Traditional vs. social networking routes for organ donation registrations in a competition-based campaign

Abstract

Background

Michigan ranks as the sixth lowest state for registered organ donors. To increase enrollment, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) funded the addition of a social networking component to enhance the existing traditional Wolverine–Buckeye Challenge campaign. The goal for all campaign materials was to heighten students’ social identification by featuring college images (football helmets) on materials directing students to a webpage where they could register as an organ donor and ‘score a point’ for their school. This paper reports the number of registrations for the campaign as well as the relative effectiveness of traditional materials (i.e. print) vs. social networking routes (i.e. Facebook).

Method

The number of registrations in which individuals ‘credited’ the University of Michigan for their online registration during the campaign periods was recorded by the Michigan Secretary of State to determine the source through which individuals learned of organ donation. These daily registration values were used to compare the registrations in different time periods of the campaign. In addition, data from Google Analytics were used to determine whether visitors clicked on a link to the signup page from a networking route or whether they visited the webpage directly. The mean number of visits to the signup pages for the various portions of the campaign was compared.

Results

In the baseline year of the Wolverine–Buckeye Challenge, there were 224 signups, 451 in the second year, and 1756 in the third. There was no significant difference between direct and social network routes for visits to the organ donation registration page.

Discussion

Social networking was effective in enhancing the campaign. This paper presents lessons learned to benefit others running social networking-enhanced health campaigns including partnerships with existing Facebook fan pages.

Keywords:

• Health communication campaigns
• Organ donation communication
• Organ donation communication campaigns
• Organ donation registration
• Organ donor cards
• Tissue donation

Author information

Rose Hitt's (PhD, Department of Communication, Michigan State University) research interests involve persuasive messages in the context of health. As a PhD candidate at Michigan State University, she was the Grant Manager for the Health and Resource Administration (HRSA) grant that funded the Wolverine–Buckeye Challenge and Campus Challenge organ donation registration campaigns described in this case.

Rebecca Gidley's (M.A., Department of Communication, Michigan State University) research interests include interpersonal communication and health communication.

Sandi W. Smith (PhD, University of Southern California) is the Director of the Health and Risk Communication Center and Professor in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University where she teaches courses in persuasion, communication theory, and interpersonal communication. Her research interests parallel these course topics and have been funded by private foundations and governmental agencies. In specific, she has focused her research on the impact of memorable messages received from important others on health behaviors; persuading people to carry signed and witnessed organ donor cards and to engage in family discussion about their decisions related to organ donation.

Yuhua (Jake) Liang (PhD, Department of Communication, Michigan State University) is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Chapman University. His research focuses on persuasion in computer-mediated contexts.