Sexually transmitted disease prevention campaigns in the 21st century: new frontiers in social media.

The assessment of the Get Yourself Tested (GYT) campaign presented by Friedman et al., in this issue of Sexually Transmitted Diseases, is important both for identifying the opportunities to use and integrate 21st century social media and mobile health (mHealth) tools into sexually transmitted disease (STD) prevention initiatives and for identifying the key areas where our field can improve to maximize the use of these tools. The GYT campaign offers an important perspective on 3 elements of health communication campaigns in the digital era including: (a) the use of multiple and diverse social media tools, (b) the role of social science theory, and (c) the integration of multiple and big data sources for evaluation. I will discuss each of these in turn.

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