TikTok is an effective platform for bicycle safety injury prevention education

Introduction

Social media has become an established medium for information distribution across all sectors of people’s everyday lives (Ortiz-Ospina, 2019). With nearly half of Americans under the age of 30 reporting near-constant online engagement (Auxier and Anderson, 2021), effective use of social networking platforms becomes important for public health organizations to make appropriate use of relevant social networking platforms to educate the public, to disseminate valuable health and safety information, and to combat misinformation (Breland et al., 2017), especially in younger generations whose use of social media has become an integral and ingrained part of their daily routine. In recognizing the dynamic landscape of digital media, it is essential to explore its potential applications for targeted and effective health education through social media, particularly in younger generations where social media is ingrained in daily routines (Cervi, 2021).

Social networking sites have seen a surge in popularity over the past decade and will likely continue to grow. In 2012, there were 1.5 billion collective social media users; that number has since increased by more than 300% to 4.8 billion users as of April 2023 (DataReportal, 2023). This means that the extensive reach of social networking sites includes more than half of the current global population of eight billion people (United Nations, 2022). Given the profound impact and expansive reach of social media, its practical importance to being able to improve public health and to solving health problems has been proposed, along with its advantages and disadvantages (Breland et al., 2017; Comp et al., 2021; Masic et al., 2012; Mendoza-Herrera et al., 2020).

Social media provides a new frontier for medicine and healthcare (Comp et al., 2021), and from the drastic changes brought upon by the COVID-19 pandemic, it has served as an efficient means to widely share information across all ages and ethnic demographics. In fact, both during and since the pandemic, it has been established that youths seek and embrace technologies that allow them to transport themselves elsewhere, that provide a sense of comfort, and that give them opportunities to shape their own environments outside of the context of school (Squire, 2022). Thus, not surprisingly, the use of social media as an e-learning tool has been utilized across a wide and diverse range of subject areas, as it uniquely provides a real-time platform for comments and discussion beyond a typical classroom setting (Kolokytha, 2015; Duong, 2021). Exploring and analyzing the use of technology for educational purposes beyond the classroom allows for a better public understanding not just about which types of technologies are most valued by today’s youths, but more importantly, about which practices they value in their everyday lives (Gee, 1996). The latter of which provides arguably the most useful type of information because it speaks to real world, practical application of the knowledge being conveyed through social media. Given that the field of public health and in particular, injury prevention, centers on behavior modification, this aspect is of critical value with regards to the use of social media in youths.

TikTok is amongst the newest social networking sites. After merging with the musical. ly mobile application and launching internationally in 2017, TikTok has gained over 800 million users worldwide with 41% of its users being between the ages of 16 and 24, collectively considered “Generation Z” or “Gen Z” (Meola, 2020). Reports and studies from a variety of research areas have collectively concluded that the unique style of TikTok – with short, condensed video clips addressing a single objective – is particularly useful in educating this generation (Carter et al., 2021; Cervi, 2021; Khlaif, 2021; Yang, 2020) and has recently been shown to be effective in higher education settings (Conde-Caballero et al., 2023; Escamilla-Fajardo, 2021). Given that unintentional injuries are amongst the leading causes of death and disability amongst the younger generations, which saw a significant post-COVID-19 pandemic increase (Curtin, 2022), this platform has the potential to reach and educate younger generations with important public health messaging that could mitigate their risk of injury.

While the use of other social media platforms, such as Facebook, Instagram, “X” (formerly known as Twitter) and YouTube, for disseminating public health information and educating the public on best safety practices has been previously considered (Banfield and Tanenbaum, 2016; Mendoza-Herrera, 2020; Zazzera, 2020), the potential role and usefulness of TikTok for disseminating injury prevention information has yet to be explored. The current study proposes the analysis of TikTok to effectively educate the public about injury prevention, specifically as it relates to bicycle safety. To date, no studies have investigated the potential role of this social media platform as an e-learning tool for injury prevention. Thus, the lack of available information surrounding the topic of focus necessitates a mixed methods approach in order to provide an understanding of the role that short, video-clip sharing platforms like TikTok could play in the landscape of education on public health topics, such as injury prevention. To this end, quantifiable interactions, along with qualitative content provided by users of the platform, will be analyzed to provide a thorough and comprehensive break-down of how users engage with different types of content (educational vs casual) on this platform in the context of bicycle safety education.

The primary goal of this study is to identify the most effective use of TikTok for injury prevention education in the context of bicycle safety. A secondary aim is to determine whether the type of content posted on TikTok, that is, video posts that are didactic/instructional versus those that are fun/casual in nature, impacts user engagement and user feedback. The findings from this study will provide guidance on how injury prevention researchers may best make use of this unique, condensed, video clip-sharing social media platform for planning and implementing effective injury prevention education campaigns.

Methods

Data analysis

In the context of all modern data analysis processes, such as social media mining, the primary data source is so large that it is challenging to extract meaningful insights from it (Azzalini, 2012). There is no universally accepted analysis process for any data mining method (Cebeci, 2023) because the process and steps involved differ greatly from case to case (Sharda, 2021). Even with specific steps such as data gathering and categorizing being necessary in the process, these steps are not universal (Kumar, 2014), which emphasizes the unique nature of each study with various types of data sources, especially across different social media platforms. Thus, in this study, a mixed methods approach combining both qualitative and quantitative data was employed (as described below) to provide a comprehensive understanding of how this platform can best be utilized for the purpose of public health education in the realm of injury prevention through bicycle safety education, as described in more detail below.

Basic user and performance data for all of iBikeSafe’s TikTok posts was provided by TikTok. The age distribution and the relative percentage of iBikeSafe’s TikTok followers in each age category is broken down as follows: 18-24 years old (32%), 25-34 years old (41%), 35-44 years old (17%), 45-54 years old (6%), 55+ years old (4%). As mentioned above, the performance data for iBikeSafe’s video posts was further micro-analyzed using a mixed methods, quantitative and qualitative, approach. The quantifiable parameters of interest from each of the posts include: views, likes, comments, shares, and saves. Also quantified was the relative reach of each of the D-versus F-type video posts based on whether each individual post became “highly popular” (meaning it garnered ≥4000 total views) or whether it was “less popular” (meaning it garnered <4000 total views). The determination of 4000 views as the minimum requirement for which video posts were deemed as “highly popular” was made because once all posts were organized in numerical order based on the number of views they received, this threshold emerged as what consistently differentiated a video post with extraordinary popularity versus one that was not as popular. This data collection strategy was employed via taking data directly provided by TikTok and by sorting between the operationalized definitions created for more in-depth analysis. Moreover, it was observed that the other quantifiable parameters (listed above) exponentially increased once a video reached this threshold. The inclusion of these quantifiable measures for injury prevention content TikTok interaction allows for statistical analysis and comparison between types of posts and their performance; allowing for appropriate correlations and conclusions to be drawn.

Qualitative analysis was done on the content posted by TikTok users as comments on iBikeSafe’s video posts. First, a thematic characterization of all user comments that were made on iBikeSafe’s video posts was performed. The top five user comment themes that emerged were: misinformation about bicycle policy/safety, aversion to car-centric city design, furthering discussion and/or educating each other, aggressive anti-bicyclist, and protected bike lane advocacy. This thematic categorization was developed to provide an in-depth interpretation of how viewers were interacting with the posted content and to better evaluate the effectiveness of the posts.

Next, each comment sub-category was accounted for by the definitions that follow. Positive comments encompass all comments that were in favor of making bicycling part of everyday life, promoting safer bicycle infrastructure, and positive feedback or promotion of the content from the post. Negative comments include comments that were against making biking a part of everyday life, promoted car-based infrastructure, and negative feedback and/or demotion of content from the post. Inquisitive comments are characterized based on if the comments were asking questions, engaging in discussion through a comment thread, and/or adding more constructive information to what the post was discussing. Neutral comments are comments that were: not supporting nor opposing bicycle riding and safety information, not furthering discussion of the topic nor adding more information or asking a question. Analysis of performance in these subcategories allowed for the advanced investigation of user engagement and for the guidance of future posts, while it also provided quantitative metrics to a qualitative factor of determining the utility of TikTok for injury prevention. This mixed methods approach allows for a more complete answer to the research question: is TikTok an effective platform for injury prevention education? As previously mentioned, all data was collected directly from the TikTok app and categorized based on the operationalized definitions defined herein.

A selection of actual comments made by TikTok users on iBikeSafe’s posts and their ultimate categorization based on this system can be found in Table 1 below, which illustrates which types of user comments were placed into each category.

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Table 1.

Examples of comments categorized as positive, negative, inquisitive, and neutral. Table 1 provides examples of actual user comments and locations of where, within the four sub-categories, they were placed.

Type of Comment	Examples (Actual User Comments)
Positive	1. “We need protective bike lanes”
	2. “Yes! bikes and cars do not belong in the same lanes! give bikes their own infrastructure”
	3. “Sent to my council members”
	4. “Wish we had separate and protected bike lanes everywhere”
	5. “(Protected bike lanes) should be mandatory along every road in America”
Negative	1. “Bikes don’t belong in the road”
	2. “Get a car”
	3. “Philosophically, why do we want bikers to be alive? I See no need.”
	4. “Bicyclists need to be executed”
	5. “US cities just aren’t bikeable and never will be”
	6. “Pay taxes to get lanes”
Inquisitive	1. “Which do you prefer, putting pedestrians in danger by speeding down a crowded sidewalk or inconveniencing drivers by making them slow down?”
	2. “When claiming a lane, you should pull over frequently enough that you never hold more than 5 cars (a typical standard for blocking flow of traffic).”
	3. “Then maybe cyclists need to pay taxes and then those taxes can pay for infrastructure just like gas tax does for cars?”
	4. “Roads are largely funded through property taxes and other general local taxes. The idea that drivers alone pay for roads is a myth.”
Neutral	1. “These comments make me so sad”
	2. “Probably Florida”
	3. “@Notjustbikes @pedestriandignity”
	4. “I got hit the other day, it was terrifying. Wear helmets y’all”

Lastly, to compare the performance of iBikeSafe’s videos on TikTok versus its performance on another video sharing social media platform (YouTube), six of the exact same videos were posted both to iBikeSafe’s TikTok account and to its YouTube channel. This provided the opportunity to determine how injury prevention video content would perform across two different video-centric social media platforms. Below, Table 2 shows the number of views achieved by each video on both of these platforms, as well as subscriber/follower counts and how long an iBikeSafe account existed on each of the two sites. Data was collected directly and concurrently from both platforms. Percent change in total views was examined when the videos were re-posted to TikTok to provide a direct comparison between the two video-sharing platforms, while keeping the variable of educational content the same.

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Table 2.

iBikeSafe performance on both YouTube versus TikTok social media platforms. Table 2 shows that YouTube videos adapted to TikTok posts led to exponentially greater views (over 100% for five out of six videos and by over 1000% for two out of six).

	YouTube	TikTok	% change in total views upon re-posting to TikTok
Subscribers/Followers	977 subscribers	759 followers
Length of time the account has existed	8 years, 2 months	11 months
Views of video 1	11,000	13,000	+118
Views of video 2	8,000	34,400	+430
Views of video 3	33,000	5255	−628
Views of video 4	8,800	181,000	+2057
Views of video 5	459	5435	+1184
Views of video 6	743	1556	+209

Results

On average, iBikeSafe’s fun (F) video posts received 2226 (±3160) views compared to 22,221 (±53,613) views for didactic (D) video posts (data not shown). Thus, the average views achieved by a didactic (D) video was 898% greater than those achieved by fun (F) videos. Because of the relatively high standard deviations obtained when comparing the totality of video posts, the highly popular (≥4000 views) D- and F-type posts were separated from the less popular (<4000 views) D- and F-type posts and re-analyzed.

Discussion

The primary purpose of this study was to determine the most effective use of TikTok as a means to educate the public about bicycle safety. A secondary goal was to determine whether the type of video content (fun vs didactic) posted to TikTok would play a significant role in user engagement. This information was sought to inform public health organizations and injury prevention programs on best practices with regards to this unique, condensed, video-clip sharing form of social media to maximize impact. The results revealed that both fun (F) and didactic (D) types of video posts are relevant when using this platform. Among posts that became highly popular (≥4000 total views), those that were didactic in nature led to the greatest amount of user engagement, as indicated by views, likes and comments (Figure 1); however, among the less popular posts (<4000 total views), those that were fun in nature had greater user engagement than the didactic posts with similar viewership (Figure 2). This suggests that while TikTok users still view the fun and casual posts that they have come to expect because they are typical of this platform, they actually engage more with posts that are didactic and educational in nature. Given that both fun and didactic types of videos were posted to iBikeSafe (in a ratio of 3:1, fun to didactic), it is reasonable to suggest that both video types likely played a role in follower acquisition and in TikTok user engagement. Deliberate consideration of the ratio of fun versus didactic posts should be taken into account when looking to effectively educate the public using this platform. This ratio can also be dependent on the type of content i.e. being disseminated which warrants further research.

Within the public health sector, injury prevention programs have traditionally taken the didactic approach (e.g., incorporating the use of educational infographics, statistics, and flow charts) when utilizing social media as part of their information campaigns (Breland et al., 2017). Whether this approach would be appropriate for this newer, modern, micro-video clip sharing platform had yet to be determined prior to this study. To this end, iBikeSafe regularly posted educational/didactic videos to its TikTok page, as well casual/fun videos, the latter of which are most common on the TikTok platform (Matsakis, 2019). While the fun videos posted by iBikeSafe were not overtly educational in nature, they still informed users about important bicycle safety concepts, such as the importance of wearing a helmet (see: Figure 5 for an example of this type of video post, compared to a didactic, or formally educational, type of video post). This novel approach of inconspicuously educating TikTok users through the use of original, casual and fun video posts that are typical of this platform, proved effective at garnering user attention. However, while fun videos did generate user activity, the results indicate that using a hybrid technique of posting both fun videos, as well as didactic videos (in a ratio of 3:1, respectively), was most effective at achieving maximal views, likes, and comments.

While total views may be an obvious metric for user engagement on social media, the actual content and number of comments made on posts by TikTok users better elucidates the impact made by the posts. To this end, user comment analysis allows for the determination of whether users are learning and/or actively discussing the content with other users and whether they are elaborating on the injury prevention concepts brough forth by the original video post. Comments made by users can be demonstrative of an on-going interest in the ideas posted in the videos and they can be indicative of how the content may reflect the perspective of the person who is commenting. The results affirm that the methods used by iBikeSafe successfully led to this type of meaningful engagement, given that nearly half of all user comments were categorized under the theme of Furthering the Discussion and Educating Each Other, regardless of the type of post (fun or didactic) that provoked the user to comment. One can objectively contend that inquisitive TikTok user comments are desirable (even over positive TikTok user comments) because they are an indication that organic curious discussion is being sparked and genuine questions are being asked about the content. In other words: learning is taking place. This is consistent with the general understanding that technology use by youth outside of the school setting is primarily self-driven by them for use in pursuing their own personal goals and it allows them to actively inquire about whatever information they seek while also extending their social networks and using participatory learning technologies (Squire, 2022) such as those described in this study.

Further comment content analysis of iBikeSafe’s TikTok posts demonstrates a division of opinions on the act of bicycling in general, regardless of whether it is done for recreation or for transportation. As shown in Figure 3, comparable amounts of user comments contained anti-bicyclist sentiment (12%) and an aversion to car-centric city design (11%). Taken with the amount of misinformation about bicycle safety posted in the comments (15%), this stark dichotomy between relatively equal amounts of anti-cycling sentiments posted by users versus “anti-car” or pro-complete streets road design sentiments posted by users, demonstrates a clear need for continuing public education on this topic.

Safer city design and modern urban planning and re-development, along with improved bicycling and micromobility behaviors, can be made possible when the public is both properly informed and open-minded. TikTok’s ability to enable anyone to view a video post allows for organic, community-led, corrective education and for the presentation of diverse ideas that could lead to systemic changes in safety behavior on a community-wide scale. This illustrates another major strength of social media in that it provides the capacity to inform anyone with access to the internet with critical, life-saving knowledge, such as ways to reduce the spread of infectious disease or how to reduce the risk of injury while engaging in everyday activities such as riding a bicycle, whether for transport or for leisure.

The present study is the first to report that TikTok video sub-types play a role in user engagement. Specifically, didactic or educational videos garnered the greatest number of views, likes and comments amongst videos that reached and/or surpassed 4000 views. Amongst the videos that reached less than 4000 views, fun videos garnered more views, likes and comments than educational videos with similar viewership. This suggests that both types of videos can be effective at engaging users on this platform. While the most popular educational videos may have accumulated greater reach (i.e., likes, comments and views), the reach of the less widespread videos favored the fun videos. This means that there is a difference in the way in which TikTok users interact with educational versus fun videos and that both types of videos play an integral role in an injury prevention education campaign utilizing this platform for information dissemination.

Another key finding of this study illustrates the effectiveness of TikTok compared to YouTube for the purpose of educating users on injury prevention information related to bicycle safety. This was done by doing a head-to-head comparison of the same BikeSafe videos posted to YouTube versus TikTok (see: Figure 4). In this direct comparison between two video-sharing social media platforms, the performance of the same videos posted to BikeSafe’s YouTube account (which had been established for over 8 years prior to this study) was compared to the performance of those same videos when posted to TikTok (which had only been in active existence for 11 months). This comparison showed the relatively quick success of the videos on the TikTok platform, compared to the YouTube platform. The ability of the iBikeSafe TikTok account’s video posts to reach and be seen by anyone on its website or mobile application (“app”) led to a total of 759 people choosing to become followers of the iBikeSafe account in less than a single year’s time compared to the 977 subscribers acquired by its YouTube account in a span of over 8 years. TikTok not only outperformed YouTube in terms of speed of acquisition of hundreds of followers, but six out of seven YouTube videos that were adapted to be posted to TikTok exponentially outperformed their YouTube counterparts. While these findings shed light on the fact that TikTok can be a useful tool for injury prevention as it relates to bicycle safety and that it can be more effective than YouTube in that regard, a more detailed, critical analysis of additional key factors that contribute to the success of TikTok versus YouTube as it relates to injury prevention content is necessary.

Regarding educating users on this platform, the qualitative data obtained from the user comments made on iBikeSafe’s video posts indicates that public discussion was furthered and genuine inquisitive queries were made both on the most highly popular educational videos and on the less popular fun videos. The fact that organic discussion was sparked by iBikeSafe amongst TikTok users and is displayed publicly in the comments sections of iBikeSafe’s video posts, demonstrates the effectiveness of this platform as a viable and unique e-learning tool. In fact, research supports the notion that the nature of TikTok’s video based content can allow for cross cultural dialogue and the production of knowledge, which has implicated a greater sense of visibility and community from otherwise distanced individuals or groups (Şot, 2022). To this point, the very design of TikTok allows for the potential for videos and the subsequent discussion boards created (see: Figure 6) to be seen and contributed to by anyone who has access to either the app or the website. The app is intently constructed with its focus on providing a unique homepage that allows for content creators to easily and readily share information with anyone, regardless of their status or their follower count. It has also always been a video-focused social media app, which is different from other popular platforms that are primarily centered around stationary forms of both visual (Instagram) and non-visual (“X”, formerly known as Twitter) media. That said, as the popularity of video-based social networking increased, so did the evolution and adoption of other social media platforms to allow for video-sharing on their platforms as well. An example of this is the addition of the video “reel” feature that was put forth by Instagram. This feature was added in an attempt to capitalize on the popularity of, and consumer desire to, post short video clips to social media.OPEN IN VIEWER

Throughout the implementation of the present study, evidence-based content about bicycle safety was creatively posted to social media. Within the field of bicycling-related injury prevention, a sub-topic which falls under the realm of public health, several key factors have been identified as critical components to avoid injury. Physical aspects (for e.g., use of bicycle helmets, reflective gear, and proper lighting) directly mitigate the risk of head injuries, fractures, and other physical harm in the event of crashes or collisions. Behavioral awareness, such as being mindful of one’s surroundings, adhering to traffic rules, and adopting defensive bicycle riding techniques can reduce the likelihood of collisions with vehicles, pedestrians and/or other cyclists. Infrastructure improvements, such as protected bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly city designs help to separate cyclists from potentially hazardous interactions with motorized traffic. For these many reasons, making use of creative and engaging ways (such as those suggested in the current study) to promote and educate the public about bicycle safety is categorically useful to any public health injury prevention campaign.

The results of this study highlight the ability of TikTok to create public conversations in the comment sections of both fun and didactic types of video posts. Being able to comment on social media posts has been identified as one of the multitudinous advantages that are afforded by social media platforms when it comes to promoting collaborative relationships that can serve to enhance a potential learning experience (Duong, 2021). Users can take advantage of functions such as commenting, liking (or clicking a heart icon) and reacting to posts in order to freely, interactively, and instantaneously provide feedback and engage in constructive dialogue without any of the typical time and space constraints that come within a conventional learning environment such as an in-person, physical classroom setting. Moreover, it has been shown that the learning process is improved when people can engage in providing and receiving such feedback because doing so motivates and encourages them to make actual connections between their knowledge and themselves (Gielen, 2015). Educators and public health educational campaigns should seek to incorporate the use of interactive social media for its participatory learning capacity, as an alternative and/or adjuvant to their existing lesson plans or strategies in order to better take advantage of the potential pedagogic benefits of this type of technology and its mass appeal to youths.

Despite the many novel and useful findings in the current study with regards to the applicable and appropriate use of the social media platform TikTok for injury prevention education, it is not without its limitations. While the iBikeSafe TikTok account did incorporate relevant hashtags to increase viewership of users searching for posts related to bicycle safety such as “#bikesafety,” “#protectedbikelanes,” and “#safestreets,” there are other existing features within the TikTok app that were not used in the current study such as the “live,” “story,” and “repost” features, as well as purchasing the promotion of a video post to boost its visibility and potentially increase its viewership by TikTok users. Additionally, metrics such as sharing and saving video posts are available within TikTok, but the current study did not analyze those actions. Furthermore, the creation of video posts specifically and solely designed for solicitation of users to engage with the content was not utilized. Future studies should explore these additional features and functions afforded by TikTok to determine whether there are differential impacts on these parameters, depending on the content type, such as with didactic versus fun video posts. Moreover, future studies should explore the role of video posts aimed at eliciting specific types of engagement, considering that engaging through commenting was effectively initiated by the posts made by iBikeSafe on TikTok. For example, a TikTok video post designed specifically for live, interactive user engagement could discuss what it takes for a city to create more separated and barrier-protected bicycle/micromobility infrastructure and this post could overtly invite its viewers to provide a comment (written or in video format) with their thoughts on something like this happening in their city. Targeted and instigative posts like this could effectively create a community public discussion board through video posts replying to the original posts as well as within the original post’s comment section.

In summary, this is the first study to demonstrate the effective use of TikTok for injury prevention education, specifically regarding bicycle safety. If used effectively, mass social media campaigns can produce positive public health behavior changes and prevent negative health-related behavior changes across large populations (Wakefield et al., 2010). In a 2021 content analysis of the use of the photo- and short-video sharing social media platform, Instagram, for pediatric injury prevention messaging (Manganello et al., 2021), it was emphasized that injury prevention recommendations made on a visual platform should provide matching visual representations of those recommendations. This suggestion was made in order for the posts to be consistent with the core tenet of social cognitive theory – that people learn through observation (Bandura, 2004) and to be effectively utilized on a visual platform. Furthermore, in a systematic review on the use of social media for injury prevention (Zazzera, 2020), it was acknowledged that social media offers the opportunity to influence and steer public perception about injuries and it was suggested that public health entities should use patterns of major news stories to influence online conversations about injury. More research is needed to determine if the findings in this study can be applied to other injury prevention and/or public health educational campaigns that seek to use this platform. Future studies should further examine these approaches and recommendations.

Conclusions

The present study is the first to establish that TikTok can serve as an effective e-learning platform for public health, particularly in the realm of injury prevention with regards to bicycle safety. Appropriate and deliberate considerations should be taken to incorporate a mix of fun video posts and didactic video posts to optimize user involvement. The emergence and identification of common themes in user comments can be used to aid policymakers in proposing concepts (such as “Vision Zero” policies), transportation agencies in implementing applicable elements (such as complete and/or slow streets design proposals) and bicycle safety education programs in informing strategies. Engaging the community in constructive and innovative ways that invite the opportunity for productive discourse and subsequent education, such as that which is provided by TikTok, is an optimal approach for reducing bicycle-related injuries and fatalities, especially in younger generations.

TikTok accounts that provide a mix of fun/casual videos, alongside more didactic/educational videos, can achieve success in terms of both quantifiable (comments, likes, views) and qualitative (types of comments) user engagement. The key findings of this study highlight the importance of selective incorporation of didactic posts for widespread community engagement on the TikTok platform and for bringing users to, and keeping them constructively active with, an injury prevention organization’s account. The incorporation of complementary fun video posts serves to enhance and perpetuate continued user engagement with the page, whereas the selectively sporadic posting of didactic videos leads to constructive and user-led educational discourse (as evidenced in the comment themes that emerged). Thus, the hybrid use of a combination of both educational video posts and fun video posts allows for injury prevention education on bicycle safety topics to be explored in a variety of contexts.

While the results indicate that utilizing a mixture of fun/casual videos with more didactic/educational videos is most effective for engagement and education in the field of injury prevention as it relates to bicycle safety, this may not be applicable to other fields when it comes to utilizing social media video sharing platforms for engagement and education. Future studies should explore the relevance and effectiveness of this strategy to other fields, both related and unrelated to injury prevention.