Context: Tiempo de Vacunarte’s goal is to reduce the burden of Human Papillomavirus (HPV) associated cancers in West Texas counties through education and no-cost vaccines. Components of the program include social media outreach, HPV education, no-cost HPV vaccinations and navigation. Objective: Implement culturally appropriate social media strategies to promote awareness of the HPV vaccine, increase HPV vaccine knowledge and uptake, and address misinformation and myths.
Study Design: This descriptive study describes the process of developing a social media presence to increase community engagement and HPV vaccine uptake. We created a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter account to post at least once a week. A pre-screen survey is linked to all accounts and is often integrated within posts. Growth of social media accounts will be driven by a content strategy that employs effective design elements and key messages.
Dataset: Our dataset will consist of numbers derived from our site’s Google Analytics, metrics from our social media accounts, and completed pre-screen surveys.
Population studied: Everyone between 9 to 45 years old, uninsured or underinsured, have not completed the HPV vaccine series, and reside in target counties.
Intervention: The program uses social media and a program website to promote HPV vaccine uptake with educational and persuasive messaging techniques. These social media tactics are used alongside outreach recruitment efforts including attending community events.
Outcome Measures: The primary outcome measure is HPV vaccine series initiation. Secondary measures include assessing what kind of key messages perform better among our target audiences.
Results: Social media results are evaluated by using Google Analytics for website activity, social media metrics, including the number of followers, likes, comments, and reach, etc., as well as pre-screen survey completions. Current analysis indicates 7-8 pre-screen surveys should be driven by social media every month, social media posts should have an average reach of 200, and account followers should increase 4.5 to 10% per month.
Expected Outcomes: After the first year of social media posts, we expect Facebook followers to reach 236 and Instagram followers to reach 195. With previous data indicating 62 pre-screen surveys were generated via social media up until March 2021, we predict 35-40 more surveys will be driven by social media by the end of August 2021.