Message Strategies and Examples

Focus on the benefits

Trying to scare or shame people into health decisions can backfire. Instead, use positive framing to highlight the benefits of vaccination — and remember to include benefits beyond personal protection from COVID-19. Try these tips:

Strategy:
Frame vaccination as a way to protect family and friends. Many students don’t see COVID-19 as a threat to their own health, but they may be motivated to help loved ones stay healthy.
Sample message:
When you get vaccinated, you’re not just protecting yourself from COVID-19. You’re protecting your friends and family, too.
Strategy:
Emphasize campus community. College students are more likely than the general public to be motivated by a sense of shared community and purpose.
Sample message:
  • Protect our campus community. Stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccines.
  • Older people, pregnant people, and people who have disabilities or chronic health conditions are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19. You can help everyone on campus stay healthy by staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines.
Strategy:
Use “I” statements to highlight personal reasons for getting vaccinated. This approach helps to frame vaccination as a personal choice, giving campus community members a sense of agency.
Note: You can get quotes from campus community members or just write your own “I” statements that reflect common motivations for getting vaccinated, like the examples on the right.
Sample messages:
  • I got vaccinated for my favorite professor.
  • I got vaccinated to protect the people who’ve always been here for me.
  • I got vaccinated because I don’t want to risk getting really sick.

Stress vaccine safety

Safety is a key concern when it comes to COVID-19 vaccines—and that's understandable. After all, we've never lived through a global viral pandemic before. The good news is that we have overwhelming evidence showing that the COVID-19 vaccines are very safe — so don't shy away from addressing this topic! Try these tips:

Strategy:
Provide clear information about common short-term side effects and what to expect after getting vaccinated.
Sample message:
It's normal to have some side effects — like running a fever and feeling tired and achy — for a day or 2 after getting vaccinated. These side effects are signs that your body is building up protection, and that means the vaccine is working.
Strategy:
Stress that long-term health risks from getting COVID are much greater than any potential side effects of the vaccines.
Sample message:
Researchers haven't found any long-term side effects from COVID-19 vaccines. But many people have developed long-term health problems from COVID-19.
Strategy:
Describe the vaccine development process and explain that while researchers moved fast to produce and study the vaccines, they didn't skip any safety steps.
Sample message:
Researchers were able to speed up the process for developing COVID-19 vaccines with help from the government. But they didn't skip any safety steps.

Normalize COVID-19 vaccines

Let students know that COVID-19 vaccines are just a normal part of college life.

Strategy:
Compare COVID-19 vaccines to other vaccines that most students get before starting college.
Sample message:
Before you came to college, you probably got vaccines to protect you from health problems like measles and mumps. Staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines is one more step you can take to protect your health — and protect everyone in our campus community.

If your campus has a vaccine requirement: To study at [campus], everyone is required to get certain vaccines. These rules are in place to keep everyone in the [campus] family safe and healthy. That’s why we’re asking everyone to stay up to date on COVID-19 vaccines — to protect our campus community.