www.rti.org
Presented by
Julia Kish-Doto, PhD, MS
RTI International, Rockville, MD
9 th
Presented at
Annual Regional Perinatal Forum Conference
Tarrytown, NY • November 3, 2010
Phone 301-468-8280 • Fax 301-230-4647 • e-mail jkdoto@rti.org
RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute

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1.
Identify social media sources women use for health information
2.
Describe the role of social media and marketing in women’s health decision making
3.
Provide examples of how to use social marketing to communicate with and educate patients

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 Blogspot
 Flickr
 Twitter
 Facebook
 YouTube
 Wikipedia
 Foursquare

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The Oxygen Media Insights Group studied 1,600 women aged 18 to 34 (RBR, 2010):
 34% say checking Facebook is the first thing they do in the morning
 57% admit to talking to people online more than face to face
 48% find out about news through Facebook more often than from traditional news outlets
 73% say Facebook is “me time”

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 Control large segment of social market
 “Power moms”– women between the ages of 25 and 54 who have at least one child under the age of 18 in the home – represent 19% of the total online population
(Nielsen Online, 2009)
 Can be segmented by their “social” habits

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 Measured by “influence”
 How often social moms post or comment on social networks
 BabyCenter.com 2010 report
 18% of moms who use social media account for
78% of the influence

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Growing incidence of the following activities during labor:
 Tweeting
 Texting
 Talking on a cell phone
 Recording and posting in real time via webcams

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 To feel less alone
 As a distraction
 Because they can!

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 Benefits
 Expose future moms to positive birth experience
 Increase knowledge of childbirth process
 Drawbacks
 Provider concerns about litigation
 Instilling fear in moms-to-be
 Questions about baby’s privacy rights
 Boundaries of social etiquette

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 “Facebook friends: My doctor is sewing up my episiotomy now. Thank God I can’t feel a thing!”
 “OMG! I can’t handle another contraction! Where’s my epidural?! Somebody get me some DRUGS!”
(sent via iPhone)
» From Glynn, pregnancy360.com, 2010

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 Data on the impact of women’s preferences on delivery mode and their decision-making processes for delivery are limited
 A woman’s planned delivery preferences may not be the most predominant factor in the actual delivery

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Other external factors beyond a woman’s physical state:
 Health care providers
 Insurance companies
 Hospital protocols
 Childbirth educators
 Family, friends
 Media

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Commercial marketers spend significant amounts of money examining the behaviors of their audience...
…and getting people to change them.

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Umbilical cord banking
 Original idea in 1988 from not-for-profit
 Today, companies have generated a “need” for the service
(Prue & Daniel, 2006)

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 Moms often turn to the Internet for health information before any other media source
 Motherhood is the number one trigger for social media use

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 Despite openness to social networking for health information, people typically connect with known acquaintances
(Uhrig, Bann, Williams, &
Evans, 2010)

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 Difficult for health care to compete
 Motivational interviewing
 Defined as changing what patients want to change
 What if they don’t want to change?
 Is the communicating audience/society better off?

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 Piggyback on existing market research
 Use the same media channels
 Initiate discussions
 Upstream versus downstream approach
 Work with insurance companies, policy makers, hospitals

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 Women are not typically exposed to normal, uncomplicated vaginal births
 Media, provider’s offices, family, friends
 Women may be unaware of childbirth education philosophies and practices supporting lowintervention vaginal births

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 Women rely heavily on social networks for health information, including childbirth knowledge (CDC, 2009)
 Societal fascination with birth
 Unexpected
 Unplanned
 Complicated deliveries

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 Text4Baby
 www.childcount.org
 Preconception health programs
 READY-Girl

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 How can providers use this information to reduce unnecessary or elective Cesarean sections?

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Questions to consider:
 What is your office protocol to discuss preconception care with patients?
 How is information delivered to/received from pregnant patients?
 What questions are included in your electronic health records (EHR) system?

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 “Bundle” your messages
 In discussions
 On your office Web site
 Foster a social network of communication about childbirth
 Provide a list of links and sites to local childbirth resources

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 Ask questions about childbirth preference early and often
 Dispel myths surrounding the process of childbirth
 Educate women about the types, availability, and effectiveness of nonpharmacological coping techniques

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The BabyCenter® 2010 Mom Social Influencer Report reveals five unique segments of social moms [News Release]. http://www.babycenter.com/100_-the-babycenter-174-2010-mom-social-influencer-report-reveal_10332899.bc
Accessed
October 25, 2010.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Marketing and Communication Strategy Branch. Audience Insights: Communicating to moms (with kids at home). http://www.cdc.gov/healthmarketing/pdf/AudienceInsight_moms.pdf
Accessed October 25, 2010.
Glynn, A. The TMI of childbirth: From Tweeting intimate details of labor to posting full-frontal footage of baby’s birth—is nothing too sacred for social networking? http://www.pregnancy360.com/the-big-day/tmi-childbirth Accessed October 25, 2010.
The Nielsen Company. Nielson Online. Where the moms are: shopping, blogging, networking and strategizing online. [2009 News
Release]. http://enus.nielsen.com/content/dam/nielsen/en_us/documents/pdf/Press%20Releases/2009/May/Where%20The%20Moms
%20Are%20Shoppi g,%20Blogging,%20Networking%20And%20Strategizing%20Online.pdf
Accessed October 25, 2010.
Prue CE, Daniel KL. Social marketing: planning before conceiving preconception care. Matern Child Health J. 2006;10(Suppl 1):79–84. http://www.springerlink.com/content/a3j554763469n035/ Accessed October 25, 2010.
Radio and Television Business (RBR) Report. The social media habits of women 18–34 [News Release]. http://www.rbr.com/medianews/research/25649.html
Accessed October 25, 2010BabyCenter.com.
Uhrig J, Bann C, Williams P, Evans WD. Social networking websites as a platform for disseminating social marketing interventions: an exploratory pilot study. Soc Mar Q. 2010;16(1):2–20. http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a919454461~frm=titlelink Accessed October 25, 2010.

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RTI International is a trade name of Research Triangle Institute