98 Forging a New (Digital) Path: Designing a Strategic Pilot to Engage and Educate the Public about Clinical Research on Social Media

Abstract

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: To conceptualize, implement and evaluate a three-pronged social media plan with goals to: 1) disseminate information about the Southern California CTSI and its activities on multiple platforms; 2) educate the public about clinical research participation; 3) use storytelling methods to spread awareness about research careers. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: We will start by creating a logic model to identify activities, outputs, short, medium and long-term outcomes of this social media innovation project, using CTSI and community stakeholder input (focus groups). This model will guide the creation of a comprehensive strategic social media plan that includes an editorial calendar for each platform, storyboarding and an operationalized narrative strategy, as well as KPIs relating to areas like reach, engagement, conversion, and sentiment. Collecting/analyzing these metrics will yield information about how the public feels about clinical research and will assist us in refining our content strategy. After completing formative research, we will create accounts on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Meta to complement our existing Twitter presence. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: We hope to identify which types of content lead to greater engagement and more positive sentiment on each platform, which will help us iteratively refine our content strategy. Examples of content type can include: imparting research-related information, debunking myths, providing career information, etc. Through this process we will also gain knowledge about what methods are more appealing to our users, such as narrative storytelling. Visually, we anticipate learning about what types of multimedia content works best as a mechanism to disseminate information about clinical research (e.g. video, photo, audio, or a combination). DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: In a post-pandemic world of dis- and misinformation, it is more important than ever to disseminate trusted, vetted information about clinical research in novel and engaging ways. Through this initiative we will gather information, metrics and key lessons learned to present back to CTSA hubs to inform their short and long-term social media strategies.