Case Study: Increase audience by 137% and engage more than 86,000 participants to improve their health through interactive challenges, blogs and social media content.
Summary
In 2017, the ANA Enterprise — a platform dedicated to empowering nurses — launched Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ (HNHN). HNHN is a national initiative to improve the health of the nation by first improving the health of nurses. ANA Enterprise reached out to Aha Media Group (Aha Media) to develop a steady stream of highly engaging, ready-to-publish material, including original blogs, newsletters, social media posts and interactive challenges.
Through HNHN, more than 86,000 participants have taken steps to improve their health. In the initiative’s second year, the audience grew by 137%, and web traffic increased by 107%.
Lesson learned: Creating helpful, informative and easy-to-consume content empowers readers to take control of their health and make lasting changes.
YOY Growth
| Metric | Increase from 2017 to 2018 |
| Pageviews | +24% |
| Sessions | +107% |
| Users | +137% |
The Challenge
A health risk appraisal for RNs and nursing students showed that the collective health of nurses was in danger. RNs got less sleep, often weighed more and experienced higher stress than a typical American. Plus, job hazards like workplace violence and injuries from handling patients and equipment contributed to poor health.
To improve nurses’ health, ANA Enterprise created the online initiative Healthy Nurse, Healthy Nation™ Grand Challenge (HNHN). Aha Media provides them with motivating content including blogs, social media posts and health challenges to get — and keep — nurses excited about the initiative. The challenges describe daily, doable, health-minded tasks. Participants receive them via email or text.
Aha Media’s Approach
After reviewing ANA Enterprise’s Health Risk Appraisal findings, Aha Media developed a custom content creation strategy. The Aha Media team:
- Interviews stakeholders: To understand the unique health and safety issues nurses face, we talk to:
- Nursing students
- Registered nurses
- Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs)
- Board-certified nurse coaches (nurses who help other nurses lead balanced lives)
- Nurses with advanced degrees and specialized research in topics such as bullying, safe patient handling and mobility and optimal staffing practices.
- Creates an editorial calendar: The calendar maps out blog and challenge content for a 3-month period.
- Submits fresh content every month: Aha Media submits the content to the HNHN team, with ample time for editing and stakeholder review.
The Results
Overall Engagement*
- Participants: 86,000
- Partner organizations: 450
- Private Facebook group members: 3,588
*Numbers represent growth from January 2017 – March 2019
More than 86,000 participants are making their health, wellness and safety a priority through HNHN content. The project has led to:
Increases in nurse engagement
Each blog ends with a call to action to participate in a discussion or join a private Facebook community. Nurses share their struggles, providing HNHN and Aha Media with new topics to cover.
The most popular blog topics include:
- The Tough Stuff: How to Deal With the Death of a Patient
- Nursing Burnout: What It Is and What to Do About It
- Healthy Make-Ahead Lunches for Busy Nurses
The most popular challenges include the:
Improved social media engagement
The reader-friendly blogs and challenge tasks are highly shareable, creating conversation and connection between participants online and on social media. A private Facebook community for the HNHN participants, has more than 3,500 members.
Connection with partner organizations
This initiative allows HNHN to collaborate with other nursing organizations. So far, more than 450 organizations are participating. These partnerships help spread awareness of HNHN, and demonstrate the organizations’ commitment to their nurses.
Lessons Learned
- Lead change through custom content creation: Nurses and others are taking steps to achieve better health as a direct result of HNHN’s content.
- Involve the pros: Hiring a professional content firm allows HNHN’s staff to focus on program growth and development while consistently publishing interesting, inviting content.
- Be real: Relatable, accessible content leads to more engagement and performs better on social media than the scholarly publications ANA Enterprise often publishes.
- Use unexpected channels: Text-to-join functionality helps busy nurses engage with the content. HNHN noticed a significant increase in the challenge participation after enabling the texting tool.
- Let response inform content: After discovering that nurses found the challenges most helpful, Aha Media responded by creating more challenge content to keep nurses engaged.
About the Client
Who they are: To empower nurses, the ANA Enterprise leverages the combined strength of the American Nurses Association (ANA), the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), and the American Nurses Foundation (the Foundation).
Industry: Healthcare
Number of employees: 300+
In business since: 1896
Headquarters: Silver Spring, MD
