scholarly journals Using Web-Based Social Media to Recruit Heavy-Drinking Young Adults for Sleep Intervention: Prospective Observational Study (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garrett I Ash ◽  
David S Robledo ◽  
Momoko Ishii ◽  
Brian Pittman ◽  
Kelly S DeMartini ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Novel alcohol prevention strategies are needed for heavy-drinking young adults. Sleep problems are common among young adults who drink heavily and are a risk factor for developing an alcohol use disorder (AUD). Young adults, interested in the connection between sleep and alcohol, are open to getting help with their sleep. Therefore, sleep interventions may offer an innovative solution. This study evaluates social media advertising for reaching young adults and recruiting them for a new alcohol prevention program focused on sleep. OBJECTIVE This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and cost of using Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat advertising to reach young adults who drink heavily for a sleep intervention; characterize responders’ sleep, alcohol use, and related concerns and interests; and identify the most appealing advertising content. METHODS In study 1, advertisements targeting young adults with sleep concerns, heavy alcohol use, or interest in participating in a sleep program ran over 3 months. Advertisements directed volunteers to a brief web-based survey to determine initial sleep program eligibility and characterize the concerns or interests that attracted them to click the advertisement. In study 2, three advertisements ran simultaneously for 2 days to enable us to compare the effectiveness of specific advertising themes. RESULTS In study 1, advertisements generated 13,638 clicks, 909 surveys, and 27 enrolled volunteers in 3 months across the social media platforms. Fees averaged US $0.27 per click, US $3.99 per completed survey, US $11.43 per volunteer meeting initial screening eligibility, and US $106.59 per study enrollee. On average, those who completed the web-based survey were 21.1 (SD 2.3) years of age, and 69.4% (631/909) were female. Most reported sleep concerns (725/909, 79.8%) and an interest in the connection between sleep and alcohol use (547/909, 60.2%), but few had drinking concerns (49/909, 5.4%). About one-third (317/909, 34.9%) were identified as being at risk for developing an AUD based on a validated alcohol screener. Among this subsample, 8.5% (27/317) met the final criteria and were enrolled in the trial. Some volunteers also referred additional volunteers by word of mouth. In study 2, advertisements targeting sleep yielded a higher response rate than advertisements targeting alcohol use (0.91% vs 0.56% click rate, respectively; <i>P</i>&lt;.001). CONCLUSIONS Social media advertisements designed to target young adults with sleep concerns reached those who also drank alcohol heavily, despite few being concerned about their drinking. Moreover, advertisements focused on sleep were more effective than those focused on drinking. Compared with previous studies, cost-effectiveness was moderate for engagement (impressions to clicks), excellent for conversion (clicks to survey completion), and reasonable for enrollment. These data demonstrate the utility of social media advertising focused on sleep to reach young adults who drink heavily and recruit them for intervention.

10.2196/17449 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (8) ◽  
pp. e17449
Author(s):  
Garrett I Ash ◽  
David S Robledo ◽  
Momoko Ishii ◽  
Brian Pittman ◽  
Kelly S DeMartini ◽  
...  

Background Novel alcohol prevention strategies are needed for heavy-drinking young adults. Sleep problems are common among young adults who drink heavily and are a risk factor for developing an alcohol use disorder (AUD). Young adults, interested in the connection between sleep and alcohol, are open to getting help with their sleep. Therefore, sleep interventions may offer an innovative solution. This study evaluates social media advertising for reaching young adults and recruiting them for a new alcohol prevention program focused on sleep. Objective This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness and cost of using Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat advertising to reach young adults who drink heavily for a sleep intervention; characterize responders’ sleep, alcohol use, and related concerns and interests; and identify the most appealing advertising content. Methods In study 1, advertisements targeting young adults with sleep concerns, heavy alcohol use, or interest in participating in a sleep program ran over 3 months. Advertisements directed volunteers to a brief web-based survey to determine initial sleep program eligibility and characterize the concerns or interests that attracted them to click the advertisement. In study 2, three advertisements ran simultaneously for 2 days to enable us to compare the effectiveness of specific advertising themes. Results In study 1, advertisements generated 13,638 clicks, 909 surveys, and 27 enrolled volunteers in 3 months across the social media platforms. Fees averaged US $0.27 per click, US $3.99 per completed survey, US $11.43 per volunteer meeting initial screening eligibility, and US $106.59 per study enrollee. On average, those who completed the web-based survey were 21.1 (SD 2.3) years of age, and 69.4% (631/909) were female. Most reported sleep concerns (725/909, 79.8%) and an interest in the connection between sleep and alcohol use (547/909, 60.2%), but few had drinking concerns (49/909, 5.4%). About one-third (317/909, 34.9%) were identified as being at risk for developing an AUD based on a validated alcohol screener. Among this subsample, 8.5% (27/317) met the final criteria and were enrolled in the trial. Some volunteers also referred additional volunteers by word of mouth. In study 2, advertisements targeting sleep yielded a higher response rate than advertisements targeting alcohol use (0.91% vs 0.56% click rate, respectively; P<.001). Conclusions Social media advertisements designed to target young adults with sleep concerns reached those who also drank alcohol heavily, despite few being concerned about their drinking. Moreover, advertisements focused on sleep were more effective than those focused on drinking. Compared with previous studies, cost-effectiveness was moderate for engagement (impressions to clicks), excellent for conversion (clicks to survey completion), and reasonable for enrollment. These data demonstrate the utility of social media advertising focused on sleep to reach young adults who drink heavily and recruit them for intervention.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jade Burns ◽  
Keith Johnstone ◽  
Tanaka Chavanduka ◽  
Cornelius Jamison ◽  
Valery Pena ◽  
...  

BACKGROUND Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which have millions of users who interact and communicate every day, have been effective in promoting sexual health interventions and in disseminating reproductive health education. They have also been shown to be useful in health promotion and have been used to track several key metrics (eg, comments, posts) among users of all demographics. However, there is a lack of research on the impact and reach of these social media platforms as a community-based tool for disseminating sexual health information and for increasing engagement among Black adolescents and young adults, which is a targeted high-risk population. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to determine the social media platforms and banner advertisements that affected engagement among Black male adolescents and young adults in participating in web-based health surveys. METHODS A web-based survey was conducted from March 2019 to July 2019 to assess sexual health and health behaviors in a convenience sample of Black male adolescents and young adults in the age range of 18-24 years (N=170). Social media metrics from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter were monitored. This cross-sectional survey comprised several categories, including basic personal information, drug-related risk behaviors, health care, sexual reproductive health questions, attitudes, norms, and perceived control, mental health, violence-related risk behaviors, and social media preferences. RESULTS Social media advertisements on the Black Male Opinion survey reached approximately 146,412 individuals. Our primary finding of the web-based survey engagement was that referral (eg, group chat, indirect social media sharing) led to as the greatest proportion of recruitment, with Twitter and YouTube as the preferred sites to receive sexual health information. CONCLUSIONS Recognizing the variety of technologies being used among Black male young adults and adolescents can help the community, researchers, and health care providers understand the web-based engagement of this high-risk population. This information may also promote culturally sensitive, customized marketing on sexual health information for this population.


2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. e107 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krysten W Bold ◽  
Tess H Hanrahan ◽  
Stephanie S O'Malley ◽  
Lisa M Fucito

10.2196/19219 ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. e19219
Author(s):  
Jade Burns ◽  
Keith Johnstone ◽  
Tanaka Chavanduka ◽  
Cornelius Jamison ◽  
Valery Pena ◽  
...  

Background Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, which have millions of users who interact and communicate every day, have been effective in promoting sexual health interventions and in disseminating reproductive health education. They have also been shown to be useful in health promotion and have been used to track several key metrics (eg, comments, posts) among users of all demographics. However, there is a lack of research on the impact and reach of these social media platforms as a community-based tool for disseminating sexual health information and for increasing engagement among Black adolescents and young adults, which is a targeted high-risk population. Objective The purpose of this study was to determine the social media platforms and banner advertisements that affected engagement among Black male adolescents and young adults in participating in web-based health surveys. Methods A web-based survey was conducted from March 2019 to July 2019 to assess sexual health and health behaviors in a convenience sample of Black male adolescents and young adults in the age range of 18-24 years (N=170). Social media metrics from Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter were monitored. This cross-sectional survey comprised several categories, including basic personal information, drug-related risk behaviors, health care, sexual reproductive health questions, attitudes, norms, and perceived control, mental health, violence-related risk behaviors, and social media preferences. Results Social media advertisements on the Black Male Opinion survey reached approximately 146,412 individuals. Our primary finding of the web-based survey engagement was that referral (eg, group chat, indirect social media sharing) led to as the greatest proportion of recruitment, with Twitter and YouTube as the preferred sites to receive sexual health information. Conclusions Recognizing the variety of technologies being used among Black male young adults and adolescents can help the community, researchers, and health care providers understand the web-based engagement of this high-risk population. This information may also promote culturally sensitive, customized marketing on sexual health information for this population.


2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madison Cirillo ◽  
Jennifer Halbert ◽  
Jessica Gomez Smith ◽  
Nour Sami Alamiri ◽  
Karen Ingersoll

BACKGROUND Hazardous drinking among college students persists, despite ongoing university alcohol education and harmful drinking intervention programs. College students often post comments or pictures about drinking episodes on social media platforms. OBJECTIVE We sought to understand the real-time contexts of student drinking that are shown on social media platforms, and to identify opportunities to reduce alcohol-related harms and inform novel alcohol interventions. METHODS We analyzed social media posts from 7 social media platforms using qualitative inductive coding based on grounded theory to identify the contexts of student drinking, and the attitudes and behaviors of students and peers during drinking episodes. We reviewed publicly available social media posts that included references to alcohol, collaborating with undergraduate students at one university to select their most-used platforms and develop locally-relevant search terms. We coded text and visual posts for explicit and implicit alcohol use, classified them as positive, neutral, or negative, and analyzed the frequency of each code. From codes, we derived themes about the student culture around alcohol use. RESULTS A total of 1,151 social media posts was the sample for this study. These included 809 Twitter tweets, 113 Instagram posts, 23 Facebook posts, 8 YouTube posts, 64 Reddit posts, 34 College Confidential posts, and 100 Greek Rank posts. Posts included implicit and explicit portrayal of alcohol use. Across all types of posts reviewed, we found that positive drinking attitudes were most common, followed by negative and then neutral, but valence varied by platform. Posts that portrayed drinking positively received positive peer feedback, and support the idea that drinking is an essential and positive part of student culture. CONCLUSIONS Social media provides a real-time picture of students’ behavior during their own and others’ heavy drinking. Posts portray heavy drinking as a normal part of student culture, reinforced by peers’ positive feedback on posts. Interventions for college drinking should help students manage alcohol intake in real-time, provide safety information during alcohol use, and raise awareness of online privacy concerns and reputation management. Additional interventions for students, alumni, and parents are needed to address the impact of positive attitudes about and traditions of drinking.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erin Corwin Westgate ◽  
Kristen Lindgren

Objective:This study investigated whether self-reports of alcohol-related postings on Facebook by oneself or one’s Facebook friends were related to common motives for drinking and were uniquely predictive of self-reported alcohol outcomes (alcohol consumption, problems, and cravings).Method:Pacific Northwest undergraduates completed a survey of alcohol outcomes, drinking motives, and alcoholrelated Facebook postings. Participants completed the survey online as part of a larger study on alcohol use and cognitive associations. Participants were randomly selected through the university registrar’s office and consisted of 1,106 undergraduates (449 men, 654 women, 2 transgender, 1 declined to answer) between the ages of 18 and 25 years (M = 20.40, SD = 1.60) at a large university in the Pacific Northwest. Seven participants were excluded from analyses because of missing or suspect data.Results:Alcohol-related postings on Facebook were significantly correlated with social, enhancement, conformity, and coping motives for drinking (all ps &lt; .001). After drinking motives were controlled for, self–alcohol-related postings independently and positively predicted the number of drinks per week, alcohol-related problems, risk of alcohol use disorders, and alcohol cravings (all ps &lt; .001). In contrast, friends’ alcohol-related postings only predicted the risk of alcohol use disorders (p &lt; .05) and marginally predicted alcohol-related problems (p = .07).Conclusions:Posting alcohol-related content on social media platforms such as Facebook is associated with common motivations for drinking and is, in itself, a strong predictive indicator of drinking outcomes independent of drinking motives. Moreover, self-related posting activity appears to be more predictive than Facebook friends’ activity. These findings suggest that social media platforms may be a useful target for future preventative and intervention efforts.


Author(s):  
Shalin Hai-Jew

Malicious political socialbots used to sway public opinion regarding the U.S. government and its functions have been identified as part of a larger information warfare effort by the Russian government. This work asks what is knowable from a web-based sleuthing approach regarding the following four factors: 1) the ability to identify malicious political socialbot accounts based on their ego neighborhoods at 1, 1.5, and 2 degrees; 2) the ability to identify malicious political socialbot accounts based on the claimed and linked geographical locations of their accounts, their ego neighborhoods, and their #hashtag networks; 3) the ability to identify malicious political socialbot accounts based on their strategic messaging (content, sentiment, and language structures) on respective social media platforms; and 4) the ability to identify and describe “maliciousness” in malicious political socialbot accounts based on observable behaviors on that account on three social media platform types: (a) microblogging, (b) social networking, and (c) crowd-sourced encyclopedia content sharing.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (4) ◽  
pp. 611-618
Author(s):  
Linnea I. Laestadius ◽  
Kendall Penndorf ◽  
Melissa Seidl ◽  
Pallav Pokhrel ◽  
Ryan Patrick ◽  
...  

Social media platforms are home to large volumes of ambiguous hashtag-based claims about the health, modified-risk, and cessation benefits of electronic cigarette products (e.g., #Vapingsavedmylife). The objective of this study was to qualitatively explore how young adults interpret these hashtags on the popular platform Instagram. Specifically, we sought to identify if they view these hashtags as making health-related claims, and if they find these claims to be credible and valid. We conducted 12 focus groups in 2018 with non–tobacco users, smokers, dual users, and vapers between the ages of 18 and 24 ( n = 69). Using real Instagram posts to guide discussion, participants reflected on the meaning of potentially claims-making hashtags. Participants interpreted the majority of the hashtags as making health-related claims. However, many participants felt that the claims were too exaggerated to be entirely valid. Some participants, including dual users and vapers, argued that smoking and vaping were largely equivalent. Smokers were particularly skeptical of claims. Findings suggest that the U. S. Food and Drug Administration should consider hashtag-based claims in their regulatory efforts. However, further research is needed on how to pragmatically address claims taking the form of hashtags given legal and practical constraints.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 37-51
Author(s):  
D. T. Kingsley Bernard ◽  
A. A. S. N. Munasinghe ◽  
I. K. R. J. Premarathne ◽  
S. Wijayarathne

As a result of the rapid improvements paved through global advertising pathways, marketers have started to promote their products through social media platforms and among that; Facebook had become the most popular mode of communicating out of all. The study was conducted with the objective of comprehensively investigating the influence of Facebook marketing on consumer buying intention of clothing using evidence of young adults. Predominantly, the research focused upon identifying the superiority of Facebook as a social media communication platform and its relevant impact upon advertising. Majority of the businesses aims toward increasing the  reach, whereas Facebook users expect clear experience through Facebook rather than watching typical pop ups, web banners and adds. However,         Facebook marketing was identified to be positively and negatively influencing the companies and users. Therefore, focus was to analyze the impact to consumer’s buying intention from Facebook marketing. The companies can identify the effectiveness of the advertising and the improvement to be done. The study has undertaken a comprehensive survey to achieve the objectives of the research and those data was analyzed through component factor analysis, regression analysis and correlation coefficient. As per the results of the analysis, researchers have accomplished the stated objectives of the study. In conclusion, it was identified that there was a strong relationship between independent and dependent variables except E-WOM. Among that, Likes and sharing are the most important variables in Facebook marketing. According to outcomes, E- WOM was not an important variable, nonetheless researchers recommend focusing on E-WOM in order to convert this variable in to positive way to make better results, as previous researches stated that E-WOM can make massive impact to consumer purchase intention.  


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