Use of Social Media in Regional Health Campaign
Social media has revolutionized the marketing industry. While traditional marketers focused on creating personal relationships, social media marketers focus on tailoring information to suit the needs of the market. Although the health sector faces stringent regulations, regional health campaigns have become more rampant in the current generation. Besides, social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have increased the efficiency of the messages, and the researchers are already witnessing changes in unhealthy behavioral practices.
Strengths
The first strength in social media health campaigns is the speed and ease at which people can receive health messages. The infiltration of technological gadgets has allowed social media to become effectual means of delivering health messages. Many people worldwide can access the internet, and they can receive health messages faster than before. Besides, social media health promotion is very cost-effective. For instance, one twitter does not attract any charges, yet, it can reach thousands of people in a few minutes. The other strength is that social media is an effective tool to influence health knowledge, behavior, and outcomes. Research has shown that social media-based interventions have yielded positive outcomes, especially among tobacco cessation and weight loss programs (Korda & Itani, 2013). The researchers posit that the ability of social media to empower individuals to commit to behavioral change improves the effectiveness of the strategy, especially when the message the campaigner portrays is rooted in scientific theory.
Weaknesses
One of the weaknesses that social media campaigns on health care poses are the slow progress it makes. Notably, social media campaigns empower people to become conscious of their health. However, the process of empowerment occurs slowly, and the campaigner may have to wait much longer to observe the results. The other weakness in social media health campaigns is the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. Notably, healthcare professionals are reluctant to join social media due to the fear of contravening the HIPAA regulations that offer specific instructions on the information to post on social media. The regulations are stringent and affect the quality of the messages on social media health campaigns.
Opportunities
One of the opportunities that social media health campaigners have is the expanding number of tools at their disposal to conduct the campaigns. Korda and Itani detail that the emergence of social media tools such as Wikis, video sharing platforms, widgets, and e-games has allowed social media health campaigners to create innovative and educative messages on the internet (2013). While Wikis allow multiple people to create and edit content independently, video-sharing platforms enable people to share health campaigns in video formats. Besides, podcasts are becoming increasingly popular, especially among the younger generations, thus, giving the social media campaigners opportunities to interact with the audience directly. The other unique opportunity that social media offers are collecting information from the internet on common unhealthy practices of the people. Notably, the campaigner can use the information they acquire from social media to tailor their messages to reflect the health needs of the society with the utmost precision (Smith & Denali, 2014).
Threats
One of the threats that social media campaigners face in social media health marketing is a negative response. Social media is an unregulated space, and the audience may take the message out of context, hence, generating negative feedback. Besides, unethical bloggers may hijack social media campaigns and distorting the intended messages.
Importance of SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis is an important tool to measure the internal and external environment of any social media campaign. Notably, the tool allows the campaigners to measure their internal competencies and their shortcomings to enable them to plan for the limited resources. Besides, using a SWOT analysis enables the individuals to identify the areas that they should focus their energy and resources on, such as research and use of podcasts. Moreover, conducting a SWOT analysis enables the social media health campaigners to create achievable goals and objectives and measure the attainment of the goals.
Conclusion
While the campaigners witness the changes in health practices due to the adoption of social media health campaigns, it is essential for the campaigners to provide precise and clear messages to avoid controversy. Since the messages reach thousands of people within a few minutes, it is challenging to correct the perceptions of people when they accidentally take the message out of context.
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