Hua Wang*, University at Buffalo - The State University of New York, Buffalo, United States Weiai Xu, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, United States Gregory D. Saxton, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, United States Track: Research Presentation Topic: Web 2.0 approaches for behaviour change, public health and biosurveillance Presentation Type: Poster presentation Submission Type: Single Presentation Last modified: 2014-05-16

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Background: Social networking sites are increasingly adopted by public health programs to attract users and promote health messages. However, empirical research has yet to suggest effective strategies for leveraging the social features on these sites. Moreover, rarely do program evaluators investigate the underlying message and user structures to help content producers build a vibrant and meaningful user community. East Los High (ELH) is an award-winning online teen drama designed to promote safe sex and prevent teen pregnancy among Latino youth in the United States. Additional materials were rolled out on the program’s website and four popular social networking sites during and after its Hulu premier to help develop a fan base and achieve the social objectives.

Objective: As part of a comprehensive program evaluation, the goals of this study were two-fold: (1) To identify attributes of ELH Facebook posts that elicited the most successful user responses, and (2) To uncover the patterns of user behavior and user-generated content associated with the most successful posts.

Methods: Data from May 1, 2013 to January 31, 2014 were extracted from the ELH Facebook Fan Page using Facebook Insights and custom Python code. For objective 1, the most successful posts were selected based on 10 indicators (e.g., daily reach, likes, shares, and comments). Their message framing, intent, and media type were coded to identify salient attributes. For objective 2, focusing on the most successful posts, a series of bimodal user-post networks and semantic networks were analyzed using NodeXL to reveal influential individual users, subgroups, and topical interests.

Results: In nine months, ELH accumulated 6,459 likes on its fan page. ELH content producers used six message types to present 342 posts. Although a single post could reach over 10,000 people, on average, each post reached over 2,000 people, engaged around 200 to interact with the content, and prompted more than 50 to provide feedback and word-of-mouth. This means about 10% of Facebook users who saw a post also clicked on it, and out of those 25% liked, shared, mentioned, or commented on the post. Twelve posts were considered the most successful and they were predominantly photos of the show and cast combined with short texts calling for action. Network analysis results revealed that the ELH official account played a central role in facilitating user commenting, and a dedicated set of evangelistic users actively commented on and promoted ELH posts. The top word pairs reflected positive program feedback and discussions related to the show’s social objectives.

Conclusions: Adopting popular social media platforms does not necessarily guarantee success in user engagement. Content producers need to present their messages strategically and engage evangelistic users to build a sustainable community. Public health program developers can benefit from understanding basic structures of information and social networks to effectively monitor user dynamics, provide tailored feedback, and cultivate a strong fan base.