Facebook Campaign Research Articles

Evaluating Two Common Strategies for Research Participant Recruitment Into Autism Studies: Observational Study.

BackgroundOngoing research is necessary to better understand the causes of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the developmental outcomes for individuals diagnosed with ASD, and the efficacy of the interventions. However, it is often difficult to recruit sufficient numbers of participants for studies, and despite the prevalence of ASD (currently estimated to affect 1 in 54 children), little research has focused on how to efficiently recruit participants with ASD.ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to determine the efficacy of two different paid advertisements—social media and radio advertising—in recruiting participants for a study enrolling people with ASD and their family members by examining the number of participants enrolled, the cost per participant, and the geographic reach of each type of advertising.MethodsWe examined participant enrollment in a study following nonoverlapping paid advertisements on a popular FM radio station (aired in three cities across two states) and Facebook (six advertisements that ran in five cities across two states). The total paid investment in the radio campaign was $12,030 and that in the Facebook campaign was $2950. Following the advertising campaigns, 1391 participants in the study who were affiliated with the Houston, Texas, site received email invitations to participate in a brief survey about the ways in which they learned about the study (eg, social media, medical provider, website) and which of these were most influential in their decisions to participate; 374 (26.8%) of the participants completed this survey.ResultsSocial media advertising outperformed radio in all three parameters examined by enrolling more participants (338 vs 149), with a lower average cost per participant ($8.73 vs $80.74) and a wider geographic reach, based on a comparison of the number of zip codes within and outside of Texas for questionnaire respondents who rated social media as the most influential method of contact (n=367, χ21=5.85, P=.02). Of the 374 survey participants, 139 (37.2%) reported that they had seen the study on social media prior to enrollment, while only 9 (2.4%) said they heard about it via radio.ConclusionsOur findings suggest that advertising on social media can efficiently reach a large pool of potential participants with ASD, increasing the likelihood of meeting study enrollment goals. Researchers should consider allocating at least some portion of recruitment dollars to social media platforms as a means of quickly and inexpensively reaching out to their target populations, including for studies with in-person procedures.

Women candidates are unrewarded for “masculine” campaigning: Facebook campaigning during Israel's 2018 municipal elections

PurposeThis study examines the impact of gender on Facebook campaign strategies and the reception of these strategies during the 2018 Israeli municipal elections.Design/methodology/approachThe authors analyzed all the messages posted on 48 politicians' official Facebook pages during the week leading up to the elections. They analyzed messages posted by 152 candidates running for the position of head of a municipality, 68 of whom were women (48 had an active Facebook account), examining the amount of engagement they had created. The authors also analyzed the candidates' use of rhetoric and use of negative campaigning and the engagement it created.FindingsAnalysis of the overall engagement of Facebook users in respect to men versus women politicians showed that men politicians' posts were significantly more engaging in terms of the number of likes and shares they generated, although the multilevel analysis found no significant differences between engagement in the posts of men and women politicians. The Aristotelian rhetoric analysis revealed no significant differences between women and men contenders; however, in line with the role incongruity theory, the engagement analysis found that male candidates' logic-based posts attracted significantly more shares. The negative campaigning analysis found that, contrary to the study’s hypothesis, female candidates posted twice as many messages, attacking their opponents as their men counterparts. However, in line with the hypothesis based on the role incongruity theory, these posts gained significantly less engagement than those of their men counterparts.Originality/valueThe study highlights that female candidates do not conform to their perceived gender role as soft, emotional, and gentle in their social media campaigning. However, in line with role incongruity theory, they were not rewarded for this “unwomanly” behavior because they gained significantly less engagement with their logic-based posts and their attacks against other candidates than their men counterparts. Despite the fact that prior studies have indicated the potential of social networks service (SNS) to empower women leaders, the findings of the study highlight the continued gender discrimination and the validity of role incongruity theory during social media campaigning, particularly at the municipal elections level.

Dynamic transactional model: a framework for communicating public health messages via social media.

Social media, because of its broad coverage, is an attractive option for communicating public health messages. However, the lack of a theoretical framework, supporting the two-way communication of social media, is holding back its development and use. This study investigated the suitability of a dynamic transactional model (DTM) of communication for explaining the use of social media for communicating public health messages. The study was carried out on 'Don't know? Don't drink', a Facebook campaign against drinking alcohol during pregnancy that targeted women of childbearing age in New Zealand. The comments generated were analysed for two features of DTM, namely inter- and intra-transaction, by examining the plurality of topics and polarity of sentiments, using text-mining techniques. The analysis of the textual data revealed nine independent topics, confirming the plurality of topics. The conversation contained both positive and negative terms, establishing the polarity of sentiment. This study verified the two DTM features (inter- and intra-transaction) in the comments produced by the 'Don't know? Don't drink' campaign implemented on Facebook. DTM exhibited the potential to be a theoretical framework for recommending and evaluating social media sites like Facebook for communicating public health messages.

JA:2021-38. Assessing Facebook Advertising as a Recruitment Strategy for In-Person Workshops

ABSTRACT Purpose: We conducted an evaluation of paid Facebook strategy for in-person workshop recruitment. In the summer of 2019, Child Agricultural Injury Prevention workshops were scheduled in Lexington, KY and Hershey, PA. Each workshop was a 2-day event with a registration cost of $249 ($199 early bird). In addition to traditional recruitment methods (conference announcements, brochures, friends, colleagues, listservs, press releases), a targeted Facebook campaign was employed. The targeted campaign included twelve posts, three paid for (boosted), and nine standard (not boosted), plus an additional paid advertisement for each of the two workshops. Facebook posts covered three content messages types (a location attraction, an educational message, and a fear-based message). Each content message type was used one time per week for 4 weeks and had one paid posting, with $100 budgeted per post ($300 total) during the campaign. The targeted audience for the paid posts varied by workshop location. Additionally, a $200 advertisement for each workshop ran on Facebook for 4 weeks prior to each workshop. Methods: To assess the effectiveness of the Facebook strategy for in-person workshop recruitment, 48 participants were asked how they heard about the workshop on the workshop evaluation form. At the Lexington, KY workshop, 44.44% of participants completed the evaluation form, and 76.19% of participants at the Hershey, PA workshop completed the evaluation form. Findings: Hearing about the workshop through Facebook was noted on two individuals’ workshop evaluation forms (one from each workshop). Both individuals selected Facebook in combination with other sources (friend/colleague, listserv, brochure/flyer, traditional media/press release). With the data available, the cost of promotion per end workshop participant exceeded $500/participant recruited through Facebook. The Lexington, KY Facebook campaign reached 33,279 people, and the Hershey, PA campaign reached 9,658 people. Additional workshop recruitment details and Facebook analytics related to the strategy is available. Practical Application: Our findings are applicable to other organizations recruiting for in-person training programs, as well as those interested in targeted social media campaigns.

Facebook Is a Useful Recruitment Strategy for a Randomized Clinical Trial of a Lifestyle Approach to Reverse Metabolic Syndrome

Abstract Objectives Design and evaluate a Facebook (FB) campaign to recruit a select sample with metabolic syndrome (MetS) to participate in a telephone screening for inclusion in a randomized controlled trial of the efficacy of a lifestyle medicine intervention to reverse MetS. Methods Inclusion and exclusion criteria for participation in the Enhanced Lifestyles for Metabolic Syndrome (ELM) study informed development of a FB ad, utilizing FB guidelines. After clicking a FB ad, co-morbidity and contact information to schedule a screening call were captured via survey using a Qualtrics platform. Phone screen eligibility was defined as having no listed co-morbidities. Providing contact information in addition was deemed to be complete and phone screen-ready. Phone screen eligibility and readiness frequencies were compared to FB campaign performance data on reach, link clicks, demographics and costing using the Checklist for Reporting Results of Internet E-Surveys (CHERRIES) system. Participation was not incentivized. Results The 14-day FB campaign, driven by 11 phrases pertinent to MetS, had a potential reach of 690,000 with ad impressions on 33,243 unique FB accounts resulting in 1160 ad clicks. Ad impressions appeared mostly in female accounts; 90% of ad clickers were female from 18 to 65y or higher; the majority were >45y. Costs ranged from $.47 to $.83/click (averaged $0.61). Total campaign costs were $708.57. Of the 1160 ad clicks, 422 moved past survey page 1, 114 were eligible for phone screening and 85 were phone screen-ready. Of the 85 that provided contact details, 51 completed the phone screen and 21 were deemed eligible for the ELM baseline assessment. CHERRIES response rates were: View 3.5%; Survey participation 36.4%; Phone screen eligible 27% and Completion 74.6%. Of those who clicked on the ad, 7.3% were Phone screen-ready and 20.1% starting the survey were Phone screen-ready. Costs were $6.216 to recruit a phone screen eligible person; $8.336/phone screen-ready person; $13.894/phone screen completion and $33.741/ELM baseline screen eligible subject. Personnel time was <4 h for the FB campaign. Conclusions FB was a cost-effective strategy, requiring minimal personnel investment, to recruit subjects to a MetS clinical trial with demanding inclusion/exclusion criteria. Funding Sources William G. McGowan Charitable Fund, Wegmans School of Health & Nutrition, RIT.

The management of visibility in digital diplomacy: Infrastructures and techniques

The proliferation of new media has been hailed by academics and practitioners worldwide as a revolution in the conduct of international relations, with dialogical, reconciliatory, and democratizing potentials. Several years later, however, the evidence for such progressive potentialities is scarce. To better understand the actualized role of social media in international politics and deepen our understanding of the potentialities for progressive politics online, this article examines several examples of digital diplomacy initiatives by state and non-state actors. These examples highlight the growing political significance of online visibility management techniques — i.e., the various techno-political interventions by which actors attempt to make their messages accessible on online platforms. While early citizen-driven initiatives, such as the ‘Israel-Loves-Iran’ Facebook campaign, focused on strategic content production as a means to enhance their online visibility, later initiatives, such as the public-private partnership ‘4IL’, directed their efforts towards connectivity manipulation using medium-specific techniques which contest the visibility of others. This article concludes by arguing that fulfilling the progressive potentialities of digital diplomacy in this political terrain would not only require complementing content production with an effective engagement with the visibility arrangements of the platforms, but also a critical analytics of techno-social inclusions and exclusions, which this dual task generates.

Impact of Facebook Likes and Shares on Campaign Posts in Predicting the 2016 Philippine Presidential Election Results

The active usage of the Filipinos in the social media application called Facebook may influence the society, the election campaign and result but hard evidence is scarce. Hence, this study intends to analyze how the engagement of users through ‘likes’ and ‘shares’ on the Facebook campaign posts can impact the outcome of the 2016 Presidential election. The study delved on interpreting how Facebook as a communication channel influenced the election result based on the engagement in likes and shares on the Facebook campaign posts. Only the number of likes and shares of the posts based on the total count on the original post on the candidates’ official Facebook page were analyzed. These were posted during the campaign period declared by the Commission on Elections. The social net importer was used in the data gathering process then the calculation using a statistical tool followed as basis for analysis. The official election result from the COMELEC confirmed that Rodrigo Duterte won in the 2016 Presidential election with a total of 16,601,997 votes. Grace Poe secured the highest number of likes and shares, 13,036,065 likes and 1,511,020 shares, respectively but she only ranked as third in the official election. Results show that the number of likes and shares on the Facebook election campaign posts are not significant in influencing the election result. Future studies in relation to Philippine Presidential election may be conducted and other variables can be considered like the Presidential debate likes and shares, comments, and other Facebook reactions like heart, wow, sad and thankful.

Using Social Media Networks to Engage Men in Conversations on Masculinity and Suicide: Content Analysis of Man Up Facebook Campaign Data

We analyzed comments published on the Man Up Facebook page ( manuptvseries) during the roll-out of the Man Up digital campaign. The aim was to gain insight into how the public perceived the Man Up campaign and the conversation topics that the campaign instigated. We downloaded Facebook threads (posts and comments) from the manuptvseries page using NCapture and performed conventional content analysis on a random set of comments ( n = 2,236) to identify how the campaign was perceived and what were the popular conversations. Overall, the campaign was perceived extremely positively by the Facebook audience showing many comments endorsing the content of the campaign by sharing among their Facebook community. The strongest themes were expressing emotions, help and support, and masculinity/gender roles which related to the higher level theme of expressions of masculinity. Another strong theme was suicide and topics related to suicide. Comments acknowledged the importance of discussing the issues of male suicide and masculinity publicly. Men were less engaged with topics on masculinity and expressing emotions compared with women and recognized stigma around help-seeking for mental health issues. The Man Up Facebook campaign did foster a public discussion on masculinity and suicide. A gendered approach in mental health promotion is needed with stigma still present for men when seeking help for mental health problems. Social media holds considerable potential for the use of health promotion campaigns aiming to increase interpersonal communication on challenging health topics. Yet, these campaigns need to carefully manage the risk of reinforcing stereotypes.

Connected Sahrawi refugee diaspora in Spain: Gender, social media and digital transnational gossip

While there is increasing scholarly attention given to the impact of digital technologies on forced migration, the points of view and situated experiences of refugees living in the diaspora are understudied. This article addresses Sahrawis refugee diasporas, which have close ties with the Sahrawi political cause. Resulting from the unresolved Western Sahara conflict, Sahrawi forced migrants are at the eye of one of the world’s most protracted refugee situations. While most Sahrawis live in refugee camps in Algeria, some Sahrawis have managed to travel onwards. Social media allows those living elsewhere to maintain connections with contacts living in their original refugee camp. However, Facebook has become a complex environment, particularly for Sahrawi women. Gendered mechanisms of control, such as digital transnational gossip, result in a paradoxical politics of belonging: these women simultaneously desire to keep in touch but do not want to become a subject of gossip. From narratives of Sahrawi young women based in Spain gathered through interviews between 2016 and 2018, as well as a specific Facebook campaign and fan page, the focus is on strategies Sahrawi women develop to avoid and confront digital transnational gossip.

Generating Engagement on the Make Healthy Normal Campaign Facebook Page: Analysis of Facebook Analytics

BackgroundFacebook is increasingly being used as part of mass media campaigns in public health, including the Make Healthy Normal (MHN) campaign in New South Wales, Australia. Therefore, it is important to understand what role Facebook can play in mass media campaigns and how best to use it to augment or amplify campaign effects. However, few studies have explored this.ObjectiveThis study aimed to investigate usage of and engagement with the MHN Facebook page and to identify influential factors in driving engagement with the page.MethodsWe examined both post-level and page-level analytic data from Facebook from the campaign’s launch in June 2015 to September 2017. For post-level data, we conducted a series of negative binomial regressions with four different outcome measures (likes, shares, comments, post consumers), including some characteristics of Facebook posts as predictors. We also conducted time series analyses to examine associations between page-level outcomes (new page likes or “fans” and number of engaged users) and different measures of exposure to the page (number of unique users reached and total count of impressions) and to television advertising.ResultsOf the 392 posts reviewed, 20.7% (n=81) received a paid boost and 58.9% (n=231) were photo posts. We found that posts that received a paid boost reached significantly more users and subsequently received significantly more engagement than organic (unpaid) posts (P<.001). After adjusting for reach, we found the effect of being paid was incremental for all outcome measures for photos and links, but not videos. There were also associations between day of the week and time of post and engagement, with Mondays generally receiving less engagement and posts on a Friday and those made between 8 AM and 5 PM receiving more. At the page level, our time series analyses found that organic impressions predicted a higher number of new fans and engaged users, compared to paid impressions, especially for women. We also found no association between television advertising and engagement with the Facebook page.ConclusionsOur study shows that paying for posts is important for increasing their reach, but that page administrators should look to maximize organic reach because it is associated with significantly higher engagement. Once reach is accounted for, video posts do not benefit from being paid, unlike the other post types. This suggests that page administrators should carefully consider how they use videos as part of a Facebook campaign. Additionally, the lack of association between television advertising and engagement suggests that future campaigns consider how best to link different channels to amplify effects. These results highlight the need for ongoing evaluation of Facebook pages if administrators are to maximize engagement.

Using Facebook to communicate mammography messages to rural audiences.

The purpose of this scholarly project was to answer the following question: What is the highest level of engagement achieved with a mammography campaign on Facebook? An Idaho public health department implemented a tailored message mammography campaign on Facebook during Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Target sample for the Facebook campaign were women and men over the age of 40 in rural Idaho. Data collected from Facebook were used to measure and stratify engagement into a hierarchy of six levels, with intent to get a mammogram representing the highest level of engagement. A survey measuring women's intent to a get a mammogram was distributed via an online link. The posts reached 48,503 Facebook users-11,147 of the total reach were unique users. Intent to get a mammogram, the highest level of engagement, was stated both in Facebook comments and on the online survey. Forty-nine women completed the survey, and 82% of women expressed intent to get a mammogram in the next year. This project conducted as a program evaluation demonstrates how public health nurses can develop, implement, and evaluate Facebook mammography campaigns in the future.

Once a refugee: selfie activism, visualized citizenship and the space of appearance

ABSTRACT This article examines the social media campaign “Once I was a refugee” by former refugees as a response to the increasingly hostile political climate in Finland against refugees. With selfie activism, the campaign expanded the “space of appearance” and introduced new voice and visuality to the public debate. The case depicts politics of claiming citizenship and social value through self-presentation to counter views of refugees as economic burden, noncitizens, and surplus humanity. The empirical material is based on analysis of the Facebook and Twitter campaign and interviews with the participants. It is argued that selfie activism may occasionally, through new voice and visibility, expand the space of appearance and contribute to the rise of affective or counter-publics that can come together and make use of digital media for political action. However, the case also reveals how difficult it is to speak from a refugee position without being drawn into the discourse of deservingness.

Using Facebook to reach adolescents for human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination

BackgroundDespite numerous public health campaigns to promote the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, uptake among adolescents in the US has remained below the Healthy People 80% goal for 3-dose completion. The Philadelphia Department of Public Health (PDPH) used an innovative social media strategy to raise awareness and increase rates of HPV immunization initiation and series completion among adolescents. MethodsBetween June 2012 and July 2013, PDPH launched a Facebook campaign to target Philadelphia adolescents (13–18 years) with specific messages about HPV immunization benefits and announce opportunities for vaccination. Six distinct advertising campaigns ran for two-week intervals. Facebook metrics and vaccine clinic data were used to track success. Reminder-recall letters were also sent to adolescents as part of the campaign. ResultsOn average, each advertising campaign reached 155,110 adolescents and engaged 2106 adolescents. The advertising campaigns that focused on HPV disease risk and local resources were the most successful in engaging adolescents. During advertising campaigns, there were sizeable increases in both reach and engagement compared to non-campaign periods. Overall, 3400 adolescents became fans of the campaign and 176 doses of HPV vaccine were administered to 152 adolescents. Only 2 adolescents were vaccinated as a result of the Facebook campaign while the rest were prompted by reminder-recall letters or through community events. ConclusionThe campaign was well-received, far-reaching and generated awareness and conversations among adolescents. However, the campaign did not appear to be a sufficient driver for HPV uptake even when common barriers to HPV immunization were minimized.

Utilizing Facebook and Automated Telephone Calls to Increase Adoption of a Local Smoke Alarm Installation Program.

Innovative strategies are needed to improve the prevalence of working smoke alarms in homes. To our knowledge, this is the first study to report on the effectiveness of Facebook advertising and automated telephone calls as population-level strategies to encourage an injury prevention behavior. We examine the effectiveness of Facebook advertising and automated telephone calls as strategies to enroll individuals in Baltimore City's Fire Department's free smoke alarm installation program. We directed our advertising efforts toward Facebook users eligible for the Baltimore City Fire Department's free smoke alarm installation program and all homes with a residential phone line included in Baltimore City's automated call system. The Facebook campaign targeted Baltimore City residents 18 years of age and older. In total, an estimated 300 000 Facebook users met the eligibility criteria. Facebook advertisements were delivered to users' desktop and mobile device newsfeeds. A prerecorded message was sent to all residential landlines listed in the city's automated call system. By the end of the campaign, the 3 advertisements generated 456 666 impressions reaching 130 264 Facebook users. Of the users reached, 4367 individuals (1.3%) clicked the advertisement. The automated call system included approximately 90 000 residential phone numbers. Participants attributed 25 smoke alarm installation requests to Facebook and 458 to the automated call. Facebook advertisements are a novel approach to promoting smoke alarms and appear to be effective in exposing individuals to injury prevention messages. However, converting Facebook message recipients to users of a smoke alarm installation program occurred infrequently in this study. Residents who participated in the smoke alarm installation program were more likely to cite the automated call as the impetus for their participation. Additional research is needed to understand the circumstances and strategies to effectively use the social networking site as a tool to convert passive users into active participants.

Psychological proximity as a predictor of participation in a social media issue campaign

Understanding how to motivate people's engagement in global or social issues has been challenging. Using Construal Level Theory, this study explored the role of psychological proximity as a predictor of individuals' willingness to engage in supportive behaviors related to a social media issue campaign. Two dimensions of psychological proximity (i.e., cognitive and emotional proximity) were developed and measured to determine whether they are predictors of participation intentions related to a Facebook campaign about child welfare in Africa. Structural Equation Modeling tested the proposed model with survey data collected from 408 U.S. adult residents via Amazon's MTurk. Results indicated that salience, knowledge, and relevance were strong indicators of cognitive proximity, whereas emotional connectedness and empathy were determinants of emotional proximity. Both cognitive and emotional proximity were found to have a significant and positive effect on people's intentions to participate in the social media issue campaign.

Will firm's marketing efforts on owned social media payoff? A quasi-experimental analysis of tourism products

A growing number of travel agencies use social media to promote their services and reach target customers despite some doubt regarding the effectiveness of these tools. Nevertheless, most prior studies adopt a customer-centric perspective to explore the usefulness of earned social media run by third parties. Few have examined a firm's active role in online social interactions. This paper distinguishes owned media from earned media by site ownerships and communication paths, and examines a firm's marketing efforts on its owned Facebook brand page. Working with a leading travel agency, we collected a matched sample of products with Facebook marketing (treatment group) and those without Facebook marketing (control group). Using a quasi-experimental design and difference-in-difference estimation, we evaluate the effect of a firm's efforts on Facebook marketing campaigns after controlling time-fixed selection bias and common time-series heterogeneity. The results show that Facebook campaign activities have a positive impact on sales of tourism products. Furthermore, based on the cognitive fit theory, sales are found to increase when a travel agency promotes tourism products that are highly structured, medium-priced, or medium-length, or that require more tourist involvement. Such effects are further examined across different quantiles of sales and in different time spans to see when product moderations are more prominent. The empirical findings facilitate decision-making of e-commerce managers in the tourism industry not only by justifying the effectiveness as well as budget allocation of owned social media marketing, but also by providing a rudimentary guidance on the product selection in Facebook marketing campaigns.

Facebook Recruitment of Vaccine-Hesitant Canadian Parents: Cross-Sectional Study.

BackgroundThere is concern over the increase in the number of “vaccine-hesitant” parents, which contributes to under-vaccinated populations and reduced herd immunity. Traditional studies investigating parental immunization beliefs and practices have relied on random digit dialing (RDD); however, this method presents increasing limitations. Facebook is the most used social media platform in Canada and presents an opportunity to recruit vaccine-hesitant parents in a novel manner.ObjectiveThe study aimed to explore the use of Facebook as a tool to reach vaccine-hesitant parents, as compared with RDD methods.MethodsWe recruited Canadian parents over 4 weeks in 2013-14 via targeted Facebook advertisements linked to a Web-based survey. We compared methodological parameters, key parental demographics, and three vaccine hesitancy indicators to an RDD sample of Canadian parents. Two raters categorized respondent reasons for difficulties in deciding to vaccinate, according to the model of determinants of vaccine hesitancy developed by the World Health Organization’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization.ResultsThe Facebook campaign received a total of 4792 clicks from unique users, of whom 1696 started the Web-based survey. The total response rate of fully completed unique Web-based surveys was 22.89% (1097/4792) and the survey completion rate was 64.68% (1097/1696). The total cost including incentives was reasonable (Can $4861.19). The Web-based sample yielded younger parents, with 85.69% (940/1097) under the age of 40 years as compared with 23.38% (408/1745) in the RDD sample; 91.43% (1003/1097) of the Facebook respondents were female as compared with 59.26% (1034/1745) in the RDD sample. Facebook respondents had a lower median age of their youngest child (1 year vs 8 years for RDD). When compared with the RDD sample, the Web-based sample yielded a significantly higher proportion of respondents reporting vaccines as moderately safe to not safe (26.62% [292/1097] vs 18.57% [324/1745]), partially or not at all up-to-date vaccination status of youngest child (22.06% [242/1097] vs 9.57% [167/1745]), and difficulty in making the decision to vaccinate their youngest child (21.06% [231/1097] vs 10.09% [176/1745]). Out of the Web-based respondents who reported reasons for the difficulties in deciding to vaccinate, 37.2% (83/223) reported lack of knowledge or trust due to conflicting information and 23.8% (53/223) reported the perception of the risk of the adverse effects of vaccines being higher than the risk of disease acquisition.ConclusionsWe successfully recruited a large sample of our target population at low cost and achieved a high survey completion rate using Facebook. When compared with the RDD sampling strategy, we reached more vaccine-hesitant parents and younger parents with younger children—a population more likely to be making decisions on childhood immunizations. Facebook is a promising economical modality for reaching vaccine-hesitant parents for studies on the determinants of vaccine uptake.

Using Facebook ads with traditional paper mailings to recruit adolescent girls for a clinical trial

IntroductionClinical trials require sufficient samples recruited within limited time and budget constraints. Trials with minors are additionally burdened by the requirement for youth assent and parental permission. This paper details the use of Facebook ads and traditional paper mailings to enroll 797 adolescent girls for a longitudinal, web-based, drug abuse prevention trial. Data on sample representativeness and retention are also provided. MethodsFacebook ads appeared on the pages of females aged 13 or 14years who reside in the U.S. Ads linked girls to a recruitment website. Girls who wanted more information submitted contact information and were mailed information packets to their homes containing, among other things, youth assent and parent permission forms. Returned forms were verified for accuracy and validity. ResultsThe Facebook ad campaign reached 2,267,848 girls and had a unique click-through rate of 3.0%. The campaign cost $41,202.37 with an average cost of $51.70 per enrolled girl. Information packets were mailed to 1,873 girls. Approximately one-half of girls returned the forms, and 797 girls were enrolled. The Facebook campaign's success varied by ad type, month, and day of the week. Baseline data revealed comparability to national data on demographic and substance use variables. ConclusionsResults suggest that Facebook ads provide a useful initial point of access to unparalleled numbers of adolescents. Clinical trials may benefit from a two-fold recruitment strategy that uses online ads to attract interested adolescents followed by traditional recruitment methods to communicate detailed information to adolescents and parents.

Influenced of Facebook Campaign on the Presidential Election of Sri Lanka in 2015

Abstract— Facebook is one of the most popular and well known social media and utilized for election campaigning in different parts of the world. Recently, during the Presidential Election in 2015, a remarkable campaign was launched on Facebook, and it was a focal point in the history of social media campaign in Sri Lanka. This manuscript aims to analyze the influence of Facebook election campaign on the Presidential Election of Sri Lanka in 2015; investigates the mechanisms/strategies used; the impact of this campaign on Facebook users; perceptions and their behaviours’ demonstrate the findings of qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the Facebook pages of the two presidential candidates; and it is an exemplified sample containing 316 posts collected on the use of Facebook during the period of election. Findings show that both candidates used an emotional and motivational appeal to create a social capital. Analysis shows that the comments given to the posts were influenced by the element of persuasion used on the posts. Users’ views mainly highlighted that Facebook can be used as an influence channel for political campaigns and as a means to gain social prestige from voters.

Investigating the potential of peer-to-peer communications in Australian bullying campaigns targeting youth

ABSTRACTBullying is now recognised as a public health issue with well-documented impacts on mental health and well-being. In recent years, campaigns and interventions designed to reduce bullying, particularly among youth, have increasingly focused on digital media and social media in particular. The increased focus on social media has allowed a concomitant consideration of peer-to-peer communication as a means of facilitating behaviour changes. This paper hypothesises that anti-bullying campaigns employing peer-to-peer communications will be more effective than those without a (or with a limited) peer-to-peer component. To test this hypothesis, we assessed the impact of two Australian anti-bullying campaigns using a repeated-measures approach on 849 people aged between 16 and 24. The campaigns examined were the Inspire Foundation’s ‘Bullying – Don’t Stand By, Stand Up’ campaign, which ran on Facebook between June and September 2011 and relied entirely on peer-to-peer communication, and the Australian government’s ‘Bullying. No Way!’ campaign: an information-based website that contained limited peer-to-peer components. The study found that while both campaigns effectively influenced attitudes towards bullying, the Facebook campaign rated more highly regarding ‘honesty of message’, suggesting peer-to-peer communication has a stronger resonance for young people.