User research on Health Education England's social media audiences
Working in collaboration with Helpful Digital, we were asked to look into who Health Education England’s social media audiences are and how they can be communicated with better across different platforms. This piece of research sought to better understand user needs and behaviours, thereby informing decisions about future approaches.
The research looked at users of both Health Education England and Health Careers social media pages. We carried out 10 remote interviews, with the majority of these taking place over Zoom. We engaged with a range of user roles, including school leavers, a student nurse and a GP.
This group of users included individuals who engaged with the social media channels, as well as those who didn’t. The interviews explored questions surrounding general experiences of using these social media channels, specific user needs and how far these are currently being met.
One notable finding from our research was the different ways social media channels are used depending on the career stage of the user. For example, the career changers we engaged with used different social channels, and in distinctly different ways, to those further along their career path.
Some of these big differences in behaviours revealed by our research may not always be reflected in current approaches to managing HEE social channels and content.
The findings of the research are being used to inform and support the recommendations made by Helpful Digital about possible future approaches to social channels in Health Education England.
