The Spread of Zika Twitter Conversation: The Role of Content Amplifiers Itai Himelboim, Ph.D.*, Glen Nowak, Ph.D. *, Santosh Vijaykumar †, Ph.D., Yan Jin, Ph.D* *Department of Advertisement & Public Relations, University of Georgia † Centre of Social
Media Innovations for Communities, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Presented at the National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Social media Engagement & Evaluation
The Analytic Approach - Themes
Zika conversations on Twitter
Analysis: keywords based categorization of Zika Twitter conversation (Jan. 1 to March 31, 2016)
Identifying distinct Zika-related themes E.g., travel, vaccination, pregnancy, transmission
Total: 3,057,130 tweets Data: Crimson Hexagon
Strengths: understand patterns of information flow and content amplifiers within their unique contexts
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Zika Twitter Talk – Changing Themes
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A range of Themes Theme Transmission Effects on Pregnancy Travel Social Issues Testing Diagnosis Prevention Treatment Conspiracy Theories Symptoms
# of tweets 1,943,813 515,122 234,987 136,482 135,480 128,013 107,236 72,349 64,967
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The Analytic Approach - Content Amplifiers Attention is the scarce resource on social media A few authors attract large and disproportionate levels of attention, while most attract very little Content Amplifiers are users that post content that is engaged by the largest number of people Strengths: Reducing millions of Twitter users to a few influentials Involving key users in communication strategy
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The Analytics Approach Classifying Types of Content Amplifiers Within-Topic Amplifiers Top attention attracting users Most mentioned users in Zika talk
Potential Amplifiers Top users Twitter-wide Reaching new audiences
Top attention attracting content Authors of most Zika-related retweeted content
Top talkers Users who posted the most about Zika 6
Zika Twitter talk (1/1-3/31/2016) Top Retweeted Amplifiers
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Zika Transmission Top Retweeted Amplifiers
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Zika Symptoms Top Mentioned Amplifiers
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The Analytic Approach – Classifying Users 1. Health institution and its individual 6. Other organizations - organization affiliated (@CDCgov; @Who) not falling under previous categories (@Olympics) 2. Traditional news media and affiliated journalists (@Nytimes, @reuters) 3. Online-only news media and its affiliates (@HuffPostPol) 4. Advocacy organizations (@AmnestyWomenRts)
7. Grassroots - Individuals not affiliated with an organization (Bloggers; @OlderMommyStill) 8. Politicians/Elected Officials (@HillaryClinton) 9. Nonprofit (not advocacy)
5. Non health-specific governmental 10. Academic (@naturenews) organizations (@US_FDA)
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Amplifiers Across Themes - Top Mentioned Traditional news media 30.94%
Broken 0.40%
AcademicAdvocacy 5.64% 2.58% Grassroots 9.91%
Health institution 22.00%
Politicians 2.58% Other Org 9.51% Other Media Online news 6.45% 5.72%
Nonprofit 1.61%
Government 2.66%
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Amplifiers Across Themes - Top Retweets Academic Broken 3.23% 4.76%
Advocacy 3.87% Grassroots 12.42%
Traditional news media 31.77%
Politicians 0.40% Other Orgs Other Media 5.81% 7.10%
Health institution 17.18% Gov’ 3.95% Online News…
Nonprofit 0.73%
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Amplifiers Across Themes - Top Talkers Other Media 1.19%
Academic 1.27%
Nonprofit 0.95%
Broken 6.12%
Health institution Online news 2.62% 7.55%
Traditional news media 2.62%
Advocacy 0.95%
Government 0.24%
Politicians 0.16%
Other organizations 17.25%
Grassroots 59.06%
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Amplifiers Across Themes – Twitter-Wide Other organizations 3.66% Government 5.56%
Grassroots Politicians 8.27% 0.87%
Nonprofit 0.72%
Health institution 7.15%
Academic 2.78%
Other Media 9.62%
Broken 0.48% Advocacy 1.67% Online news 8.51%
Traditional news media 50.72%
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Amplifiers change across themes What are your organizational goals? Preferred type of amplifier? What conversation theme you need to lead?
%-age of amplifiers within theme
Appliers by Zika Themes (Mentions) 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Health institutions
News
Grassroots
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%-age of amplifiers within theme
Appliers by Zika Themes (Retweets) 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Health institutions
News
Grassroots
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%-age of amplifiers within theme
Appliers by Zika Themes (Talkers) 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Health institutions
News
Grassroots
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%-age of amplifiers within theme
Appliers by Zika Themes (Twitter-Wide) 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
Health institutions
News
Grassroots
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Conclusions & Implications
Evaluating and strategizing Zika-related social media activity
Crisis preparation and real-time response
Does your amplifying profile (type and topic) correspond with your goals? Targeting sources of influence on Twitter Understanding conversation spikes
Analytics in perspective
“The lucky retweet” The highly active-low engaged users
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Before we go… (the last week; Top @) ALL
Prevention
Treatment
Pregnancy
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The spread of Zika Twitter conversation: The Role of Content Amplifiers Itai Himelboim (
[email protected]; Twitter: @itaih) Glen Nowak (
[email protected]) Santosh Vijaykumar (
[email protected]) Yan Jin (
[email protected])
SEESuite.uga.edu
@SEESuiteUGA
