Performance Analysis of a Facebook event for HIV/AIDS Prevention – The 2012 “Creature Detector” example

Chiu-Mei Chen¹, Li-Li Ho², Shu-Chen Yang², Shih-Hao Liu²

2013 Vol.29 NO.24

Correspondence Author： Chiu-Mei Chen

Abstract：

       According to statistics from Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC), 15-24 year olds have shown an increase of new HIV infections in the recent years. Due to the fact that the main risk factor of the infected persons is sexual behavior, this shows that “unsafe sex” is the main reason behind the increase in infected persons and the drop in infected age; this group is also the main social network user. Therefore, the Taiwan CDC set the young age group as the targeted audience, and set up the “1922 Epidemic Prevention Experts” Facebook page, and promoted the “Creature Detector” HIV/AIDS prevention event during the summer vacation of 2012 from June 22 to August 28. A total of 14,153 users participated in this event with an average of 2 logins per person, most on Wednesdays and after office/class hours. This event increased 18,670 fans of “1922 Epidemic Prevention Experts” Facebook page. Of the newly-joined fans, male (63.0%) exceeded female, with the most from the 13-24 year age group (52.1%). Cross-analyzing age and gender, male fans growth from all age groups also exceed those of females, with the highest growth rate being male fans between 13-17 years of age (1,582.9%). During the event, “Talking about this” on the page increased from 180 persons every day to 900, showing an eightfold increase. The results of the event show, aiming at target groups in designing suitable web events can contact with high risk subjects and change the formation of the fan page; in addition, this event also allows us to understand how to manage a Facebook fan page. In the future, the best timing for posts and event promotion will be used for the spreading of information and shares to enhance the effectiveness of the promotion.