Leveraging Social Media for Population Health Promotion: Evaluation of a Year-Long Nonprofit Public Health Campaign

In an ever-evolving health communication landscape, nonprofit organizations must move beyond just maintaining a passive digital presence. Rather, they must actively engage communities to promote meaningful health outcomes. The Broward Regional Health Planning Council (BRHPC), serving Broward County, Florida, executed a year-long public health social media campaign to increase awareness of and educate the community about preventable health conditions. Among these were cardiovascular disease, oral cancer, and obesity. The campaign targeted Broward County's diverse audience of community residents, healthcare providers, and community partners. Using Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn, BRHPC disseminated health education information and encouraged online community interaction. In collaboration with the Nova Southeastern University Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine's Public Health department, undergraduate and graduate students contributed to the generation of monthly educational content and assisted in evaluating key campaign performance metrics. Key performance indicators included follower growth, engagement (likes, comments, and shares), and reach/impressions. The campaign employed a combination of non-boosted (organic) and boosted (paid) posts over 12 months, gaining a total reach of 151,134 and total engagement of 44,393 across the various social media platforms utilized. These metrics demonstrate significant visibility and audience interaction with the campaign's public health messaging. This initiative illustrates how strategic social media engagement can expand the reach of public health communication efforts and increase community interaction through educational content. The campaign highlights the potential for nonprofit organizations to leverage digital platforms, strategic planning, and academic partnerships to disseminate health information and promote community awareness of preventable health conditions. Although significant results were seen, a limitation of this evaluation, and potential future research area, is that the engagement metrics did not directly measure whether exposure to the campaign resulted in legitimate health behavior change among the target audience.