Covered California met with several consumers who had reached out to us on social media to share their powerful, personal stories. These conversations led to the creation of three “Real Stories” videos, where each consumer shared how health coverage through Covered California positively impacted or even saved their life. The series resulted in some of the highest levels of engagement Covered California social channels have ever received.
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Company: Covered California
Entry submitted by: Amanda Danley (Senior Marketing Specialist)
Community/Social Channels:
Facebook (English): https://www.facebook.com/CoveredCA/
Twitter (English): https://twitter.com/CoveredCA
Instagram (English + Spanish): https://www.instagram.com/coveredca/
Facebook (Spanish): https://www.facebook.com/CoveredCAEspanol/
Twitter (Spanish): https://twitter.com/CoveredCA_es
Lithy category: Social Marketing Champion
Covered California is the state-based health insurance exchange under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) where Californians can get brand-name health coverage. It’s the only place to get federal premium assistance to help lower the cost of having health insurance.
Goal & Key Strategies
Significant political events – with potential implications for Covered California – took place this past fall and winter during the most recent Open Enrollment (OE) period. These events raised consumer questions about the future of the Affordable Care Act and Covered California. This took the form of passionate, supportive messages from those who have benefited from having coverage, as well as messages from those opposed to it.
In early January 2017, Covered California met with several consumers who had reached out to us on social media to share their powerful, personal stories. These conversations led to the creation of three “Real Stories” videos, where each consumer shared how health coverage through Covered California positively impacted or even saved their life. These videos were quickly produced to be posted online before the OE deadline on January 31. With a small budget and only six days left to promote, the videos were posted on Facebook and received an overwhelming level of engagement.
The videos can be seen here:
Anita: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddPwOjh2UQI
Kellie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gi4QH5pypc
Charis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ukf8Dk1l2c
The Plan
The target audience for the “Real Stories” videos included both current fans on Facebook and “lookalike” audiences within California who share similar interests. Because health insurance and the Affordable Care Act impact individuals between 26-64, targeting too specifically would significantly limit or reduce content reach and potential impact. The videos were optimized to drive engagement.
The team utilized Lithium Social Media Management (SMM) for Marketing to schedule, approve and publish the videos during the six-day long campaign. This allowed for data to be analyzed in real-time so the team could determine if one video was outperforming another so adjustments could be made to the boosting of the posts.
Lithium SMM for Service was critical to manage the influx of personal stories that were received due to the video posts on Facebook. These comments added to the other messages received regarding the OE deadline. During the time the videos were promoted, more than 2,700 posts were received overall and the team responded more than 1,300 times:
The Results
The “Real Stories” videos received a tremendous amount of support from Californians who were concerned about the future of the ACA. The series resulted in some of the highest levels of engagement Covered California social channels have ever received.
Overall, the videos reached more than 1.4 million Californians in the six days they were promoted, attracting 4,370 post reactions (likes), 476 comments, and 923 shares. There were more than 332,000 video views (3 seconds or longer) and the average engagement rate was 24% - significantly higher than the 3% goal. The cost per engagement was very low, at $0.04. Additionally, the videos were responsible for adding 337 new Facebook fans.
Perhaps the greatest engagement on these videos came in the form of user comments – shared stories from other Covered California members. The video series created an opportunity for others to share their own stories and show support for Covered California and validate the importance of having health insurance.
We received many personal stories from of our members highlighting how much they valued the organization and their coverage. These stories provided an opportunity for us to connect with these users to learn more about their experiences, and potentially create additional video stories in the future. Little is more powerful than genuine, compelling, emotional stories – and we received many in a short period, at a critical moment – the deadline to enroll in health coverage.
Examples of comments received:
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