Social media and social networking tools like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and LinkedIn can help tackle smoking and vaping, particularly with youth. One advantage of these platforms is that they are accessible, low cost and familiar to young people. Research suggests Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people use social media at higher rates than non-Indigenous Australians. They use platforms like Facebook to connect, share support, and access health information in culturally meaningful ways. Social media helps strengthen mental, emotional, cultural, and social connections that are central to Aboriginal people’s understanding of health.
Social media is popular even in remote communities, where access to the internet can be limited. This makes social media a valuable communication tool and a cost effective way to announce events, increasing their visibility and encouraging community engagement.
Social media can also be used to share health promotion messages as part of a social marketing campaign. Social media platforms like Facebook, and traditional mass media channels like TV and radio are all good ways to deliver a message to an audience. However, social media platforms go one step further, encouraging a response from the audience. Social media posts can promote discussions about smoking and vaping, allow people to share their own stories about quitting, and increase audience engagement with the message. Messages will also be amplified (increase their reach) when users share posts with their wider social network.
Social media platforms like Facebook offer a way to connect with communities and promote smoke and vape free messages. An NT study found that using paid local “champions” to share tobacco control messages through community networks was effective.
Social media infographic
Posts were shared more when they were:
Posts were shared less when they used:
The NBPU TIS have produced an infographic that provide key information for TIS workers about using social media to communicate messages about smoking.
Social media survival guide
The NBPU TIS has produced a Social Media Survival Guide that provides you with key information about using social media to communicate messages about smoking and vaping. The guide was made for teams working across typical social media setups: stand-alone branded pages, shared pages, or fully outsourced content and management.
The guide includes tools and tips all teams can use and tailored advice based on your team’s setup.
The TIS content ideas wheel is a tool developed to assist you generate ideas for your social media accounts. It matches TIS topics with where communities are at in their quitting journey.
Claudine Thornton Creative has created two tailored online courses to support TIS teams to reach their communities using social media. Both courses are free to access and are split into short modules that you can complete at your own pace.
The Tackling Indigenous Smoking Social Media Training, will help you master marketing terminology and understand consumer behaviour tactics, giving you the tools to use emotional intelligence to create and share effective smoke and vape-free messages.
Once you have completed the Tackling Indigenous Smoking Social Media Training, you can move on to: #Health: Using Social Media to Tackle Indigenous Smoking.
In this course you’ll dive into:
This document provides TIS teams with examples of eligible activities for the July 2024-2027 funding period and how to monitor and evaluate them. It includes examples of social media activities and how they can be monitored and evaluated.
