Recently, the use of Facebook by public health organizations has become more popular. This study examines what features posted by these organizations attracts the most engagement i.e. likes, shares, or comments. James Kite, Bridget C. Foley, Anne C. Grunseit, and Becky Freeman, all from the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia selected Facebook pages of public health organizations that focused on both local and global issues such as smoking, alcohol, and sexual health. The study was performed through developing a coding frame that included a primary communication technique and gathering insight data from page administrators.
The study revealed that mental health and cancer prevention were two of the most talked about issues. “Over all pages, video posts received on average 25% more likes than photo posts, while links and text posts received 37% and 31% fewer likes respectively.” Posts that had a positive emotion were 18% more engaging than posts that encouraged people to take action. The study also noted that informative posts were more engaging than funny posts, and having celebrities in posts resulted in 62% more engagement via likes.
The full text of the study can be found here:
http://bit.ly/2BRw03O
