Empowering researchers and healthcare professionals to design social media campaigns for health promotion through online learning

Context: The goal of the implementation research FRESHAIR4Life is to minimize adolescents’ exposure to air pollution and tobacco in five high-risk countries: Greece, Kyrgyzstan, Romania, Pakistan, and Uganda. Each country conducted situational analyses to identify suitable interventions from the FRESHAIR4Life prevention palette, featuring ten evidence-based interventions. While choices varied, all countries prioritized mass media intervention; changed to social media campaign due to funding constraints. Problem: Implementing social media campaigns posed significant challenges, as most teams comprised researchers and healthcare professionals with limited expertise in social media strategy development. This was especially problematic given vast advertising resources available to polluting industries and tobacco and vaping companies. Strategy for change and aim: To address this gap, IPCRG created an eight-session online course “Social media campaigns for Health Promotion” to enhance teams’ ability to create and plan impactful campaigns including four modules: 1. Finding the campaign focus: problem and objectives definition, audience analysis, tailored messaging 2. Planning the campaign: platform selection, implementation planning 3.Content creation: health communication principles, content design, user testing 4. Implementation and impact measurement: campaign execution, evaluation. Impact: By combining theoretical insights with practical applications, the course enabled teams to design comprehensive campaign strategies. Cross-country participation fostered peer learning and collaboration. Following the course, faculty provided tailored support as teams finalized campaign content. Campaign impact will be assessed through content analysis, web metrics, and focus group evaluations of improved competence and confidence. Lessons: Communication skills including the use of social media are becoming important skills for healthcare workers and researchers but are often lacking. Addressing expertise gaps requires capacity-building, peer learning, and adaptable training structures. Successful implementation science relies on teams’ ability to tailor interventions to new contexts; expert faculty support and collaborative learning enhance readiness, empowering health professionals to translate subject matter expertise into effective media campaigns.