OCD Online: Strategies to Build Engagement for Mental Health Content on Social Media

Social media is a tool with the potential to shape health communication. This study seeks to apply models of social media engagement from brand communication studies to explore how social media practitioners can effectively build engagement for mental health messaging. The study takes root in the concepts of social media engagement behavior (SMEB) and active vs. passive engagement outlined in the work of Dolan et al. (2019) and Shahbaznezhad et al. (2022). The application of these concepts to health communication provides new insight into the effectiveness of various messaging strategies—with a focus on OCD, a disorder that faces high levels of stigma and misrepresentation online. To achieve this purpose, this study created a real Instagram account (@ocd_otter), which was filled with educational content about OCD. Each piece of content fits within either side two key variables: video/infographic and rational/emotional. The following analysis looks at the Instagram metric results, and the results of a survey promoted on the account to determine which attributes were most successful in generating overall and various types of engagement. The results were widely inconclusive but provided some insight into the usefulness of various content types in generating specific engagement behaviors. Videos and emotional content both led to higher impressions/traffic. Infographics led to more saves than videos, and rational content led to more likes than emotional. The dual method of the metrics and survey led to complexity in the analysis. While research implications are limited, the project’s methodology led to a real-world impact in terms of mental health advocacy. Social media users reported that they felt represented by the OCD Otter account and learned new things as a result of its content.