Knowledge mobilization through social media: evaluation of a social media campaign to promote support for working caregivers in Canada (Preprint)

Abstract

As population demographics continue to shift, many employees will also be tasked with providing informal care to a friend or family member. The balance between working and caregiving can place enormous strain on carer-employees. Caregiver-friendly work environments can help to reduce this burden. However, there is little awareness about the benefits of these workplace practices, and they have not been widely adopted in Canada. An awareness-generating social media campaign with the core message “Supporting caregivers at work makes good business sense “was created leading up to Canada’s National Caregivers Day on April 5, 2022.

This study aimed to describe the social media campaign's reach and compare engagement across platforms.

The number of posts, reach, and engagement with each social media post was captured through site-specific analytics on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn throughout the campaign. All posts directed individuals to tools and resources on a campaign microsite, and the number of views, downloads, bounce rate and time on the page were counted with google analytics. Open, and click-through rates were measured using email analytics, and webinar registrants and attendees were also tracked.

Data were collected from September 22, 2021, to April 12, 2022. While Facebook posts generated the most extensive reach, the engagement quality was low. Twitter resulted in the highest percentage of impressions that resulted in engagement (24%), and those who viewed resources through Twitter spent a substantial amount of time on the page (3:05 minutes). While time on page and page depth was greatest on Instagram, the overall reach was low. Recipients’ engagement with email content met industry standards, and webinar participation was successful.

This social media campaign reached a large audience and generated engagement in content. Twitter appears to be most helpful for this type of knowledge mobilization. Further work is needed to evaluate the characteristics of individuals engaging in this content and to work more closely with employers and employees to move from engagement and awareness to adopting caregiver-friendly workplace practices.