Jen Thornton Social Media and Campaigns Officer, ASH Wales, Cardiff
Abstract
The use of social media, particularly Twitter and Facebook, plays a large and ever increasing role in young people's lives.
By proactively interacting with specific users who post content related to smoking, The Filter has been able to provide cessation advice and information to young people who smoke via its social media portals.
We are beginning to gather evidence that our interaction with young people on social media is helping them to reduce their smoking or helping them to give up altogether.
In the first 3 months of this year alone we have had 129 separate contacts with young people
In addition we have had 159 interactions with young people who are trying to give up smoking which shows that many young people are engaging with us beyond an initial piece of advice. Some young people are having up to 6 interactions with us over a few days.
We re-post and share young people's own views with our followers to start a conversation rather than purely a one-way information transfer. We encourage young people to interact with our social media portals by posting young person-friendly content such as user-generated films and blog posts which back up our direct interactions with young people.
The Filter is the first youth smoking cessation service in Wales.�It is aimed at 11-25 year olds and has multiple strands including a web information service, interactive youth advice service, training for professionals working with young people, workshops on issues around smoking and young people, and opportunities for volunteering.
