An Application of Viral Marketing Concept to Evaluate Health Communication VDOs : A Case of VDOs to Disseminate Knowledge and Create Positive Attitude Towards the Intermediate Care Rehabilitation

Abstract

In this study, 12 VDOs from the "Intermediate Care Sansai Hospital" Facebook page were evaluated. The quantitative approach examined Facebook page usage data for VDOs and examined the VDOs' characteristics using the concept of viral marketing. To evaluate users' satisfaction, the qualitative research included focus groups with 24 members of an interdisciplinary team, village health volunteers, caregivers, and patients. Four VDO formats were produced by the Intermediate Care Services Improvement Project. The VDOs featured the seven-episode "Cool Health Volunteer" series with its entertaining-educational structure, the "Burden" with its emotional, educational, and testimonial style, the "Feeling OK" with its musical, testimonial, and inspiring tone, and three short VDOs. According to the quantitative study, the three VDOs with the largest reaches were “Feeling OK” (18,900 reaches), “Karaoke Speech Training”, and “Tongue Brushing”, which each had 5,900 reaches. Comments from the audience were less frequent than audience reactions (likes and emoticons). The majority of studied VDOs did not meet viral VDO’s characters. Only two VDOs met five viral marketing guidelines. However, the short VDOs with fewer viral marketing characters likewise displayed the high total number of minutes viewed. The target groups, according to the focus group, were satisfied with the VDOs but would only watch those that related to their illnesses. It was suggested to use the existing Line group to disseminate VDOs as well. This study made the recommendation that viral VDO characters be used in health communication initiatives. The project should take into account both the audience reach and the VDO retention rate when evaluating health communication VDOs.