32 million people given authoritative information
In Pakistan, over 32 million people received authoritative information regarding COVID prevention and vaccination through social media messaging campaigns conducted by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Information’s Digital Media Wing (DMW) in partnership with Facebook.
Facebook provided marketing partner support and ad credits for these campaigns and helped the government increase its engagement rates with the public on these posts between March 16 and April 6.
As part of these campaigns, Facebook and the ministries focused on creating videos and messages on boosting greater vaccine confidence amongst the nation. The messaging campaigns helped the Ministry of Health increase its total number of page likes to 470,000 – increasing the government’s ability to connect with and provide information to its stakeholders.
As COVID-19 vaccines are becoming more readily available to larger groups, Facebook launched new Facebook profile frames in partnership with the Ministry of Health that allow users to share their support for getting vaccinated with their family and friends. Research shows, when people see others who they know and trust getting the vaccine, they will be encouraged to do the same. This can be particularly effective when it comes to encouraging those who were otherwise unsure about getting themselves vaccinated.
Speaking in regard to the support extended by Facebook Dr Faisal Sultan, the special assistant to the prime minister on health, said: “We are appreciative of the support extended by Facebook in our fight against COVID-19.”
Throughout the pandemic, Facebook has worked closely with the two ministries to direct people to authoritative COVID-19 information. A campaign to create awareness about spotting COVID-related misinformation on social media was also launched in Urdu for the Facebook community in Pakistan in partnership with the Ministry of Information’s Digital Media Wing.
On WhatsApp, over three billion messages have been sent by governments, nonprofits, and international organizations to citizens through the WhatsApp government chatbots on COVID 19.
