1. Redefining Teen Health Communications through Social Media Trish Eitel, PhD & Caitlin Douglas Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide August 2009

2. Background Historically, health education and prevention programs targeting youth relied on adult influencers as the key delivery channels.

3. The Challenge: Teens Strive for Independence Developmentally youth are at a stage where they are establishing their identities and asserting their independence—predisposes them to resist messages communicated through adult influencers.

4. Direct Communication is Vital to Behavior Change Communicating Directly Allows them to assert their independence and decision making Powerfully influences the decisions they are making for themselves Prevents any ‘reactance’ they may have when receiving messages from adults Promotes campaign ‘word of mouth’ among their peers

5. More Opportunities Than Ever Before Some 93% of youth (ages 12-17) are online. Almost half of teens who use social networks visit them once a day (26%) or several times a day (22%). Four out of five teens (17 million) carry a wireless device-a 40% increase since 2004. Pew Internet & American Life Project: Teens and Social Media (Dec, 2007) Harris Interactive: Teens: A Generation Unplugged (Sept. 2008)

10. Encouraging a Dialogue From: Present Info to Youth To: Engage Youth In The Conversation Increases Ownership of the Message Furthers “Word of Mouth” Enhances Message Credibility

11. Encouraging a Dialogue Frequent Concerns: Will youth engage in inappropriate dialogue or content? Will youth contributions skew the intended message inappropriately? Will campaign sponsors lose control of the ultimate message? Solution: Content monitoring prevents these issues Content monitoring needs to be done on a regular basis, and cannot be overly stringent to allow for transparency, or campaign messaging loses credibility

17. Authenticity of content helps credibility

18. Helps refresh site content – driving return visits64% of online teens create content online 39% share their own artwork, photos, stories, or videos 33% create or contribute on Web pages or blogs *Pew Internet & American Life Project: Teens and Social Media (Dec, 2007)

25. Appropriate Presence on Social Networking Sites Use social networking sites strategically, not simply to be there Choose the right social networking site: Myspace vs. Facebook vs. Twitter Ultimate benefit: Drives message forward, subtly by reinforcing norms around the campaign issue Provides touch points with your audience where they already are

29. 49,619 Friends “I think what you guys are doing is great :D” “Hey! U guys are really making a difference!” “Thank you for everything you do!”

30. Provide Applications Can Drive Campaign Forward Give them something that is unique and subtly passes along the campaign message they can forward along Subtly amplifies the campaign message, and spreads it virally – enhancing credibility

35. Conclusions/Implications To be more successful, communications initiatives targeting youth should: Speak directly to youth Utilize channels youth already embrace as their own Social media are uniquely positioned to optimize direct communication Effective social media approaches include: Two way dialogue User generated media Strategic social networking presence Applications youth can own and share