Abstract
Social media enables users to create, interact, and share their ideas, thoughts, and information through virtual networks and communities. It is not surprising that social media is perceived as useful sources of COVID-19 vaccine information The current study aimed to investigate which features of content creators and message strategies used in social media are related to users’ engagement with social media content and whether these features are associated with audience members’ behavioral intentions. Based on the Health Belief Model (HBM), two separate studies were conducted to identify: (1) whether the HBM constructs in social media messages related to the COVID-19 vaccine and features of content creators lead to increased user engagement (study 1); and (2) how people’s perceived HBM constructs, the HBM constructs in social media posts, content creators’ characteristics, user engagement behaviors, and people’s vaccination intentions are related (study 2). There were three key findings. First, content in social media posts targeting self-efficacy was associated with a greater willingness of users to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Second, social media posts from Black people, celebrities, or politicians received relatively more user engagement. Third, among the three engagement behaviors (liking, commenting, and sharing), only the “liking” behavior was indirectly related with the HBM constructs in social media posts and users’ vaccination intention. The findings of this study can add the predictive value of using constructs of the Health Belief Model in relation to the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine. In addition, our findings can assist public health professionals and policymakers to design effective message strategies for social media and select appropriate sources for these messages when promoting health behaviors.