Social media usage and strategies in motivating various generations of blood donors. Are we doing it right?

BACKGROUND

The study aimed to analyze social media platforms usage by blood donors, their responses to blood donation requests, most engaging ways of blood donor motivation from a donor perspective, and compare across different generations of blood donors.

METHODS

This research study is a Descriptive and quantitative cross-sectional analysis: a Google form Questionnaire-based survey conducted at Blood Centre, Tertiary-care Institute, South India (October 2020 to December 2020). All blood donors visiting the Blood Centre were eligible to participate in the survey. Facilities for blood donors to record their responses were made available using a QR code generated and displayed at the Blood Centre. The participants were categorized based on their age into different generations as: Generation Z currently aged 18-25 years, Millennials or Generation Y aged 26-40 years, and Generation X 41-58 years.

RESULTS

Total 600 Google-form responses collected were analyzed. Majority 580/600 (96.7%) participants actively used WhatsApp which remained the most frequently used Social media application across the three Generations X, Y, and Z of blood donors. 72% of Generation X and 60% of Millennials found live interactive sessions as more engaging than Generation Z (49%) (p < 0.05). Generation X donors found Newspaper (55%) and FM (47%) more engaging compared to Millennials (27%, 28%) and Generation Z (26%, 15%) (p < 0.05).

DISCUSSION

Although Social Media usage is in practice for blood donor motivation and recruitment, tailored motivational content is essential to target the blood donors across different age generations to achieve effective blood donor motivation leading to Blood donation.