Facebook: Helping State Officials Share Covid Information

The Covid-19 pandemic had the world come together to share information related to resources and help anyone in need. A number of social media apps dedicated a section to Covid-19 resources and updates. In order to expand the information, Facebook is helping state officials share Covid-19 information with local communities.

As part of their ongoing efforts to connect people to authoritative information about COVID-19 and vaccines, Facebook launched COVID-19 Announcements. This new tool will help US states and local public health departments share critical COVID-19 updates in local communities.

“Aurora is a large and diverse community, and spreading the word about the safety and availability of COVID vaccines has been crucial to our community’s healing and recovery. Our staff have used Facebook’s COVID Announcement Tool to reach residents more broadly and to overcome common communications barriers, certainly resulting in more people getting vaccinated and more safety for our city as a whole.” says Mayor Mike Coffman, Aurora, Colorado.

When authorities mark their post(s) as COVID-19 Announcement(s), Facebook will expand the reach so that it is seen by more people. Facebook also sends notifications about these posts to local community members thereby making the information visible in the COVID-19 Information Center.

“Thanks to Facebook’s support in helping us promote COVID-19 information on social media, Alabama residents have been kept informed about updated health guidance regarding mask wearing, social distancing, handwashing, and vaccine distribution. We have seen the impact this support has had in reaching our community at this critical time.” says the Alabama Department of Public Health.

The feature was launched in May and since then Facebook has sent out over 183 million notifications driving people to COVID-19 announcements from their state and local governments!

“Since the very beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Linn County Public Health has been committed and devoted to providing ongoing updates about the disease — and more recently about the vaccines — based on current science and data to our neighbors. Facebook’s COVID-19 Announcements tool has helped inform our community of important information. The most recent use of the announcement tool helped us reach nearly 18,000 people, and approximately 2,000 individuals engaged with the post.” says the Linn County Public Health Department.

Facebook believes that in our fight against Covid-19, access to timely information is critical. Hence, for the same they built the Covid-19 Announcements tool. It does feel happy to see these tools work out and help support several health leaders and public officials in their work to vaccinate people against Covid-19.