Publications

Public health organizations are increasingly using influencers as trusted messengers to deliver health education to communities. However, there is a gap in established approaches to evaluate the success of influencer programs. This case study reviews the five main ways that PGP evaluates its influencer campaigns: digital metrics, comment sentiment analysis, influencer surveys, influencer interviews, and community surveys. This mixed methods approach to evaluation provides a comprehensive picture of a campaign’s impact by including the perspectives of both influencers and the populations they reach.

This article reports on lessons learned from monitoring Spanish-language vaccine misinformation. Analysts found that Spanish-language vaccine misinformation is easily identifiable, in part because it is not as well monitored as English language misinformation. Several websites have outsized influence in promoting Spanish-language vaccine misinformation, suggesting that it may be important to focus on a handful of hyperinfluential accounts and websites. Collaboration with communities and emphasizing empowerment are crucial to combatting Spanish-language vaccine misinformation. Ultimately, Spanish-language vaccine misinformation is not an issue of data access and knowledge of how to monitor it; it is an issue of prioritization.

Racial disparities in maternal and infant mortality have worsened since the COVID-19 pandemic. This blog describes the evaluation of Growing and Glowing, a digital media campaign to address low birthweight. Growing and Glowing featured content made by Black artists and a video series featuring Black prenatal care providers. The campaign acknowledged Black women’s unique pregnancy experiences, and focused on empowering them to advocate for themselves with information that can help them make informed decisions. While the pandemic shifted public health priorities, it is now time to refocus and commit to approaches that help Black women have the same opportunities for a health pregnancy and birth.

This case study provides insight on how to positively impact vaccine attitudes by applying data insights, testing and scaling online vaccine communication interventions in the Philippines. Published through a partnership between UNICEF, Meta, the Yale Institute for Global Health and the Public Good Projects, this case study highlights the value of regional testing of vaccine messages and utilizing social media insights and tools to encourage vaccine confidence globally.

This case study provides insight on how to positively impact vaccine attitudes by applying data insights, testing and scaling online vaccine communication interventions in Argentina. Published through a partnership between UNICEF, Meta, the Yale Institute for Global Health (YIGH) and the Public Good Projects (PGP), this case study highlights the value of regional testing of vaccine messages and utilizing social media insights and tools to encourage vaccine confidence globally.

Data collected as part of an evaluation of the Stop Flu campaign were analyzed to assess the relationship between receiving the COVID-19 vaccine and the flu vaccine. Results showed that participants who received the flu vaccine had over 5 times the odds of also receiving the COVID-19 vaccine. These findings indicate that promotion of one vaccine may positively influence uptake of another, and promotion of less polarizing vaccines (like the flu vaccine) may be beneficial in making progress with other vaccines.

PGP has collaborated with thousands of social media influencers to tackle critical public health issues. This case study explores influencers’ perspectives on their engagement in PGP’s health programs. Overall, influencers report a positive effect on their brand, receiving positive comments, gaining or maintaining followers, and achieving similar or higher engagement  compared to their typical posts. These findings can help improve health programs and make them more impactful for influencers, with the ultimate goal of enhancing outcomes for the communities they serve.

This case study provides insight on how to positively impact vaccine attitudes by applying data insights, testing and scaling online vaccine communication interventions in India. Published through a partnership between UNICEF, Meta, the Yale Institute for Global Health and the Public Good Projects, this case study highlights the value of regional testing of vaccine messages and utilizing social media insights and tools to encourage vaccine confidence globally.

This study used qualitative methods to assess how narrative storytelling could help people who have loved ones with a substance use disorder (SUD) learn about addiction, cope, and find support, and at which phase of their loved one’s recovery process are people ready to engage with this type of content. Participants viewed narrative stories as essential to support people with loved ones living with SUD. Incorporating messages of understanding, empathy, hope, solidarity, different perspectives, and the probability of long-term recovery in stories are most important to loved ones. Trusted messengers are a critical component of delivering messages and information about SUD.

Online discourse about abortion has increased dramatically, following the reversal of Roe v. Wade. With this increase in conversation has come an increase in misinformation about abortion. This case study uses PGP's media monitoring capabilities to identify top misinformation themes within references to abortion and highlights important areas of future research.