Strategy
The Illinois Department of Public Health (DPH) and Illinois Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (ICAAP) partnered to create sample social media messaging for providers on COVID-19 vaccination ahead of holiday season gatherings.
Challenge
Public health communications can advocate for certain practices to prevent or mitigate public health crises. Communication can be tailored for specific audiences and mediums to promote their effectiveness. In Illinois, the COVID-19 pandemic created a need for effective public health communication over social media.
Solution
The Illinois DPH partnered with the ICAAP to create social media messaging suggestions for the COVID-19 pandemic. The goal of this effort was to provide a varied toolkit of credible, informative social media communications about COVID-19 to increase vaccination rates for both children ages 5 and older and adults. The toolkit was released ahead of the 2021-2022 winter holiday season in anticipation of multigenerational gatherings, risking the spread of COVID-19. Toolkit messaging encourages vaccination for both children and adults to facilitate a healthy and safe holiday season.
The toolkit contains several basic messages and visuals that can be shared on a variety of social media platforms, including Instagram. The toolkit also contains downloadable fliers with information about child and teen vaccination. These fliers are available in English and Spanish and are branded as a product of Illinois DPH and ICAAP. Images promoting vaccination are also provided, with themes for various holidays, such as Thanksgiving and Hanukkah. Toolkit messaging provides information about COVID-19 vaccination, such as vaccination rates, vaccine safety and efficacy, where to obtain a vaccine, and how vaccines are made. Additionally, the Illinois DPH produced and shared videos about why children should get vaccinated, including a video featuring the director of Illinois DPH.
Outcome
The availability of free, credible online resources reduced provider and organization burden of creating their own messaging around COVID-19 vaccination during the busy holiday season.
Supplemental Resources