Social and Behavior Change Communication with Rigorous Measurement and Evaluation on Facebook
Summary:
As the media landscape changes and billions of people around the world turn to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other social media platforms for information and social interactions, developing effective methods of leveraging social media for social behavior change communication (SBCC) becomes increasingly important. However, until the efficacy of on-social SBCC can be measured, social channels will remain largely off limits for much of the public health sector. In order for the sector to embrace social media for SBCC, it is critical that we develop methods for measuring the impact of social media-based SBCC. With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and advertising support from Facebook, in 2019, Upswell worked to develop, test and document strategies for running and measuring the efficacy social and behavior change communication (SBCC) campaigns on social media. During this presentation, we'll show how we were able to use Facebook to assess the knowledge and perceptions of Iron Folic Acid supplements (IFA) among women in India on Facebook, designed an intervention campaign, measured the results, and built a community of over 10,000 young women in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Background/Objectives:
Recent national estimates in India suggest that 53% of women between 15- and 49-years-old are anemic. With the support of the Centre for Social and Behavior Change and the Clinton Health Access Initiative as our subject matter experts, we believed a campaign to increase the motivation of young women to consume IFA in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh would be a good fit to develop, test and document strategies for running effective SBCC on Facebook. Before and after each campaign phase, we used a combination of Facebook and an online survey to monitor impact.
Description of Intervention and/or Methods/Design:
Our goal was to increase knowledge and attitudes around anemia and iron-folic acid supplements, as well as iron-folic acid use, through a Facebook campaign. We also had a goal of developing a method for monitoring and evaluating that was reliable, statistically valid, repeatable, anonymous, and cost-effective. Our target audience, for both the campaign and the survey, was women who were active Facebook users, aged 15 to 49 and living in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. According to data pulled from Facebook's Audience Insights tool, there are 6.5 million women fitting that profile in Uttar Pradesh and 2.9 million in Madhya Pradesh. With a standalone survey tool, Facebook ads and a bit of custom code, we were able to survey our target audience 4 times throughout our campaigns with thousands of responses from our target audience for under $0.04 an answer.
Results/Lessons Learned:
This effort yielded important insights about effective communications on social media as well as measurement and evaluation strategies. We learned about communications we thought would be engaging but failed, how to test over 100 pieces of content in one week and that young women in India will answer a survey about health, but only if it's multiple choice (answerable by one hand because they are on a cell phone). We're excited to have the attendees at the Summit learn from our successes and our failures during this oral presentation.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
We'd love to have a lively discussion on who is actually participating on social media and how social media can support traditional SBCC channels, including:
Sarah Francis - Upswell
Drew Bernard - Upswell
As the media landscape changes and billions of people around the world turn to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and other social media platforms for information and social interactions, developing effective methods of leveraging social media for social behavior change communication (SBCC) becomes increasingly important. However, until the efficacy of on-social SBCC can be measured, social channels will remain largely off limits for much of the public health sector. In order for the sector to embrace social media for SBCC, it is critical that we develop methods for measuring the impact of social media-based SBCC. With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and advertising support from Facebook, in 2019, Upswell worked to develop, test and document strategies for running and measuring the efficacy social and behavior change communication (SBCC) campaigns on social media. During this presentation, we'll show how we were able to use Facebook to assess the knowledge and perceptions of Iron Folic Acid supplements (IFA) among women in India on Facebook, designed an intervention campaign, measured the results, and built a community of over 10,000 young women in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Background/Objectives:
Recent national estimates in India suggest that 53% of women between 15- and 49-years-old are anemic. With the support of the Centre for Social and Behavior Change and the Clinton Health Access Initiative as our subject matter experts, we believed a campaign to increase the motivation of young women to consume IFA in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh would be a good fit to develop, test and document strategies for running effective SBCC on Facebook. Before and after each campaign phase, we used a combination of Facebook and an online survey to monitor impact.
Description of Intervention and/or Methods/Design:
Our goal was to increase knowledge and attitudes around anemia and iron-folic acid supplements, as well as iron-folic acid use, through a Facebook campaign. We also had a goal of developing a method for monitoring and evaluating that was reliable, statistically valid, repeatable, anonymous, and cost-effective. Our target audience, for both the campaign and the survey, was women who were active Facebook users, aged 15 to 49 and living in the states of Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. According to data pulled from Facebook's Audience Insights tool, there are 6.5 million women fitting that profile in Uttar Pradesh and 2.9 million in Madhya Pradesh. With a standalone survey tool, Facebook ads and a bit of custom code, we were able to survey our target audience 4 times throughout our campaigns with thousands of responses from our target audience for under $0.04 an answer.
Results/Lessons Learned:
This effort yielded important insights about effective communications on social media as well as measurement and evaluation strategies. We learned about communications we thought would be engaging but failed, how to test over 100 pieces of content in one week and that young women in India will answer a survey about health, but only if it's multiple choice (answerable by one hand because they are on a cell phone). We're excited to have the attendees at the Summit learn from our successes and our failures during this oral presentation.
Discussion/Implications for the Field:
We'd love to have a lively discussion on who is actually participating on social media and how social media can support traditional SBCC channels, including:
- Why social media matters - With 2.41 billion global monthly active users (300 Million in India alone) Facebook is at the center of a massive shift not only in how people consume information but how they engage with each other.
- Why social media communications + on the ground efforts are key - Where our campaign fell down and what we see as the next step for SBCC and social media.
Sarah Francis - Upswell
Drew Bernard - Upswell
Source
Approved abstract for the postponed 2020 SBCC Summit in Marrakech, Morocco. Provided by the International Steering Committee for the Summit. Image credit: Upswell