Which public health Facebook posts drew the most engagement?

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Public health organisations have adopted Facebook, described in the abstract as the most widely used social media platform, for health promotion and behaviour change campaigns and activities. Yet there is limited information on how to use Facebook most effectively and efficiently for these purposes.

The study sought features associated with higher user engagement on Australian public health organisations’ Facebook pages. Researchers systematically searched for and selected 20 eligible pages, then coded 360 days of posts for each page. They coded post type, such as photo or text only; communication technique, such as testimonial or informative; and marketing elements, such as branding or mascots. A series of negative binomial regressions assessed associations between post characteristics and engagement, measured by numbers of likes, shares and comments.

Video posts drew the most engagement, but an analysis of a subset of the data suggested this could reflect Facebook’s algorithm, which determines what appears in users’ newsfeeds and appears to favour videos over other post types. Posts with a positive emotional appeal or factual information drew higher engagement, whereas conventional marketing elements such as sponsorships and use of persons of authority generally discouraged engagement, except in posts featuring a celebrity or sportsperson. The authors concluded that the results offer insight into post content that maximises engagement and begin to address the knowledge gap on effective Facebook use by public health organisations.