the measures that the women take towards treatment (Burnett, 2019). The signs that the women were advised to check for include: a new lump in the breast or the armpit, irritation, and dumping of skin, redness of flakiness of skin in the nipple area, and discharge of milk other than milk that has bloodstains. The visual use of lemons eliminated any sexual, age, and ethnicity associated with the message allowing the corporation to reach a large audience. Social media was selected since more than 90% of women between the ages of 19 and 29 are on social media, and 35% of women over 65 years. The use of an application to train women to self-screen increased the efficacy of the campaign.