Creating Innovative Partnerships that Advance Public Health Messages

Background: Health communicators are tasked with both distilling complex public health messages into clear and actionable plain language and using communication methods that reach the intended audience. However, some public health topics are particularly complex and public health social media handles are often followed by public health practitioners and other service providers, so reaching and relating to intended audiences can be difficult.

Program background: In 2018, CDC and AAP re-imagined how traditional public health messaging about adverse childhood experiences might be complemented with innovative partnerships with social media influencers who could act as trusted messengers to speak directly to parents within their communities.

Evaluation Methods and Results: During this presentation, participants will learn about the methods taken by the team during a five-year project to create a proof of concept around the effectiveness of working with social media influencers to educate on preventing adverse childhood experiences and creating positive childhood experiences. Ms. Ward will explain how the project team partnered with a communications firm to gather and educated social influencers on ACEs prevention to create shared messaging for ACEs prevention. Together, the project team launched “mini-activations” of ACEs prevention messages, using the hashtag #findyour3 and #preventaces, advancing the message that every parent and child need three safe, stable, nurturing relationships in their lives.

Conclusions: Through the work, AAP and CDC discovered that with proper training and through rich personal storytelling, social influencers can engage their audiences in a more personal and relatable way, making complex public health messages more accessible, understandable, and actionable.

Implications for research and/or practice: The outcomes of this project increase knowledge about how social media influencers might serve as trusted messengers when disseminating complex public health messages. As a result of this work, there will be increased understanding of how public health practitioners and their strategic partners can build powerful communications to advance public health prevention through personal stories.