Assessment of hashtag (#) campaigns aimed at health awareness in social media

INTRODUCTION: The use of social media to disseminate major communications, particularly for campaigns related to days of health importance, is becoming much popular. The use of Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook is gaining an integral place in public life online with hashtag campaigns. OBJECTIVES: The objectives of this study were to assess the characteristics of hashtag campaigns related to health in social media and to compare three different campaigns in three commonly used social media platforms, namely, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. METHODOLOGY: This was a cross-sectional study which analyzed contents of three health-related campaigns in Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. The campaigns were #let's talk (World Health day 2017), Hands up #HIV prevention (World AIDS day 2016), and #No tobacco (World No Tobacco Day 2017). Public posts related to each were searched from three platforms and assessed separately. Source, publicity, credibility, reach outs, and other characteristics were assessed among each campaign and comparison was also done among the three social media. RESULTS: Out of 812 posts, 507 (62.4%) were related to the study. Facebook posts were more related (67.33%), popular (45.05%), and authenticated (28.22%). Among the campaigns, # let's talk was more credible (96.33%) and authenticated (33.94%). Also in that, 57.79% from individual source and 79.82% were awareness related. CONCLUSION: Posts in social media related to hashtag campaigns are more credible, related, and less popular. These factors have to be considered for the campaigns to become an effective tool.