Extension Collaborative on Immunization Teaching and Engagement: Dec 2021 Immunization Education Program Spotlight Menominee Nation

exciteThe focus of the November EXCITE Spotlight session was utilizing Social Media in our Vaccine Education project. Teams shared resources, success stories, and difficulties of using social media to share their project messages and reach their audiences. As part of the presentation, The College of Menominee Nation was highlighted for the significant progress made in their projects goals after launching social media campaigns to reach their target audience. The College of Menominee Nation is a tribal college located in Keshena, WI, and they have a population that can be especially vulnerable to this pandemic. While their county was one of the top 3 counties for vaccinations in Wisconsin, the 18-24-year-old target group rates were far below the rest of the population. Observing this, the EXCITE project team concluded that this age group didn't recognize the importance of the vaccine since they are young and healthy, and they may have seen information on social media that impacted their decision. To reach this age group, the team created short videos featuring selected vaccinated community members in that age group to share their personal stories on why they got vaccinated. These videos are posted to Instagram as Instagram Reals and on the College's Facebook page. They have created 8 videos in total, their first video highlighting a 17-year-old Menominee Tribal member who got vaccinated after catching Covid-19, and the video garnered around 5.3k views on the combined platforms. The vaccine rate among the 17-24 range in Menominee has risen from 31.2% to 77.6% since the start of their efforts.
View the team's social media videos in the National Registry, where all EXCITE teams are encouraged to upload their projects assets for sharing and resources for other teams doing immunization education work. Once on the website, click view National Registry and follow the prompts, and search College of the Menominee to view monthly reports!
We thank the Menominee EXCITE team,  @Brian Kowalkowski and Michaela Welch, for sharing their innovative social media success in their Vaccination Education campaign!