The average teenager is glued to their phone, and, as they have a lot of questions about sexual health and sexually transmitted diseases, it makes sense that text messaging could be the medium by which sexual wellness experts answer those questions.
During a “Google Hangout” earlier this month on mobile health for youth, Tom Subak, CIO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America noted that whilst young people have a lot of the same questions about sex as in years past, the means of engaging youth have changed. He said during an online panel discussion, ‘It is really easy to ask a really tough question via SMS or via chat relative to what we all grew up with, which was having to get those words out of your mouth.’
He added that when young people fear their wellbeing is at risk, such as from an STD transmission or an accidental pregnancy, they tend to search for sex information which text messaging can quickly provide in an emergency: ‘They can just immediately dive in there with what’s really on their mind in a way that I certainly don’t think we were able to do before SMS was in everybody’s hands the way that it is now.’ Subak continued that text messaging, ‘as much as anything else, is a connector,’ to information and health services.
He reported that 10,000 to 20,000 young people contact Planned Parenthood via text message every month, and approximately 60% of these are referred to a health centre. Sam McKelvie, head of mobile strategy at marketing firm Mobile Commons, said that marketing Planned Parenthood’s SMS service for contraception and STD prevention education during MTV’s show 16 and Pregnant, was vital to its success: ‘With teens, you absolutely have to reach them where they are at, which is online, on social, in promoting these things on the social media networks that teens are on.’
McKelvie advised that we need to ‘pay attention to who’s exactly texting,’ as teens in minority and lower-income communities tend to text more than more affluent peers, due to the fact that they have less access to the Web than others might. She also noted that, whether the SMS campaigns are chat-like or giving more general information on a regular basis, marketers should allow two-way interaction. With teens, it is a mistake to view text messaging as ‘a broadcast-only medium,’ she said.
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