Nedra Kline Weinreich, MSWeinreich Communications

National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing and Media 2011

Attracting and Retaining Teens on a Health-Focused Online Social Network:

What Works?

Project partners

NIH/NICHD Grant #5R01HD059756-02

Our target audience

Adolescents 13–17 years old, living in California

Insurance coverage under Medi-Cal or Healthy Families Program managed by Health Net

4

Navigation of system

Rights & responsibility

Preventive care

Information seeking

Provider-patient

relationship

- Barriers- Individual- Environmental- Appointments- Ability to overcome

-Knowledge, attitudes, self-efficacy-Confidentiality-Self-care practices

-Perceptions of wellness-Cues to action

-Ability to access information-Different media-Confidence in analyzing

-Trust and comfort level-Ability to request a different doctor

Health Literacy

Research design

Survey + Healthcare Utilization Data

Recruitment to intervention

Total teen participation on site

N=692

24% enrollment rate

Invitedintervention participants

N=691

Activeintervention

accounts

N=165

Non-intervention accounts

N= 527

7

8

Social activities

Profiles Status Updates Photos Videos Blogs Games (single +

multiplayer) Trivia Shared Goals Instant Messaging Chat (rooms +

events)

Opinion Prompts Polls Internal Messages eCards Friends Contests/Missions Articles Facebook

Integration Content

Rating/Sharing

Teen2xtreme health themes

Appearance Sex / STDs / Pregnancy

Stress / Depression

Infectious Disease

Obesity / Weight

Fitness / Sports

Violence / Gangs

Relationships / Family

Driving

Safety / Injury

Drugs /Alcohol /Smoking

Teen2xtreme domains

1) Annual Well Care Visit

2) Patient-Doctor Relationship

3) Navigate Healthcare System

4) Benefits, Rights & Responsibilities

5) Healthcare-Seeking Information

Social Activity

Theme Activity

Domain Activity

Conceptual framework

Enrollment onto the website

Outreach: Tailored email Email + SMS SMS Facebook messages

Follow-up: Christmas cards Participant created Valentines cards

Success rates per enrollment strategy*

Email 2.7% SMS 3.1% Cards** 6.3%

Holiday Card – 8.8% Valentine Card – 3.8%

Average Touches for Registration Visit = 4.8

* Total Unique Registration Visits = 268** Only 1 Touch

Member demographicsIn

vit

ati

ons • Male = 41%

• Female = 59%

• Avg Age = 15.2

n = 681

Use

rs • Male = 30%• Female =

70%• Avg Age =

16.0

n = 158

Pow

er

Use

rs • Male = 5%• Female =

95%• Avg Age =

16.4

n = 20

(Study participants only)

User site activity by points

[Points are designed to be a summative measure of site activity (time online, activities performed, engagement, etc.)]

0-1000 1001-10,000 10,001-100,0000

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

Points (100 pts ~ 1 hour)

% of members

Site activity for T2Xpression Awards

The 3 most popular days coincided with T2Xpression Awards

Music incentive SMS

Free music-you pick! Join Teen2xtreme-UCLA/Health Net's teen-only network-and get free music while supplies last. Your custom link: http://teen2xtreme.com/1823

Free music incentive – SMS campaign

Sent 1277 free music incentive SMS messages prompting invited members to register

31 incentives redeemed (2.4%) Incentive = $5 Amazon music

certificate Challenges

Rising above the din of other “free” offers

Hard to communicate that it is for any song

Whooping cough campaign

Teen Health Alert: Must have whooping cough shot (Tdap) to go back to school. It's a new law! Text INFO for help from http://t2x.me or DONE if you got the shot.

T2X Registered

Not Registered

Received SMS Alert

112 347

Responded INFO 3 0

Responded DONE

11 97

Response Rate 12.5% 28%

Recent class experience: Expert Chat

Topic: Mononucleosis (infectious disease)

Length of planned student activities: 2 hrs

Activities include: Highlighted video (CLUB Episode 2), Poll

of the Day, What do you Think, Test Your Knowledge Game, Expert Chat

New accounts created: 106 Users who visited site after class

activities were finished: 11 (10.4%)

CLUB Homepage

Ask Allison Blog

CLUB Episode 1 Experience – Interaction between CLUB Members and General Teen Members

Research project timeline delayed by IRB issues with innovative programs

Recruitment and retention requires multiple touchpoints

Engaging youth on the site requires constant attention and new content/activities

Competing with many other websites and constraints on their time

Not a self-selected group

Challenges

Playing coy about the purpose of the site

Waiting for organic growth to magically occur

Lumping together older and younger teens

Links to/from Facebook accounts Random incentives – “Free music!” Ignoring the short-term users in

favor of the regulars

What Has NOT Worked

What HAS Worked

Keep it teens-only – safe, no adults Volume: 90%-10%-1% rule Create micro-experiences/events

e.g., T2Xpression art contest, themed class curricula, health expert chats, ongoing transmedia story

Bring real-world groups online Provide pathways through the

content Text messaging – recruitment, Tdap

campaign

Teen2xtreme team

Deborah Glik, P.I.Michael Prelip, P.I.

Abdelmonem Afifi Philip MasseyElaine Quiter Gabriel StoverBrian Calimlim

Sharon Nessim, HN P.I.Elaine Robinson-Frank

Diana CarrMaya GumatayKelly KonoVinia PanganCarol Spencer Hoa SuNancy Wongvipat Kalev

Michael FioreElissa Vaidman

Nedra Kline Weinreich

Contact

Nedra Kline WeinreichWeinreich Communications

weinreich@social-marketing.comwww.social-marketing.com310.286.2721Twitter @Nedra