Use of social networking sites for youth prevention – 2/12/09

Q: How have other states used social networking sites, such as MySpace or Facebook, as part of their youth and young adult prevention efforts?  Please describe:

• How the social networking sites are being utilized in youth and young adult prevention efforts in your state
• Evaluation results demonstrating effectiveness
• Written policies or procedures to address the use of social networking sites in tobacco prevention activities

A:

1. Alabama: Alabama has a MySpace page that we use to get information about our You Choose Program (youth program) out to youth.  Our youth prevention program is a grant program that funds 26 communities.  Each grantee has high school advocate groups.  We put this page together so that the students have a place to share ideas since they are spread out all over the state.  We also post information about cessation (Quitline information and resources) on the site, too. We have talked about expanding to create a Facebook fan page, but have not gotten that up yet.  We started it so that we could have an inexpensive (free) way to get our message out (we do all of the Web site upkeep and creation in house).
    
   The page has been up less than a year and we spent a lot of time re-doing the graphics and enhancing the features on the page, so we have not yet done an official evaluation.  However, we have had over 1,000 hits on the site since we went live with it.
    
   As for protocol we have the following disclaimer posted as a blog (which is always accessible on our page):

   This MySpace [Page, page, website or whatever it actually is] is produced by the Alabama Department of Public Health in partial fulfillment of its statutory mission to provide current and relevant public health educational material to the public. In utilizing MySpace as a forum, the Department recognizes that reference may be made or inference may be drawn that the department or the State of Alabama endorses or provides a public forum for the advertising of commercial products or the advocacy of ideas or the display of pictures or other works that might be considered offensive to certain members of the public. In that regard, the Department on its behalf and on behalf of the State of Alabama hereby notifies all viewers that neither the Department nor any of its officers or employees on behalf of the Department or of the State of Alabama endorse or recommend purchase of any products advertised by MySpace on its face or in pop-ups or otherwise presented herein. Neither is it intended nor should there be inference drawn of any endorsement, accreditation, advocacy, affirmation, approval, commendation nor subscription to the thoughts, ideals or statements of our friends listed herein. The Department makes an honest effort to review all material associated with our Space and to edit out any material that might be considered objectionable to the average person applying contemporary community standards, which when taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest. Further, an honest effort is made to edit out any work that depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct or excretory functions specifically defined by applicable state law.
   Any reader that finds objectionable material should immediately contact the Department so that we review the work and may consider the deletion of such material if found to be objectionable.

   We have set the page so that our staff approves any friend requests, comments, etc., before they are posted on the site.  We also check our "friends" pages to make sure they do not have any questionable material posted.   See the protocol that we have on file for the site.

2. Indiana: Indiana's youth movement, VOICE, has used both MySpace and Facebook as social networking sites.   It is critical to assign staff and youth to regularly post information on Facebook and to do outreach to keep the site lively.  We also use MySpace for our movement to unite musicians and entertainers in secondhand smoke work.

Voice Locations

• Myspace
• Facebook:
  • The Voice “Fan page”
    (This is the page that is viewable to anyone, with or without a Facebook account.)
  • The Voice group page
    (This is viewable only to those with a Facebook account.)

Take Note Location

• Myspace

There is no evaluation.  We track response for the Take Note Website.  Regarding written policy, everything on Facebook for Voice gets clearance through our advertising contract staff.

3. Massachusetts: Massachusetts has used social networking sites to promote our own youth website and to engage youth in online activities such as our viewers’ choice contest – to rate the film shorts submitted by youth.  We have MySpace and Facebook pages.  We are using them to announce offline activities as well as online contests.  We have also “seeded” other social networking sites as a promotion strategy.  We have a written protocol for “accepting friends” on our MySpace and Facebook pages, though it can be harrowing – profiles change after they’ve been accepted and we have no control over that.  We have youth interns who are reviewing and assessing friend profiles on a regular basis.
    
   Evaluation overview – these are the figures regarding the MySpace campaign that was conducted last spring.
    
   The 84 MySpace portal was redesigned to attract Massachusetts teens to the 84 movement and facilitate navigation to the84.org.
   Success Metrics - Overall statistics and impressions include:

• 1,195 registrations came through the MySpace portal
• 2,994 profile views to date
• 1,618 current friends (started with 11)
• 969 pending friend requests
• 3,000+ messages were sent to teens
• 80 messages received from youth
• 30 bulletins were posted to friends
  
  
4. Washington: The Washington State Department of Health Tobacco Prevention and Control Program funds a youth tobacco prevention program. Some quick information related to our social networking: We surveyed past program participants in the summer and determined that they were most likely to use MySpace of Facebook for social networking. Accordingly, we created a MySpace page and Facebook (ACS SpeakOUT) profile.  We encourage youth who have participated in our training and activities to 'friend' or 'fan' us through their site. We use MySpace and Facebook to announce upcoming events, promote activities or highlight additional resources.  Messages sent through MySpace and Facebook are geared toward directing youth to visit our program website for more information.  Our program website houses the bulk of information and resources (i.e., registration forms for a training).  We simply use MySpace and Facebook to announce/promote/spread the word. We are not implementing any formal evaluation to demonstrate the effectiveness. We have not established written policies or procedures around the use of social marketing.  Our MySpace and Facebook are monitored and we maintain safeguards about content (i.e., comment approval before something is posted on MySpace).
    
5. West Virginia: West Virginia’s Raze youth empowerment intervention VERY MUCH utilizes many aspects of social networking as a part of our on-going youth interventions.  Please see www.razewv.com.  Especially notice the links to Raze Room, Tools, and Blogs.

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