Evaluation of Idaho’s Comprehensive Cancer Control Program (ICCCP) Facebook Communication

Authors:

Kara Mastalski (Presenter)
Idaho Department of Health and Welfare

Megan Mackey, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare
Racheal Castaneda, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare
Charlene Cariou, Idaho Department of Health and Welfare

Public Health Statement: Social media is widely used for health education communication, but the effectiveness and reach of its use in Idaho is unknown.

Purpose: The purpose of ICCCP’s Facebook Evaluation was to determine which factors associated with ICCCP posts are most important for staff to consider in the future to increase organic reach and user engagement.

Methods/Approach: Facebook Insights data was extracted on posts created between April 1, 2015 and September 28, 2016. Two standard multiple regressions were performed to determine the best predictors of organic reach and user engagement considering several independent variables of interest coded for each post (type, topic, category, time of day, day of the week, cancer team engagement, posted during time period of paid advertising).

Results: Results indicated a statistically significant regression for organic reach , F(14, 218) = 9.79, p < .001, R² = .39, 95% CI [.25, .45], with 35% of the variability explained by higher reach for photos than links, cervical and colorectal posts than posts for all cancers, posts in the afternoon and evening than in the morning, posts on the weekend than during the week, posts with ICCCP team engagement than without, and posts created during time periods when paid advertising was also occurring than periods without. Results also indicated a statistically significant model for user engagement, F(14, 188) = 5.39, p < .001, R² = .29, 95% CI [.14, .35], with 23% of the variability explained by higher engagement with photos than links, colorectal posts than posts for all cancers and posts that the ICCCP team had engaged with. Both models provided evidence that cancer team engagement with ICCCP posts may be the most important modifiable factor to consider in the creation of future posts.

Conclusions/Implications: The Facebook evaluation conducted by Idaho’s Comprehensive Cancer Control Program identified recommendations for communication through Facebook for optimal organic reach and engagement for the ICCCP Facebook page. While this evaluation is limited to the ICCCP Facebook page, the evaluation model used is transferable to other programs to determine their own factors impacting reach and engagement. Further monitoring is needed to confirm that changes in ICCCP Facebook implementation results in increased reach and engagement and to determine the extent to which the relative importance of the factors changes over time.