FINAL

Introduction

Technology, especially the coming of various social media platforms, have changed methods of marketing. The health sector today can use social media tools to advance preventive and curative healthcare services to a wide population. Social media tools, when properly used, facilitate instantaneous feedback, creation of a networked community and enhance the dissemination of information. Today, most Americans suffer from obesity or overweight. Various indicators show that poor nutrition plays a significant role in the phenomenon. It makes sense to target youths with nutrition matters as they form the economically active population and make the most nutritional mistakes leading to the high cases of obesity in the country. Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram give enough platform to inform and educate the youths on better nutritional choices. Hashtags and use of social backers make the marketing of healthcare programs efficient and effective.

Obesity and overweight remain one of the top public health issue affecting most Americans. The world health organization has reported that the USA numbers remain the highest in the world. Obese people spend more on medical expenses annually as compared to the non-obese people. The government of the USA also spend more on providing medical services because of high cases of obesity. Statistics show that 39.8 % of USA adults above 20 years suffer obesity (Ogden et al., 2015). On the same age bracket, an additional 31.8 % suffer from overweight (Hales et al., 2017). Considering the past decades, obesity rates in the USA tend to keep rising. Many research studies claim that problems of obesity and overweight emanate from poor nutrition and physical inactivity. Due to the increasing medical expenses, increasing cases of overweight and various diseases affecting obese people, the time has come to device a public health program. The aim of the program will be sensitize and disseminate information on nutrition and its role in curbing obesity to young adults. In marketing the plan on a need to keep a nutritional check, public health sector intends to use social media tools to reach out to as many people as possible as well as getting immediate feedback.

Most Americans use social media to check on trends, events, and continuous communication. The penetration of social media in the country remains high at 70%, and 79% of the population has a social media profile in one of the platforms (Hales et al., 2017). Healthcare providers have to use multiple platforms, for instance, snap chat, twitter, and Facebook to reach the target audience (Young adults of 20 years plus). Social media marketers need to use tools such as Hashtags and social backers to ensure online presence, immediate feedback, and continuous engagement on the nutritional change health program. When putting the message across on the need to change nutrition, healthcare campaign needs to reach a broad audience, deliver the message convincingly, and monitor the reaction from the youths on the same program. The use of Hashtag and social backer tools will provide efficient and effective program marketing to the target population.

Conclusion

Hashtags help in increasing social media outreach. It attracts a real audience, grow conversation participates, and resonates well with the youth (target audience). By using HashtagsForLikes, its algorithms help in coming up with the best Hashtag for a given program and facilitate its social media spread. Hashtags help in attracting target niche followers and unit audience interested in the program. The tool enhances both twitter and Instagram marketing. Social backers enable social media marketers to use AI (artificial intelligence) to understand audience behavior. It personalizes content when engaging customers but helps in the growing fan base. It also helps in managing different social media accounts whereby one content is seamlessly posted across all platforms. When marketing the importance of nutritional change to youths, healthcare providers should use hashtags to make the topic trendy and grow the audience for the same. Social backers will help in content creation, customization, and engaging fan base on the program.

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