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Information, Social/Public Media

WHO Joins TikTok – Thinking Coronavirus and Communication

March 3, 2020 By Bryan Vartabedian · Reading Time: 2 minutes

To fight misinformation around the coronavirus pandemic, the WHO (World Health Organization) recently joined TikTok. Crazy? Maybe not. When the public health arm of the United Nations joins the trendiest new social network you know something serious is going on.

So what can we learn when the WHO joins TikTok?

We can draw a couple of things from this move:

You have to meet people where they’re at. For many adults, social platforms are where they get their news and information — for better or worse. So the WHO’s move to bring information to their turf makes perfect sense.

We’re facing an infodemic. We are facing an infodemic as described in Lancet recently. It seems that the spread of misinformation about coronavirus could be nearly as damaging as the pandemic itself. So creating memes and clips with the right public health messaging on places like TikTok is the antidote to the infodemic. When it comes to hysterical public dialog, the solution to pollution is dilution. And we need more good information out there.

But being there is half as important as what you do there

So sure, it’s newsworthy when the WHO joins TikTok. But as with any social network, being there is only half as important as what you do once you’re there. The ability of any message to carry on TikTok depends on the creative elements used to package the idea. Understanding how to make ideas carry on a platform like TikTok takes some know-how. If I were the World Health Organization I might hire a couple of sharp young TikTok influencers to help shape great posts. Just an idea.

To date the social response to COVID-19 by the CDC has been good, but far from creative. More push messaging than engagement from what I’ve observed. But maybe I’ve missed it.

Serious times call for a serious approch to communication strategy. So hopefully we’ll see more social innovation from the CDC and other public health bodies.

But maybe this move from the WHO is a start.


If you like WHO Joins TikTok you might like the 33 charts TikTok Archives. This collection captures everything that 33c has written about TikTok. So check it out. Remember that every 33 charts post has tags just below the post that bring you to related archived information and collections.

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Bryan Vartabedian, MD

Bryan Vartabedian, MD
Bryan Vartabedian is the Chief Medical Officer at Texas Children’s Hospital Austin and one of health care’s influential
voices on technology & medicine.
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