Using Social Media Influencers to Deliver Positive Information About the Flu Vaccine: Findings from a Multi-Year Qualitative Study

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Introduction: Large-scale flu vaccine campaigns have experienced difficulty in increasing vaccination coverage among African Americans and Hispanics. Digital campaigns about flu vaccination are routinely inundated by negative responses from those in opposition to vaccines. To address this issue, from September 2018 - March 2020 and September 2019 – March 2020, a digital campaign was implemented to disseminate positive information about the flu vaccine. Methods: The campaign employed user-generated content from social media “micro” influencers who are predominantly followed by African Americans or Hispanics. Influencers wrote messages promoting the flu vaccine and posted them on their personal social media accounts. To date, this constituted the largest influencer-driven health campaign focused on reaching these communities in the United States. Analysts qualitatively coded public comments on influencer posts to determine content perceptions among those exposed to posts. Digital metrics were also analyzed. Results: In Year 1, influencer posts reached over 9 million individuals on social media and generated 64,612 likes or shares, and 1,512 responses. In Year 2, posts reached over 8 million individuals and generated 155,600 likes or shares, and 3,122 responses. On average, around 94% of public responses to posts were positive. Conclusions: This campaign strategy represents a more community-led and participatory approach than large-scale vaccination campaigns have attempted to date. The overwhelmingly positive responses to influencer posts suggest that this may be a promising strategy to communicate health information and could ultimately shift social norms, particularly for heavily debated topics such as vaccination.