Location Base Marketing & Geofencing
The use of location based marketing in HIV outreach and linkage to care
Now that we understand the technology and are aware of the advantages but also the possible flaws specially in the consumer privacy concerns, let’s lay out the possibilities that geofencing has for outreach, education, testing and linkage to care in our communities.
Digital outreach using geofencing could be a great asset for an organization in selectively targeting individuals with some demographic profiling plus their geographical location. In some cases, the places they gather, socialize and relate to others in the community could tell us more about their behavior.
Behavioral characteristics of individuals are tight up frequently with their risk for HIV infection.
If we are very careful in designing ads that speak to the target audience without making them feel singled out, stigmatized or discriminated (all of that could happen with a bad ad) we might have a powerful outreach tool.
There are several possibilities on top of the list:
- If we are a community base organization enclaved in a neighborhood where evident risk factors for HIV infections are present, we could set up a Find’em strategy to outreach and engage clients into our programs.
- Let’s consider a need to attract young people who regularly meet to play basketball or hang out in the neighborhood park. Instead of walking to them on weekends or setting up a table we could set up a digital fence around those popular spots and for the next 30 days target them with ads on Instagram, Facebook or snapchat with sexual health content and educative messages. They won’t assume that they are getting this ad because they hang out in the park, they might think everybody on that age group is getting the same ads, so there is no intrusiveness by doing it so.
- If we are targeting MSM young adults, teaming up with apps used to facilitate, search and meet other MSM with GPS technology (Grindr, A4A) would help to direct special messages depending on the location of the audience. If we set up a digital fence around a big LGBT event, circuit party or celebration during Pride month etc. A catchy campaign could expose in the party or celebration on screens, posters, flyers (traditional advertising) and for the next 30 days the guests would be getting ads in their mobile devices when they access their social media or the search and meet apps.
- Vulnerable communities with special characteristics like transgender or gender fluid, re-entrants, drug users, limited mobility etc. often gather in special places where they get services, entertainment or to socialize. This information would be available for your organization only after performing a deep community assessment to learn the target audience’s preferences. A digital fence can always be set up around this location to identify and collect data to specifically design prevention and sexual health campaigns.
- If we are a medical provider that also have prevention services and testing for HIV and other STI’s, we could have a fence around our own premises and re-target all visitors to the health center offering all these services. There is no way to get any detailed information about the reason they visited the site and that would help to ensure the protection of this person’s health privacy.
