Using new media to disseminate public health messages: A targeted approach

According to a national survey conducted in 2006, only 5.6% of adults have listened to a podcast in the past year. Moreover, only 3.7% of adults write blogs and 6.0% read or add comments to blogs. Yet the expected rise in the use and reach of these new communication tools has marketers scrambling to get on board—often before assessing the audiences who use them.

This poster presentation focuses on how health communication professionals can harness the power of new media to disseminate public health messages by targeting their communications. We examine how early adopters (New Media Users) differ from health influentials (HealthTech Netfluencers), and how these groups differ from the general population in terms of demographics, traditional and new media use, interest in health, and preferred health information sources.

New Media Users are defined as adults who listen to podcasts or participate in blogs (9.7% of the population). While these early adopters are the audience most likely to first encounter messages distributed in this arena, relatively few are likely to pay attention to health messages (38.7%) or share advice on health (31.1%).

HealthTech Netfluencers, on the other hand, are defined as individuals who have large social networks and regularly are asked for their advice on health as well as technology (3.7% of the population). These influentials are three times more likely than the general population to consume new media and their large social networks make them a prime target for the dissemination of health messages through this channel.