Boosting Blood Donations Through Facebook Engagement: Randomized Controlled Field Trial

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Behavioral Science
• Health Communication

Background:

• Social media is crucial for public health and organizational outreach.
• Blood banks utilize social media for donor recruitment, retention, and promoting donation behaviors.
• Routine social media updates are a key communication strategy for blood banks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of a blood bank's Facebook page on donation attitudes and behaviors.
• To address the limited evidence on the persuasive effects of routine social media updates in health domains.
• To examine long-term attitudinal and behavioral outcomes of social media engagement.

Main Methods:

• A randomized controlled field trial involving 1891 newly registered blood donors.
• Participants were assigned to either follow a blood bank's Facebook page (experimental group) or not (control group).
• A mixed design with pre/post measures and an observational arm, assessing outcomes at 2 and 12 months.

Main Results:

• No significant attitudinal changes were observed between groups.
• The experimental group was 32% more likely to make a first donation.
• The experimental group showed a 12% increase in whole blood donations and a 17% increase in total donations after one year.

Conclusions:

• Regular Facebook engagement positively influences blood donation behavior.
• Social media efforts can drive significant behavioral outcomes despite limited attitudinal effects.
• Provides actionable recommendations for organizations to encourage prosocial behavior through social media.