Give Me a Like: How HIV/AIDS Nonprofit Organizations Can Engage Their Audience on Facebook

Abstract: With the rapid proliferation and adoption of social media among healthcare professionals and organizations, social media-based HIV/AIDS intervention programs have become increasingly popular. However, the question of the effectiveness of the HIV/AIDS messages disseminated via social media has received scant attention in the literature. The current study applies content analysis to examine the relationship between Facebook messaging strategies employed by 110 HIV/AIDS nonprofit organizations and audience reactions in the form of liking, commenting, and sharing behavior. The results reveal that HIV/AIDS nonprofit organizations often use informational messages as one-way communication with their audience instead of dialogic interactions. Some specific types of messages, such as medication-focused messages, engender better audience engagement, in contrast, event-related messages and call-to-action messages appear to translate into lower corresponding audience reactions. The findings provide guidance to HIV/AIDS organizations in developing effective social media communication strategies.