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In today’s world, where social media can heavily shape public health messaging, our team is gearing up to become skilled leaders, ready to tackle the challenges associated with communicating effectively on these platforms.
Health Communication in the Digital Age
Through the work in maintaining the MIH Track’s Instagram page (@maternal_insights), the Social Media Team hones essential public health communication skills. The Social Media Team equips members with the necessary skills to navigate and contribute to the ever-evolving landscape of public health communication through social media. As part of the team, members focus on creating engaging and credible Instagram posts that inform and educate their audience on maternal and infant health topics. This hands-on experience helps members develop a strong foundation in health communication in this digital age.
Public Health in Images
Although additional research is needed on the effectiveness of using social media to change certain health behaviors (Chen & Wang, 2021), it is clear that social media is capable of reaching a wide audience quickly and cost effectively (Kirtis & Karahan, 2011). Using social media platforms like Instagram can help to reach audiences that would otherwise “fall outside traditional health marketing approaches” (Bonnevie et al., 2023). Additionally, social media can also be used to bring attention to specific topics and marginalized communities that deserve more attention (Obar et al., 2012). Given that pictures can enhance understanding in health communication (Schubbe et al., 2010), Instagram was selected as the platform. Instagram is a highly visual social media platform popular for posting photos and/or videos. Together, team members create and share a public health messages and graphics on the @maternal_insights Instagram profile.
Selecting Instagram as the platform not only challenges BroadStreet team members to craft more visually compelling messages, but also gives them valuable experience with graphic design tools like Canva. Having graphic design experience can provide team members with skills that can be applied in various aspects of public health communication and beyond. For example, members can use their skills towards infographics which can summarize complex health data. Well-designed visuals can also more easily capture attention than text, increasing the impact of a message (Larkin & Simon, 1987).
After creating the initial draft of their post, members conduct peer reviews using a post readiness checklist to ensure that each post meets established standards. This helps to ensure that @maternal_insights has consistent posts that are reliably citing sources that viewers can use to learn more information. In doing so, it helps to establish the credibility of @maternal_insights and supports the efforts of the Maternal and Infant Health Team at the BroadStreet Institute.
Our inspiring team members
As we reflect on these past months, we are truly inspired by the incredible achievement of our team members. Their creativity has boosted our presence on @maternal_insights and has also worked towards delivering trustworthy maternal and infant health information to our community.
To be a trustworthy source of information we have covered a diverse array of topics related to maternal and infant health. Our efforts included sharing resources, highlighting impactful organizations, and shining a light on traditionally under-represented groups.
Since January 2023, we’ve covered a variety of important topics related to maternal and infant health. We’ve explored conditions like preeclampsia, which involves high blood pressure during pregnancy, as well as hepatitis, a viral infection that can lead to poor birth outcomes. We’ve also brought attention to Mississippi which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the United States (Mississippi State Department of Health, 2023).
Our posts have not only shared vital statistics and resources in maternal health, but have also highlighted organizations working to improve maternal health outcomes. Healthy Moms, Healthy Babies of Mississippi and the Delta Home Visiting Initiative are just two of the many organizations that have been highlighted in our posts.
Through @maternal_insights, our team members have shared valuable community resources and also placed the spotlight back on often-overlooked communities. In July, for National Minority Mental Health Month, members focused on connecting maternal mental health topics to minority groups, including Black women and American Indian women.
National Minority Mental Health Month also provided a great opportunity to connect with diverse communities. Several skilled BroadStreet members who are fluent in other languages generously volunteered their time to translate a post focusing on mental health symptoms during pregnancy. Thanks to the efforts of Jennifer V., Lorrany S., and Dina S. the post was translated into Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic. By providing content in different languages, we made sure our message was accessible and clear to speakers of the language.
Team members are able to focus on a topic of their choice, and are also encouraged to explore less often talked about topics such as craniofacial anomalies, cord blood awareness, and breastfeeding rights.
Continuing to grow
We’ve been amazed at the dedication and creativity of our team members. As you can see on our page, there is a wide diversity in how information is researched and presented even though the general topic remains the same.
While we’ve made great strides since launching the Instagram page, we’re still seeking ways to continually improve and positively impact the community. We’re also actively exploring new strategies and formats to ensure that our members can enhance their social media communication skills as future leaders in public health education. Just like social media, we’re eager to keep evolving and innovating. We’re excited to see what’s next and we hope you are too!
Join our community
To see what else our Instagram page is up to, visit or message us at @maternal_insights.
Interested in learning more about BroadStreet? Click here.
Explore more about social media and public health through our sources:
Bonnevie, E., Barth, C., May, J., et al. (2023). Growing and Glowing: A Digital Media Campaign to Increase Access to Pregnancy-Related Health Information for Black Women During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Health Promotion Practice. DOI: 10.1177/15248399221083844.
Chen, J., & Wang, Y. (2021). Social media use for health purposes: systematic review. Journal of medical Internet research, 23(5), e17917.
Fung, I. C., Blankenship, E. B., Ahweyevu, J. O., Cooper, L. K., Duke, C. H., Carswell, S. L., Jackson, A. M., Jenkins, J. C., 3rd, Duncan, E. A., Liang, H., Fu, K. W., & Tse, Z. T. H. (2020). Public Health Implications of Image-Based Social Media: A Systematic Review of Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Flickr. The Permanente journal, 24, 18.307. https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/18.307
Kim, Y., & Kim, J. H. (2020). Using photos for public health communication: A computational analysis of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Instagram photos and public responses. Health informatics journal, 26(3), 2159–2180. https://doi.org/10.1177/1460458219896673
Kirtiş, A. K., & Karahan, F. (2011). To be or not to be in social media arena as the most cost-efficient marketing strategy after the global recession. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 24, 260-268.
Kite, J., Chan, L., MacKay, K., Corbett, L., Reyes-Marcelino, G., Nguyen, B., Bellew, W., & Freeman, B. (2023). A Model of Social Media Effects in Public Health Communication Campaigns: Systematic Review. Journal of medical Internet research, 25, e46345. https://doi.org/10.2196/46345
Larkin, J. H., & Simon, H. A. (1987). Why a diagram is (sometimes) worth ten thousand words. Cognitive science, 11(1), 65-100.
Mississippi State Department of Health. (2023). Report: Maternal Deaths on the Rise. https://msdh.ms.gov/page/23,26091,341,802.html
Obar, J. A., Zube, P., & Lampe, C. (2012). Advocacy 2.0: An analysis of how advocacy groups in the United States perceive and use social media as tools for facilitating civic engagement and collective action. Journal of information policy, 2, 1-25.
Pew Research Center. (2019, April 10). Share of U.S. adults using social media, including Facebook, is mostly unchanged since 2018. Retrieved September 28, 2024, from https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2019/04/10/share-of-u-s-adults-using-social-media-including-facebook-is-mostly-unchanged-since-2018/
Pinto, P. A., Antunes, M. J. L., & Almeida, A. M. P. (2020, June). Instagram as a communication tool in public health: a systematic review. In 2020 15th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies (CISTI) (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
Schubbe, D., Scalia, P., Yen, R. W., Saunders, C. H., Cohen, S., Elwyn, G., ... & Durand, M. A. (2020). Using pictures to convey health information: A systematic review and meta-analysis of the effects on patient and consumer health behaviors and outcomes. Patient education and counseling, 103(10), 1935-1960.