Date of Award

Spring 5-5-2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Department

Health Services and Policy Management

First Reader

Heather M. Brandt

Second Reader

Beth Sundstrom

Abstract

Background: Cervical Cancer-Free South Carolina (CCFSC) is a member state of the Cervical Cancer-Free Coalition focused on eliminating cervical cancer through screening, follow-up care, HPV vaccination, and education. CCFSC utilizes social media to help spread awareness about cervical cancer prevention and control.

Purpose: The purpose of this thesis was to develop, implement, and evaluate a social media campaign for CCFSC during Cervical Health Awareness Month in January 2016.

Methods: Two social media plans – one for CCFSC use and another for CCFSC partner use – were developed for use during Cervical Health Awareness Month in January 2016. The CCFSC posts were entered into Buffer, an online social media posting system that automatically shares the posts daily. CCFSC partners were instructed to copy posts from the partner social media plan to their own social media accounts, in addition to liking, sharing, and retweeting CCFSC’s posts. Evaluation of the social media plans was performed using Facebook Insights and Twitter Analytics to determine most and least engaging posts, along with other metrics.

Results: Analysis of social media posts determined “most engaging” and “least engaging” Facebook and Twitter posts, according to the number of engagements (clicks, comments, retweets, replies, follows, likes, and/or shares) and impressions (number of times posts were seen). The average number of link clicks, retweets, likes, and replies were noted for Twitter; the highest number of retweets and likes on a single tweet was recorded. Data by week for both Facebook and Twitter – including number of posts, impressions, engagements/engaged users, retweets, replies, shares, and likes – were analyzed and compiled into tables.

Conclusion: The social media plan evaluation provides useful information regarding which posts are most effective in increasing cervical cancer, HPV, and HPV vaccine awareness and knowledge. The most popular posts will be used as models for future social media posts on these topics throughout the year.

First Page

1

Last Page

89

Rights

© 2016, Kelsie Nicole Dirksing

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