Abstract
BackgroundFacebook can be a suitable platform for public health interventions. Facebook users can express their reaction to the given social media content in many ways using interaction buttons. The analysis of these interactions can be advantageous in increasing reach and engagement of public health interventions.ObjectiveThis research aimed at understanding how Facebook users’ interactions correlate with organic reach and engagement regarding the same smoking cessation support contents.MethodsThe study population consisted of Facebook users who were reached by a public smoking cessation support page without advertising. We included 1025 nonpaid Facebook posts (N=1025) which used smoking cessation strategies based on a motivational interviewing counseling style. The following data were collected from the “Post Details”: the number of people who saw the given nonpaid content (organic reach) which consisted of fan and nonfan reach according to previous “page like” activity; each rate of “engagement indicators” (such as the symbols of “like,” “love,” “haha,” “wow,” “sad,” “angry”; or other interactions: “shares,” “comments,” “clicks”); and the rate of negative Facebook interactions (eg, “post hides” or “unlike of page”). Overall, these data were analyzed with the Spearman correlation method.ResultsSurprisingly, we found a significant negative correlation between organic reach and the “like” reaction (rs=–0.418; P<.001). The strongest significant positive correlations of organic reach were observed with the “haha” reaction (rs=0.396; P<.001), comments (rs=0.368; P<.001), and the “love” reaction (rs=0.264; P<.001). Furthermore, nonfan reach correlated positively with “shares” (rs=0.388; P<.001) and clicks (rs=0.135; P<.001), while fan reach correlated positively with the “haha” reaction (rs=0.457; P<.001), comments (rs=0.393; P<.001), and the “love” reaction (rs=0.310; P<.001). Contrary to expectations, the “like” reaction was sharply separated by significant negative correlations from “wow” (rs=–0.077; P=.013), “sad” (rs=–0.120; P<.001), “angry” reactions (rs=–0.136; P<.001), and comments (rs=–0.130; P<.001). Additionally, a high rate of negative Facebook interactions was significantly associated with “wow” (rs=0.076; P=.016) and “sad” reactions (rs=0.091; P=.003).ConclusionsThis study has shown that it is possible to hypothesize a disadvantage of the “like” reaction and advantages of other interactions (eg, the “haha” reaction or “comments”) in content algorithmic ranking on Facebook. In addition, the correlational analysis revealed a need of a further categorization to fan-specific interactions (eg, “haha” or “love” reactions) and nonfan-specific interactions (eg, “shares” and “clicks”). Regarding the direction of the correlations, these findings suggest that some interactions (eg, negative Facebook interactions, “wow,” “sad,” and “angry” reactions) may decrease the engagement, while other interactions (“like,” “love,” “haha” reactions, “shares,” and “clicks”) may increase the engagement during Facebook-based smoking cessation interventions. This hypothesis-generating research offers an important insight into the relationship between organic reach, engagement, and Facebook users’ interactions for public health professionals who design Facebook-based interventions.
Highlights
Reaching to Facebook UsersFacebook is a widely available social media platform, which could be highly relevant for people who seek help with health behavior change [1]
Regarding the direction of the correlations, these findings suggest that some interactions may decrease the engagement, while other interactions (“like,” “love,” “haha” reactions, “shares,” and “clicks”) may increase the engagement during Facebook-based smoking cessation interventions
It should be highlighted that the low number of “sad,” “angry” reactions, and negative interactions can be attributed to the spirit of motivational interviewing, which was a primary consideration in the creation of the investigated Facebook posts
Summary
Reaching to Facebook UsersFacebook is a widely available social media platform, which could be highly relevant for people who seek help with health behavior change [1]. Facebook can be a useful tool to contact hard-to-reach smokers [9] On this platform a major intention of smoking cessation or other public health interventions could be to reach a large number of users through social media contents [10]. “paid post reach” and “organic post reach” data must be distinguished These data refer to the number of people who saw a paid or a nonpaid social media content, respectively [11,14]. Facebook users can express their reaction to the given social media content in many ways using interaction buttons The analysis of these interactions can be advantageous in increasing reach and engagement of public health interventions
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