Using social media for public health emergency

This study aims to (i) investigate the characteristics of health messages from public health agencies via their social media channels during pandemics, and (ii) identify the factors influencing how recipients engage with and respond to these messages. We reviewed 85 journal articles after screening seven academic databases with relevant keywords up to March 2022. These articles are empirical studies using data from seven social media platforms, covering four pandemics. This review shows that the articles studied six core areas to assess health messages and customer engagement: mask wearing, vaccine trial, misinformation fact-checking, routine mass asymptomatic testing, physical distancing, and stay-at-home order. Five factors characterised health messages and influenced engagement namely - source, content, subject, richness, and tone. Supply often fell short of demand, thereby weakening engagement. These preliminary findings indicate the need for more proactiveness from public health agencies to nurture and sustain customer engagement in their social media health messages.