#LancerHealth: Using Twitter and Instagram as a tool in a campus wide health promotion initiative

• Main Authors: Sara Santarossa (Author), Sarah J. Woodruff (Author)
• Format: Book
• Published: SAGE Publishing, 2018-04-01T00:00:00Z.
• Subjects: article
• Online Access: Connect to this object online.
• Notes: 2279-9028; 2279-9036; 10.4081/jphr.2018.1166
• Keywords: social media; health promotion; public health; Twitter; Instagram; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270
• Source: Journal of Public Health Research, Vol 7, Iss 1 (2018)

The present study aimed to explore using popular technology that people already have/use as a health promotion tool, in a campus wide social media health promotion initiative, entitled #LancerHealth. During a two-week period the university community was asked to share photos on Twitter and Instagram of What does being healthy on campus look like to you?, while tagging the image with #LancerHealth. All publically tagged media was collected using the Netlytic software and analysed. Text analysis (N=234 records, Twitter; N=141 records, Instagram) revealed that the majority of the conversation was positive and focused on health and the university. Social network analysis, based on five network properties, showed a small network with little interaction. Lastly, photo coding analysis (N=71 unique image) indicated that the majority of the shared images were of physical activity (52%) and on campus (80%). Further research into this area is warranted.