could be the number of young people who apply
sunscreen before every trip to the beach. This information
could not be gleaned from a collection of simple metrics,
but could be achieved through multiple methods,
including analysing the content of any online comments
and interactions for evidence of behaviour change,
and conducting surveys and interviews with campaign
participants to directly ask about their behaviour.
To test the underlying assumption that highly engaged
participants in a social media campaign are more likely
to change their behaviour, it would be very desirable
to survey a sample of campaign participants with
varying degrees of engagement. Engagement could
be segmented into the low, medium and high levels
of engagement captured within a process evaluation.
To illustrate, the membership activity of a Facebook
campaign could have a possible breakdown for
comparison of:
1) Those that simply ‘liked’ a Facebook page (low)
2) Those that commented on or shared Facebook page
content (medium)
3) Those that did all three of these activities plus made
any further original contributions or posts to the
Facebook page (high).
Alternatively, contacting people who are known
participants of the social media campaign at any level of
engagement, compared with the general public, could
also provide useful comparison data on effectiveness.
A combination of these approaches would offer a
comprehensive view.
If it was found that those participants deemed to be
highly engaged with the social media campaign were the
most likely to change their behaviour, simple metrics that
measured engagement could serve as indicators that
behaviour change was also likely in future campaigns.
If evidence can be found to support this assumption,
it would be a very useful and fast way to assess if
campaigns are working from the very beginning. This
approach would never replace comprehensive outcome
evaluations; however, it could help program planners
to adjust campaigns that failed to generate high-level
engagement. Finding that the level of engagement had no
actual bearing on behaviour change would be an equally
worthwhile outcome.