Virtual Presence TikTok Takes on FOAMed

TikTok Takes on FOAMed

By Steven Haywood, MD, on behalf of the SAEM Virtual Presence Committee

Every day in the United States, 105 million hours of short form videos are viewed on the platform TikTok. In fact, TikTok has been the most downloaded app for the past three years. The success of TikTok has driven other social media platforms to offer options for short format videos. This explosion in short format video has presented medical educators and public health advocates with a unique opportunity to communicate important health information and education. Here are some tips gleaned from some of the early literature regarding this format.

Create Factual, Evidencebased Content!

When creating short form videos for the purpose of public health education, factual accuracy is most important. With the COVID-19 pandemic, inaccurate public health information caused doubts in our health care system. Vaccination rates quickly stalled due to misinformation. Many lives were lost because of medical misinformation. The allure of viral status may cause some to drift from the underlying goal of dissemination of factual, high-quality information. Medical misinformation on TikTok has been found in at least 11.6% of videos claiming to be “for the purpose of medical education.”

“When creating short form videos for the purpose of public health education, factual accuracy is most important.” Conversely, a review of health education videos by Om et.al., found that content published by physicians was most likely to be factual. We need physicians to create medical education and public health content!

Consistency is King!

A group of researchers in China led by Chengyan Zhu evaluated how TikTok was being used for public health information dissemination. They found

that the public health agencies that posted consistently had significantly higher engagement rates. Posting videos frequently increases the likelihood that users will see your content and engage with that content. Frequent content creation and posting also increases familiarity with the app and increases the quality of content that is delivered. Most recommendations for consistency recommend posting daily; however, due to the demands on physicians, creating a daily, high-quality, short form video is not possible. Thus, for institutions that are interested in using short form video, collaboration from multiple contributors is essential to consistency.

Stick to your talents

Users such as Dr. Glaucomflecken (@drglaucomflecken) create videos with characters and skits that consistently appear on user’s “For You Page”; however, when looking at videos published by public health agencies, researchers found that documentary style videos had the highest engagement rates. Conversely, engagement rates dropped significantly when skits were incorporated into public health videos. Yet skits are entertaining and can be effectively used for public health education provided that you the creator does not lose sight of the primary goal of the skit, which is to educate and inform. The key is to stick to your talents. If you are not comfortable acting out skits and creating characters, then don’t. Even documentary and lecture style videos perform well when delivered in a charismatic manner.

Add Music

Music has long been known to increase cerebral engagement; thus, not surprisingly, adding music to a short form video was found to increase engagement rates. Additionally, any background noise inadvertently recorded during the video will be blunted by background music. The key to adding music to a short form video is to keep the volumes low and choose music that will not distract from the content of the video. Zhu, et. al., found that when original music was incorporated into videos the engagement rate rose significantly. All social media platforms that have a short format video option make it easy to add stock background music to your videos.

Monitor the Comments (And Block the Trolls)

The comments section of short form video platforms is also a great way to create a two-way conversation with the public; however, the comments section is also a place where misinformation and confusion can spread and therefore it needs to be monitored. Social media platforms allow you to place filters on the comments section whereby the use of certain keywords will automatically initiate the removal of a comment. That said, sometimes the comments section includes genuine questions and healthy discussion that can increase engagement in a productive way. One way to increase engagement and feedback in the comments section is by adding a question in the video for users to answer in the comments.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Haywood is assistant professor of emergency medicine at Nova Southeastern University and simulation director at Magnolia Regional Medical Center. Dr. Haywood is the chair of the SAEM Virtual Presence Committee and a senior editor on CriticalCareNow.com. Dr. Haywood has a passion for online education providing medical education across social media platforms under the handle @HeySteveMD.