This study examined the usage of social media for surveillance and treatment compliance during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in Ghana. Through a quantitative cross-sectional design and an online questionnaire, n = 130 frontline health professionals were sampled for the study. A multiplatform research approach was applied to assess the role of social media for COVID-19 surveillance and treatment compliance.

Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data received from respondents. The results indicate prominent use for COVID-19 surveillance and treatment compliance are; WhatsApp, Facebook, X, and YouTube, respectively.

To evaluate the effectiveness of social media platforms for surveillance and treatment compliance, five metrics were randomly chosen Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) were used. These KPIs include; post likes, post shares, post comments, click-through rate, and post engagement rate.

The results revealed the following; Facebook (34%) for post sharing, WhatsApp (31%) for post comments, X (30%) for tweets/ retweets and YouTube (30%) for post commenting. For the type of media content, the findings reported the following; public sentiment content was rated first, followed by data collection, the third media content is medication, and adherence to therapies respectively.

Further analysis reveals that social media facilitate the retrieval of data for official use, disease detection, and timely estimation and the prediction of the spread of COVID-19. For treatment compliance, the findings show that, when used correctly, social media can promote health advocacy and community mobilisation, increase public knowledge of treatment protocols, and building trust in public health organisations.

On the challenges of social media for COVID-19 public health communication campaigns, the study identified inadequate budgetary allocations, low digital literacy, and unstable internet services as the major limitations associated with the use of social media for COVID-19 surveillance and treatment compliance campaigns.

This study enriches the literature on social media for COVID-19 surveillance and treatment compliance from the perspective of less-studied regions like those in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The findings from this study show that social media applications for public health communication campaigns for COVID-19 have drastically improved access to health information for positive health behavioural changes.

The findings suggest that frontline health workers used Facebook and WhatsApp most for COVID-19 surveillance and treatment compliance. The adoption of a variety of social media platforms and strategies such as online TV, online radio, online newspapers, electronic images such as flyers and posters, and digital brochures for the dissemination of public health information and messages is aimed at helping to change citizen’s knowledge, behaviours, and attitudes towards public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic.

The successful implementation of Social media communication strategies has a great possibility to influence social norms, reinforce positive behaviour, and guide citizens to improve their health conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Furthermore, the findings of this study suggest that Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Twitter have helped in embarking on comprehensive COVID-19 pandemic education in Ghana. The responses from this study indicate that Ghana’s success story in managing COVID-19 is well attributed to the heavy reliance on social media platforms for public health communication campaigns.

Social media platforms have also improved, bringing additional and enhanced benefits to healthcare communication, especially during the COVID-19 outbreak. For much more improved application of social media platforms for comprehensive COVID-19 campaigns, the researcher recommends the development of social media user guidelines to ensure standards, as well as evaluation and validation of the COVID-19 content shared on various social media platforms.

The guidelines for social media users could also ensure the safety and quality of the health information shared and received from the general public.

In summary, predominant social media platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and YouTube are already invaluable channels adopted for COVID-19 prevention and possible eradication. For the increased relevance of these platforms in global efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19, the inclusion and incorporation of social media platforms in public health campaigns on COVID-19 and future public health crisis are expected to become even more widely accepted by many public health institutions in Ghana and other parts of the globe.

However, some healthcare professionals are still reluctant and hold a strong view that social media platforms in health communication lack the scientific rigor to adopt their use in public health emergencies.

The application of social media has benefits for frontline health officials; however, many of the frontline heal still lack the required digital media literacy skills and understanding relating to associated risks or dangers in social media usage.

This study is published by Fudan Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences.
You can Access the research article via : https://doi.org/10.1007/s40647-026-00465-8