A person can use various social networks to reach an audience. However, it is advisable to establish the sites that the targeted population mostly uses. One of the best ways of determining the most appropriate site is to try different types, identify the ones with the most number of users, and then develop them (Capurro et al., 2014). The best ones to start with include Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and Vimeo since they are apparently the most prominent. Nevertheless, their popularity keeps on changing with time, as technology advances. Therefore, maintaining three of four social media sites will be advantageous, but it is important to ensure that prompt audience engagement is maintained in all the sites. Another alternative is to develop a website focusing on oral health. The insights about the best sites can also be obtained by establishing the social media platforms that organizations and professionals dealing with similar health matters use to reach their audience. For instance, physicians and healthcare professionals belonging to professional medical societies like the American Society of Clinical Oncology use Twitter, among other social media sites to discuss clinical issues as well as inform the public about the clinical news.
One of the most effective ways of generating huge traffic on social media is to communicate information that is new and useful to the audience. Therefore, it is paramount to find out what the target audience knows and the information that they do not have. By establishing the information gap, it will be easy to develop an appropriate and effective plan to inform the target audience (Li, 2013). The best time to draw much attention of the audience is when they are less occupied with more important activities, for instance, during early and late hours of the night, mealtime, weekends, and holidays. Social media comprises all sorts of information; misleading and fact-based. Nevertheless, people tend to give much attention to the information that has scientific proof or is based on facts and truth. Therefore, it is paramount for public health professionals who use social media as a tool for educating people to offer credible and valid information.
Issues regarding the use of social media by individuals and organizations offering health information usually put them at risk of legal litigation, especially as a result of a breach of users’ confidentiality. Users of social media sites focusing on health tend to share their issues alongside private details on the platforms, hoping that they will get a solution to their health problems. Unfortunately, the information may be seen and shared by other users for good or bad intentions, thus breaching their confidentiality. A health professional or educator who intends or uses social media to reach the audience can avoid users’ confidentiality issues by using platforms that have features that can hide the personal identifying information and any other revealing references of the contributors from other users (Ventola, 2014). The profiles of all the users must also be verified to be genuine so that the sharing of information is restricted only to the intended people.
Some messaging systems like Doximity’s are compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, a United States law that protects the medical information of the patients. The messaging system secures patient identifying information, but the recipients of the messages must be medically justified to receive them. Additionally, it is vital for social media managers of the sites that are restricted to adult access or involving activities that exclude children to screen thoroughly the social media profiles of the users or participants to identify their actual ages. The majority of fake social media profiles are usually new and have little information as well as minimal activity (Ventola, 2014). Alternatively, the social media managers can ask the users to send photographs of the legal documents bearing their ages, such as national identification cards.
References
Capurro, D., Cole, K., Echavarría, M. I., Joe, J., Neogi, T., & Turner, A. M. (2014). The use of social networking sites for public health practice and research: A systematic review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 16(3), 79-88.
Li, J. (2013). Privacy policies for health social networking sites. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 20(4), 704-707.
Ventola, C. L. (2014). Social media and health care professionals: Benefits, risks, and best practices. Pharmacy and Therapeutics, 39(7), 491-493.