Why Tobacco Smoke Sucks: Content Analysis and Insights from a Last Minute Social Media Campaign

To engage with members of our community about the reality of lung cancer and its associated risks, Louisiana Cancer Prevention and Control Programs (LCP) ran a daily “quick fact” in November 2014 on its social media page about tobacco smoke/smoking and its effect on the human body, connection to lung cancer, plus its negative effects on others’ health. This was LCP’s first extensive campaign with custom original content, which targeted young people in the Southeastern region of Louisiana in time with Lung Cancer Awareness Month and the introduction of the New Orleans Smoke-Free Ordinance. After the conclusion of the campaign, coded post interaction demographics were used to conduct a content-based analysis using linear regression to determine if certain aspects of the posts reached targeted groups better than others. Primary findings demonstrated significantly larger post reach of number of men in November versus October 2014 (p=<.0001), more male engagement with posts featuring pictures versus illustrations (p=.0279), and an increase in the number of people who “liked” the page (1088 “likes” to 1140), increasing LCP’s audience for all subsequent posts. Content analysis of public health social media data allows for tweaking of future post’s content to engineer them to do more specific targeting of desired groups, plus brings opportunity for expansion both to other social media platforms and other geographic regions.