Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Assessment of hashtag (#) campaigns aimed at health awareness in social media

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

. Neethu George
. D. Rock Britto
. Vaduva Krishnan
. L. Manoj Dass
. H. A. Prasant
. V. Aravindhan
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: The use of social media to disseminate major communications, particularly for
campaigns related to days of health importance, is becoming much popular. The use of Twitter,
Instagram, and Facebook is gaining an integral place in public life online with hashtag campaigns.
OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to assess the characteristics of hashtag campaigns
related to health in social media and to compare three different campaigns in three commonly used
social media platforms, namely, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.
METHODOLOGY: This was a cross‑sectional study which analyzed contents of three health‑related
campaigns in Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The campaigns were #let’s talk (World Health day
2017), Hands up #HIV prevention (World AIDS day 2016), and #No tobacco (World No Tobacco Day
2017). Public posts related to each were searched from three platforms and assessed separately.
Source, publicity, credibility, reach outs, and other characteristics were assessed among each
campaign and comparison was also done among the three social media.
RESULTS: Out of 812 posts, 507 (62.4%) were related to the study. Facebook posts were more
related (67.33%), popular (45.05%), and authenticated (28.22%). Among the campaigns, # let’s talk
was more credible (96.33%) and authenticated (33.94%). Also in that, 57.79% from individual source
and 79.82% were awareness related.
CONCLUSION: Posts in social media related to hashtag campaigns are more credible, related, and
less popular. These factors have to be considered for the campaigns to become an effective tool.

Keywords

Awareness
campaigns
hashtag
social media
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 8, Issue 9
September 2018
Pages 1-8

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