271245 Peer-to-peer social media campaign: A novel school-based approach to youth tobacco prevention

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Barri Burrus, PhD , Hobbs Building, RTI International, Research Triangle Park, NC
Maria Girlando, BA , RTI International, Durham, NC
Deanna Van Hersh, MLM , Kansas Health Foundation, Wichita, KS
Jeffrey Willett, PhD , Kansas Health Fondation, Wichita, KS
Robert Burrus, PhD , RTI, Nokomis, FL
Adolescents' extensive use of social media highlights this technology's potential as a promising new approach for delivering substance abuse prevention messages to adolescent audiences. Peer-to-peer social media campaigns, for example, can draw upon strategies such as youth empowerment and social norming to deliver prevention messages that are designed to influence adolescents' knowledge, attitudes and behaviors related to tobacco use as well as other substance abuse areas. School-based groups are particularly promising for social media campaigns since social network groups can be readily formed from existing classes and other school-focused organizations. Despite its potential, use of social media campaigns implemented through a peer- to-peer intervention approachi is a relatively new strategy and the availability of published literature describing how to effectively conduct such a campaign is very limited. The purpose of our presentation is to describe the implementation and evaluation for a youth tobacco prevention social media campaign conducted by youth groups within school-based settings. We will provide a comprehensive conceptual framework that can be used by practitioners to guide the development and evaluation of a peer-to-peer social media campaign. Our evaluation methods include the analysis of training and technical assistance needs encountered as well as abstraction from actual youth social media posts and interactions. We will provide findings in terms of youth receptivity, reach, and engagement in the campaign activities. Conclusions from these results will include lessons learned and overall recommendations for practitioners interested in implementing a youth driven peer-to-peer social media campaigns in school-based settings.

Learning Areas:
Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Communication and informatics
Conduct evaluation related to programs, research, and other areas of practice
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
1. Describe the components of a comprehensive framework for conducting a youth-driven social media campaign 2. dentify at least 3 key lessons learned for a school-based peer-to-peer social media campaign

Keywords: Social Marketing, Tobacco

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am PhD Senior Research Psychologist and have been employed by an international not- for-profit research institute (RTI International) for 26 years. I bring more than 12 years experience in both evaluation and intervention design and implementation for youth tobacco prevention interventions. I am the project director for the evaluation aspects described in this presentation.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.