Beyond Likes and Shares: Harnessing Social Media for Behavior Change

Social media has become one of the most powerful channels for shaping attitudes, spreading information, and influencing behaviors at scale. Yet questions remain about its effectiveness, cost-efficiency, and sustainability as a behavior change tool. This panel brings together leading researchers and practitioners to move the conversation beyond vanity metrics and toward meaningful, evidence-informed impact.

Dr. W. Douglas Evans (George Washington University) will open by framing the field of digital media for behavior change-why rigorous evidence remains limited and how evaluation methods must evolve to better capture impact. Dr. Sohail Agha (University of Washington; Behavioral Insights Lab) and Wu Zeng (Georgetown University) will follow with country-level evidence from Bangladesh and Nigeria, demonstrating that social media–based campaigns can be both impactful and highly cost-effective in supporting vaccine uptake. Drew Bernard and Sarah Francis (Upswell) will then show how behavioral science–driven design and trust-based messenger selection can turn low-trust institutional messages into high-trust peer recommendations that outperform misinformation online. Finally, Sarah Christie, Hannah Melchinger, Maike Winters, Surangani Abeyesekera, and Saad Omer will share global insights from UNICEF's 13-country collaboration-demonstrating how digital communication can boost vaccine demand at scale through targeted, evidence-based messaging.

Together, the panel will showcase how rigorous research, cost-effectiveness analysis, behavioral design, and large-scale implementation converge to define the next generation of digital SBCC. Attendees will gain practical and policy-relevant insights into when, how, and why social media can achieve sustainable, measurable behavior change.