Social Media: General

The rise of social media has been meteoric over the past two decades, connecting people from across the world to share information regardless of geography and time. This entry provides a general breadth of understanding of how social media has been utilized in health communication. It begins with a brief examination of the differences between online health communities, which have traditionally been spaces for health discussions online, and health communities on social media platforms. Next, it briefly discusses each of the major social media platforms, including a short description, and presents examples of how these have been used in the health communication context. The entry then reviews the different theories that have been used in the social media/health communication space. It further considers “rules of thumb” when thinking about using social media for health communication promotion or campaign and trends. Finally, the entry concludes by examining health‐related misinformation and disinformation on social media platforms, and ends with a brief discussion regarding the future of social media and health communication.