Adaptation and Dissemination of a National Cancer Institute HPV Vaccine Evidence-Based Cancer Control Program to the Social Media Messaging Environment

Abstract

Social media offers a unique opportunity to widely disseminate HPV vaccine messaging to reach youth and parents, given the information channel has become mainstream with 330 million monthly users in the United States and 4.2 billion users worldwide. Yet, a gap remains on how to adapt evidence-based vaccine interventions for the in vivo competitive social media messaging environment and what strategies to employ to make vaccine messages go viral. Push-pull and RE-AIM dissemination frameworks guided our adaptation of a National Cancer Institute video-based HPV vaccine cancer control program, the HPV Vaccine Decision Narratives, for the social media environment. We also aimed to understand how dissemination might differ across three platforms, namely Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, to increase reach and engagement. Centering theory and a question-answer framework guided the adaptation process of segmenting vaccine decision story videos into shorter coherent segments for social media. Twelve strategies were implemented over 4 months to build a following and disseminate the intervention. The evaluation showed that all platforms increased following, but Instagram and TikTok outperformed Twitter on impressions, followers, engagement, and reach metrics. Although TikTok increased reach the most (unique accounts that viewed content), Instagram increased followers, engagement, and impressions the most. For Instagram, the top performer, six of 12 strategies contributed to increasing reach, including the use of videos, more than 11 hashtags, COVID-19 hashtags, mentions, and follow-for-follow strategies. This observational social media study identified dissemination strategies that significantly increased the reach of vaccine messages in a real-world competitive social media messaging environment. Engagement presented greater challenges. Results inform the planning and adaptation considerations necessary for transforming public health HPV vaccine interventions for social media environments, with unique considerations depending on the platform.

Evaluation of the Cost-Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Interventions to Increase Female Breast and Cervical Cancer Screens: A Systematic Review

“…Exploring the use of interactive Chatbots in relation to cancer care is also being explored [ 39 ]. A recent review provided information on the engagement and reach of different social media approaches for increasing the uptake of HPV vaccination and may provide insight into models for breast and cervical cancer screening [ 40 ].…”

FIGO guidance for sustainable implementation of vaccination programs for women: Pregnancy and HPV

“…The content and strategies involved in social media campaigns need to be carefully researched, planned, and resourced. A 2022 in‐depth inquiry into a US‐based National Cancer Institute HPV vaccine evidence‐based cancer control program campaign across three major social media platforms (Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter) set out a series of strategies that fed into the successful integration and dissemination of vaccination decision story videos 64 . These include: Strategic and contextual use of handle names, hashtags, captions Regular and frequent posting of content Posting on specific days or at certain times Use of specific platform features such as reels, video length, geotagging, polls Engagement with similar accounts, for example via tagging or a follow‐for‐follow strategy Use of a “linktree” in profile bio to encourage cross‐platform engagement Creating shareable content …”