Engaging Partners and Leaders to Promote Influenza Vaccination Through a Communication and Social Marketing Campaign

CDC NCIRD

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

Westat is developing traditional and nontraditional partnerships to increase awareness of the importance, benefits, and safety of influenza vaccination and to broaden the campaign’s reach. Westat has implemented a mix of traditional media and innovative digital and social media strategies to reach target audiences. Innovative strategies have been implemented to activate influential micro bloggers to disseminate campaign messages to their engaged followers. Westat is also conducting outreach to engage online publishers across a variety of verticals to write about the campaign. Westat established more than 80 partnerships in the first year of the contract.

Westat is currently conducting various digital activities for the campaign, including digital partnerships, as well as using various social media channels such as MyLikes and Meetup.com for promoting influenza vaccination. Links to sample screenshots of each activity can be found below.

Digital Partnerships:

• Reached out to more than 100 websites, publishers, and organizations to publicize flu messages through Facebook, Twitter, blog posts, and e-newsletters.
• Secured positive coverage and more than 34 million impressions for flu vaccination among key online influencers, which linked back to CDC materials as resources.

MyLikes Campaign:

• Utilized MyLikes, a platform that connects brands and advertisers with influential Twitter users who tweet in support of their campaigns to publicize flu vaccination information through online influencers.
• Reached more than 7 million individuals on Twitter and garnered almost 1.5 million impressions.

Meetup.com:

• Worked with Meetup.com, an online social networking website where people with similar interests organize themselves online but meet up offline to secure 75 groups across the country to get vaccinated instead of meet for their normal event.
• Reached almost 9,000 members with flu vaccination messages and encouraged 17 groups (more than 300 people) to get vaccinated.