Focus groups with young Black and Latino men who have sex with men identified Instagram as the preferred platform and authenticity, lived experience, targeted marketing, sex positivity, and balance of humor with seriousness as key factors for effective PrEP messaging through social media influencers.
Instagram was the most frequently used and preferred social media platform among YBLMSM for PrEP health promotion campaigns.
Authenticity was identified as a critical factor for effective PrEP messaging delivered by social media influencers.
Lived experience with PrEP was identified as an important quality for social media influencers serving as PrEP messengers.
Participants preferred targeted marketing directed at their specific community over broad-reach messaging for PrEP promotion.
Sex positivity was identified as an essential component of effective PrEP messaging for YBLMSM.
Participants emphasized that effective PrEP messaging should balance humor with seriousness rather than adopting a purely clinical or comedic tone.
The study used virtual focus groups conducted during January to March 2021 with 22 YBLMSM across five sessions.
The SMASH campaign was designed as a multi-component intervention using social media influencers and short videos to promote PrEP awareness and uptake among YBLMSM.
This research suggests that young Black and Latino men who have sex with men (ages 18-29) have specific preferences for how HIV prevention information about PrEP (a medication that prevents HIV) should be delivered to them on social media. Researchers held five online focus groups with 22 participants in early 2021 to understand which platforms they use, what kind of content resonates with them, and what makes a social media influencer an effective health messenger. Instagram emerged as the preferred platform, described as versatile and widely used, while Facebook was seen as outdated and TikTok as skewing toward a younger crowd. Participants were clear about what makes health messaging work for them: influencers need to be authentic and ideally have personal experience with PrEP, content should be targeted specifically to their community rather than broadly aimed, messaging should be sex-positive without shame or stigma around sexual behavior, and videos should blend humor with genuine health information rather than being purely clinical or purely comedic. These five factors — authenticity, lived experience, targeted marketing, sex positivity, and tonal balance — were seen as essential ingredients for campaigns that actually connect with this audience. This research matters because Black and Latino men who have sex with men face disproportionately high rates of HIV and lower rates of PrEP use compared to other groups. The findings were directly used to shape the SMASH (Social Media and Sexual Health) campaign, including decisions about which influencers to cast and what content to create. This research suggests that community-centered, culturally specific social media strategies — rather than generic public health messaging — may be more effective at reaching young Black and Latino MSM with life-saving HIV prevention information.
Chen A, Gonzalez-Argoti T, Bauman L, Radix A, Nazareth W, Mantell J. (2025). Development of a Social Media Campaign Promoting Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis for Young Black and Latino Men Who Have Sex with Men: Focus Group Findings from the Social Media and Sexual Health Campaign.. LGBT health. https://doi.org/10.1089/lgbt.2024.0002