Listen up: The power of applying Social Listening to ignite social change in youth

Summary:

Social Listening, a software designed to identify conversations around keywords and phrases in user content posted publicly across online channels and centralize insights into an on-demand dashboard, is an innovative digital tool to help bring healthcare closer to youth. PSI Network Member PASMO (Pan American Social Marketing Organization) is leveraging its power to create impactful Social and Behavioral Change Communications (SBCC) and improve access to health information and services for youth. The technology is employed as part of the Youth 3.0 program that applies digital strategies to help reduce high rates of teen pregnancy in Latin America by increasing access to sexual education and access to care in youth ages 15-24. Social Listening insights help fine-tune information delivery and drive a more effective communication strategy that truly connects to youth in their own language, a key to successfully driving engagement in young people and linking them to online behavior change interventions, contraceptive counseling and referrals to adolescent-friendly healthcare service providers. By providing a gateway that directly connects to youth and translates what they are saying into real-time insights, the technology supports a youth-centered approach by driving data-based decision making based on their needs, desires, and preferences. Powered by activity that is already occurring online, PASMOs strategic application of Social Listening is putting youth at the forefront of social change efforts by allowing youth to become key contributors to communications, eventually seeking to expand its use to research and program design.

Background/Objectives:

Despite the vast amount of publicly available online consumer insights, there is an untapped opportunity within the power of applying Social Listening to ignite social change in youth. By leveraging this innovative technology and capitalizing its application through popular social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook, the program been able to engage this digital tool to increase youths access to on demand, accurate Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) information in a region where its considered taboo, thus contributing to the reduction of misinformation, stigma, and lack of access to contraception that perpetuates teenage pregnancy in the region.

Description of Intervention and/or Methods/Design:

With Social Listening, online data is mined and centralized into a user-friendly dashboard that provides real-time access to public conversations happening in the digital sphere, offering insights from sentiment to communication style. For the Youth 3.0 program, the software was used to harvest and analyze communications to better understand online behaviors and information around SRH topics. Key insights obtained directly from consumers included identifying the use of the term contraception instead of family planning, the continued popularity of natural contraceptive methods, common myths around pregnancy prevention, and barriers to contraceptive uptake. This helped drive the programs entire digital strategy, inspired online communications and information delivery, and impacted the development of their online advertising campaign.

Results/Lessons Learned:

In six months, Social Listening identified 5.9k online conversations with 74.6M potential impressions around topics related to contraception in LAC. The online campaign driven by these insights translated key messages into youth-friendly multimedia content, obtaining 31.8m impressions and 466.7 k engagements or online interactions with content and contributed to 11,061 online behavior change or peer outreach interventions in one year. Social Listening based communications outputs resulted in higher engagement, helping to increase the number of youths reaching out for information and referrals to contraceptive methods. It also identified common myths and misconceptions that continue to create barriers between youth and contraceptive uptake, misinformation which is subsequently addressed by providing information and one-on-one interventions through trained peer outreach workers. The use of Social Listening as part of a digital communications strategy is now being applied successfully by PASMO in other health areas, such as HIV testing and Zika prevention.

Discussion/Implications for the Field:

Harvesting Social Listening to reach youth through high impact communications tailored to their needs increases impact potential by putting them at the center of its design. Its application poses ethical considerations regarding the use of publicly available data and conversations to help influence behavior without explicit consent for this purpose. Implementation must consider data privacy guidelines to ensure the protection of individuals. Applying this technology to provide engaging communications and deliver affordable access to reliable information, education and services can be key in evolving and scaling the way we can positively impact development and social change issues.

Abstract submitted by:

Andrea Novella - Population Services International (PSI) Latin America