Now that your team has decided on a plan, it is time to start thinking about which communication strategies you can use to reach the student body. Also, depending on which plan you’ll be implementing, you’ll need to engage in different communication strategies. Below, we describe several strategies and also provide you with a number of sample messages you can use and adapt to your campus.
Working with Student Groups
- Greek Life: Fraternities and Sororities on campus can be great resources to help create an internal competition. There is a natural rivalry between different houses, so use this rivalry to get all Greek life students vaccinated. Work with the Panhellenic council to work out details of how you are going to monitor and evaluate the outcome.
- Athletic Teams: Athletes are competitive, and love the chance to win. Build a vaccination competition between athletic teams on your campus, and work with coaches and staff to measure how many athletes get vaccinated. Athletes make up a significant portion of students and are great leaders to engage in helping spread the word about the importance of HPV vaccine.
- Majors/Schools: Reach out to the dean of a different school (or major within your school) to start a competition between majors. These groups of students take classes together, study together, and research together. This provides an opportunity to communicate with a large group of students at once.
- Campus Organizations: Connecting with on-campus groups can help your message reach a large number of students without reaching out to them individually. Also, think about what support you need. A student in communications, health education, or another major might be interested in an internship opportunity focused on implementing some of these ideas and spreading the word about the importance of HPV vaccine.
Print Materials
Posters
Use existing print materials from immunization coalitions and the CDC to promote HPV vaccination across your campus. Many excellent resources are downloadable and free to use. Hanging up posters around campus and in your health center can help reach students and bring their attention to the importance of the vaccine. For example, a bathroom stall poster campaign on campus is an efficient way to communicate public health information with consumers, especially college-age students. The bathroom is a place that most everyone visits, and the back of the bathroom stall door is a blank “billboard” waiting to be used. Keep in mind that you may need to contact facilities personnel or obtain special permission to use this space, but the effort is well worth it.
Engage Resident Assistants (RAs): RAs across campus update bulletin boards in residence halls. Provide them with posters and information they can use to decorate their boards.
Newspaper
Does your school have a newsletter or newspaper that is distributed to all students? If so, find out what it takes to write an article for one of these publications and get the message out there about the HPV vaccine and what students need to do to get the vaccine.
Electronic Communication
Email Blasts
Partner with your media relations team to send blast e-mails to students. This is a great exercise to practice emergency communications messaging capabilities. Use this opportunity to share information about HPV, why students should get vaccinated, where they can get vaccinated, and address cost issues for people who have questions about out-of-pocket expenses.
Use Online Resources
Use credible videos and websites to create awareness about HPV. Share these widely on both internal and external websites frequented by students.
Social Media
- Hashtags: Create a hashtag that is specific to your campus and HPV immunization. You want consistency among posts, so branding a hashtag that is specific to your school will help increase usage of the hashtag.
- Engage Users: Create a selfie competition on your campus and have students send in selfies of places they go after they received their shot. Or, you could give those who received the vaccine on campus special band-aids that they can use in their selfies to help spread awareness about the importance of the HPV vaccine.
- Engage Campus Leaders: Campus leaders such as the President, football coach, or school mascot can have a large social media reach. Ask them to tweet about HPV or provide them with a sample message they can post or tweet to help encourage students to get vaccinated.
- Engage Greek Life: Student leaders in Greek life also can have a huge social media reach. Asking them to post about HPV vaccination can spread the word to a large group of students.
- Utilize Interns: This would be a great project for an intern to work on. They know what their peers are reading on social media and can help craft creative posts that will resonate with students on your campus.
Sample Social Media Posts
Using Personal Stories
You may have faculty, staff, and/or students on campus who have been impacted by HPV. Most types of cervical cancer are caused by HPV, so this can be a good place to start when looking for people to share their story. Personal stories can be recorded through print, video or both. Showing the local impact of HPV can provide a meaningful connection with your students
If you are looking for another way to share personal stories, several organizations have advocate stories available. The American Cancer Society’s YouTube channel offers a selection of HPV stories, featuring interviews with physicians, researchers and survivors. The Indiana Immunization Coalition offers HPV stories in print as well as several video clips. See the appendix for more national and local organizations that can help spread the word.