Using Social Media to Reach African Americans

Higher Disease Rates Elevate Importance

HYPERTENSION

44% of AAs US Pop vs. 27% of general population

HIV AND AIDS

Blacks account for about half (49%) of the people who get HIV and

AIDS, despite being only 14% of US Population (almost 600% greater

than US population)

DIABETES

4.9 million (an increase from 3.7 million in 2007), or 18.7% of all African

Americans, aged 20 years or older, also have diabetes (about 2X more

likely than Whites).

HIGH CHOLESTEROL

37% of Black men, 46% of Black women age 20 and over have levels

over 200.

OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY

79.8% of Black women and 67% of Black men are overweight. AA Men

index at 111 for Obesity, Women index at 166

ASTHMA

In 2004, 3.5 million Blacks had asthma. Blacks have the highest

asthma prevalence of any racial/ethnic group. 36 percent higher than

that for Whites.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

African American Consumers Online

Social Media Usage

69% of Black Consumers are on Facebook

26% of Black & 19% Hispanic Consumers are on Twitter

23% of Black & 18% of Hispanic consumers use Instagram compared to 11% of whites

Internet Usage

In 2011 there were 23.9 million AA internet users

68% of AA mothers are more likely read articles online

44% visited a Health, Fitness & Nutrition site

Nielsen, NetView Total (July 2011), Pew Internet and American Life Project 2010

African American

Consumers & Mobile

33% of all Black consumers own a smart phone

41% of Black consumers access the internet from their smart phones

37% use their mobile phones for social networking sites

43% utilize their smart phones for email

THE STATE OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN CONSUMERS, Nielsen, September 2011

BDO’s Total Audience Reach

August 2014

Total Uniques

BlackDoctor.org 4.6 Million 2.2 Million

Facebook 7 Million 7 Million

(Average Time on BDO 12 min.)

TOTALS 11.6 Million 9.2 Million

Compare Health Sites BDO has the most Facebook Likes by far!

10.08.14 Facebook

Facebook Insights

3.1M Total Reach

Showing data from 09/17/2014 – 09/23/2014

4,811,876

HOW TO ENGAGE YOUR

AUDIENCE VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

I. Experiment with the: Timing, Audience,

Visual of each post to increase engagement

New picture

New caption

II. Use Your NETWORK!

Many times, we have people in our own

network of friends & family that give us

topics, ideas, and subjects that can

engage your audience.

Using Your

NETWORK

III. Be Aware of Facebook Guidelines

Facebook changes daily!

How posts are rendered

Font choice

Link display

Security guidelines

Brand page guidelines

You need to be aware of all of these!

Facebook Guidelines

I. Make Your Tweet RT-Friendly

Instead of taking up all 140 characters of each tweet, keep it down to under 120.

A person is 9 times more likely to RT something if they do not have to edit it.**

A person is 5 times less likely to click on a link in a tweet in order to read

more.**

Source: HubSpot.com

II. Change Your Profile Picture

We received roughly 20% more engagement by simply

changing our profile picture. It lets people know that you’re

there. You’re ALIVE!

III. Leave Them Hanging!

When a tweet does really well (has a ton of RTs and responses),

leave it in your timeline for awhile before posting something else.

This is for those people who may follow you, but don’t always know

how awesome you are. Leaving a great tweet hanging allows them

to see all of your awesomeness without scrolling through your

timeline.

I. Add Subtitles

Since March 2010 auto-captioning has been available to all YouTube

users, so there's no technical excuse not to. Doing so adds captions for

the hundreds of millions of hearing impaired folk across the world,

ensuring your content is accessible to anyone who'd like to watch it.

Unlike the major networks, your YouTube doesn’t have

viewers that are readily checking your channel for new

content. You need to promote it…everywhere.

“One of the biggest failures of any YouTube Channel is to post

a video and leave it alone.”

-- Forbes

II. Remember, You Are Not ABC, CBS

NBC or Fox

III. Cross Promote Your Other Videos at

the Beginning of Existing Videos

“RoomieLoverFriends” being promoted before “Hello Cupid” episode

Cross Promote Your Other Videos at the

Beginning of Existing Videos

“Hello Cupid” being promoted before “RoomieLoverFriends” episode

QUESTIONS?