Vaccine communication strategies and audience engagement: Analyzing CDC’s vaccine communication on Twitter

Abstract

<p>Social media is increasingly used by health organizations to disseminate health messages to improve public health. The current study investigated how content attributes influence audience engagement with vaccination promotions on social media. Using computer-assisted content analysis, we examined the U.S. CDC’s tweets about COVID-19 vaccines (<em>N</em> = 1271), focusing on the associations between content attributes (such as using visuals, emotional appeals, content readability, proximity, and framing) and audience engagement (measured by the number of retweets, replies, likes, and quotes). Regression model results show that: (1) Tweets with a visual attachment can significantly boost audience engagement. (2) Tweets that are easier to understand tend to receive greater engagement. (3) Tweets emphasizing fear or trust emotions tend to garner more engagement. (4) Using second-person pronouns can incite greater engagement. (5) Benefit framing tends to elicit more engagement. Our findings can guide public health organizations in effectively engaging with their audiences.</p>