Meals Matter – Increased Reach and Engagement Using Social Media

www.Mealsmatter.org

At the beginning of each year Mealsmatter.org (a non-commercial website managed by the Dairy Council of California) hosts a Nutrition & Fitness Challenge aimed at helping individuals get back on track with their New Year’s resolutions. Designed by registered dietitians, this three-week Challenge focuses on how to control holiday weight gain and renew a healthy lifestyle with guidance on nutrition, fitness, and meal planning.

This year, Meals Matter had a resolution of their own; to approach the Challenge from a new angle, leveraging social media channels to attract new participants and build the organization’s presence within the chosen channels as a valuable resource for nutritional information.

From the beginning, MoreVisibility has been guiding Meals Matter through a Social Media strategy to bring this goal to reality. Profiles and channels were designed by MoreVisibility in Facebook, Twitter, and LiveJournal to help participants connect with friends, family and other members for social support throughout the Challenge. A blog was designed as a place for Meals Matter to offer timely updates as well as additional nutritional and fitness information to website visitors.

Results

Meals Matter website experienced a 10% increase in overall visits to the site since the middle of December, many of which have stemmed from the social media channels. The blog has also been a tremendous success with the number of visits to the blog continuing to grow almost daily. Through the viral nature of Twitter we have seen Meals Matter’s Nutrition and Fitness Challenge, as well as the Meals Matter website, become a topic of conversation and recommended as a resource by other organizations including The Women’s Museum™: An Institute for the Future, a Smithsonian affiliate!

Not only have the social media pages presented another way to promote the Nutrition and Fitness Challenge; they have also provided an avenue to engage participants, reminding them to visit the website for daily activities that are part of the Challenge. Comparing this past month to the end of November and early December, the average number of page views has increased 60% and the average time a visitor spends on the website has increased approximately 50%.

“Overall, we have been pleased with the results of this year’s Challenge and look forward to continuing to utilize social media channels to promote health and nutritional information throughout the entire year.”