Updated presentation on Twitter use during H1N1 outbreak. From thesis of the same name. Presented during the Higher Ed Web Professionals conference in 2011.
AUDIENCE THEORY -CULTIVATION THEORY - GERBNER.pptx
A Little Birdie Told Me - #heweb11 #soc9
1. A Little Birdie
Told Me
What the H1N1 Outbreak Taught
Us About Using Twitter
Tonya Oaks Smith
25 October 2011
#SOC9
2. Let’s get
started…
Who am I and why
do you care?
Who are you?
I do care
What are we talking
about today?
3. @marleysmom @ a glance
Director of Communications
at the UALR William H.
Bowen School of Law
Co-chair for #hewebAR
Co-chair of the HighEdWeb
regional support committee
Earned master’s degree in
applied communication
studies in 2010
About.me/marleysmom
5. On the agenda
today
Background
Theory
Research
Results
Application
6. The
background
Why Twitter?
Presence is more and
more prevalent – use in
Iran, Hudson River crash,
H1N1
200 MM Tweets per day
from millions of users (June
2011)
Why H1N1?
Health catastrophe that
was anticipated
Other communication
vehicles used in
preparation for outbreak
Right place, right time
7. The theory
Diffusion of Innovation
Ev Rogers – communication
researcher and supreme
networker
“Process by which an
innovation is communicated
through certain channels
over time among the
members of a social
system.”
10. The research
Over 300,000 tweets
used one of three
terms (H1N1, swineflu
or swine flu) during the
height of the outbreak
– spring to fall 2009
Isolated tweets for
three key dates in the
outbreak – April 25,
Sept. 4, Oct. 24, 2009
= 15,000 tweets
11. The research
Detailed reading of
5,000 tweets for
content analysis
Later survey of Twitter
users for in-depth
information about
follow-through on
vaccinations
12. The results
Content analysis –
three themes:
Information-seeking
behaviors
Misinformation
Uncertainty
reduction
13. The results
Survey of the users:
How often do
individuals pass along
information?
How do they choose
what information to
pass along?
How do they verify
the truth of the
information they see?
How does the
information they see
on Twitter impact their
decisions?
14. What’s different now?
Today, people expect to
shareinformation, not be fed it. They
expect to be listened to when they
have knowledge and raise questions.
... They want control over their
information.
And they want connection – they give
their trust to those they engage with –
people who talk with them, listen and
maintain a relationship.
– Michael Skoler
Media scholar
15. Influence
means what?
Per Twitter:
Indegree
influence
Retweet
influence
Mention
influence
16. Influence means what?
Popular users who have high indegree are
not necessarily influential in terms of
spawning retweets or mentions. Most
influential users can hold significant influence
over a variety of topics. Influence is not
gained spontaneously or accidentally, but
through concerted effort.
- Cha, Haddadi, Benevenuto, Gummadi, 2010
26. No, seriously…
Don’t:
Share information
unworthy of your
followers
Ignore followers’
legitimate concerns
Waste time sharing
useless information
Ignore misinformation
27. No, seriously…
Don’t:
Spread information
you can’t confirm
Abuse your followers’
trust
Use Twitter without
pondering the
ramifications
28. And even more
seriously…
Do:
Accept importance
of medium as mass
and interpersonal
channel
Build relationships
before emergencies
and crises happen
Share salient
information
Harness power of
network
29. And even more
seriously…
Do:
Encourage
questioning
Call attention to
misinformation
Fill the information
vacuum
Reduce uncertainty
Verify your own
information
30. So what did we learn?
Twitter is an important new-ish medium (still NEW
to those not in the know (bosses, presidents,
chancellors ;) ))
Twitter can be used for good and evil
Our followers trust us as change agents and
opinion leaders – scary!
Twitter can’t be the only medium we use to
communicate information – it is part of a toolkit.
Open: Who in here has bought a car in the past year? How did you make the decision to buy? Were you conflicted beforehand? How about afterwards? How did you feel?That’s exactly what we’ll be talking today? The decision to buy – or implement the use of – something new.
Bowen – one of two Arkansas law schools. It is located in the capital city, focused on teaching professionalism, public service, and access to justice to our 500 students. Prior to this position managing all the communication elements for the college, I was a public relations coordinator for UALR. Serves 13000 students.This presentation is the result of my research to complete my master’s degree requirements. I’m proud of it, mostly because I was able to make sense – in an academic sense – of something that several of my professors chalked up as a passing fad not worthy of exploration.
How many of you have personal Twitter accounts?How many of you have institutional Twitter accounts that you manage?Do you have more than one of those accounts to manage? Do you sometimes feel like there’s no rhyme or reason to what people pay attention to? Hopefully this presentation will help you connect the dots between what you put out and what people use to RT and share in their personal networks.
This research project came down completely to a right place, right time thing. After a graduate program heavy with interpersonal communication theory and concepts, which can be used in our work, I was hungry for a course that allowed me to use elements of my everyday work. Diffusion of innovation (change management communication) gave me that. I knew I had to use this theory in my research, and I was personally involved in our campus’ response to communication about the H1N1 outbreak.In short, I found a theory that wasn’t too “granola” for me, one that I could sink my teeth into and use in a very applied way in my work. I think all of us can use Diffusion of Innovation theory in our work, whether it has to do with convincing prospective students to complete that application or persuading faculty and staff members to participate in a campus campaign.
Element - Definition Innovation - Rogers defines an innovation as "an idea, practice, or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption”.Communication channels - A communication channel is "the means by which messages get from one individual to another”.Time - "The innovation-decision period is the length of time required to pass through the innovation-decision process”.Social system - "A social system is defined as a set of interrelated units that are engaged in joint problem solving to accomplish a common goal”.The way a new idea is shared through both interpersonal channels and mass mediaBegun as way to chart spread of information about and adoption of crop innovations in IowaNow theory is used as way to share health information on a broad scale – HIV, malaria, STDs
An individual goes through each of these steps on his or her own timetable to get to the point where he or she wants to adopt an innovation. As you know, there are differing speeds with which individuals adopt innovations: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, laggardsThere are also several factors that cause an individual to adopt an innovationFactor - Definition Relative Advantage- How improved an innovation is over the previous generation. Compatibility- The level of compatibility that an innovation has to be assimilated into an individual’s life. Complexity or Simplicity- If the innovation is too difficult to use an individual will not likely adopt it. Trialability- How easily an innovation may be experimented with as it is being adopted. If a user has a hard time using and trying an innovation this individual will be less likely to adopt it. Observability - The extent that an innovation is visible to others. An innovation that is more visible will drive communication among the individual’s peers and personal networks and will in turn create more positive or negative reactions.
So what does this have to do with my work, you’re asking. Right?Well, just like people talked about H1N1 – seemed like ad nauseum when the outbreak was happening – they talk about other things. Like @mikepetroff said in his talk yesterday, they talk about everything no matter the platform. You have to think about how to direct their talk. But we can’t direct them until we understand what they’re inclined to talk about and look for on Twitter.Now we’re going to examine the research further.
Started out with 3.4 MG of Tweets (almost 1200 pages of content – 140 characters at a time)April 25 = WHO met to discuss epidemic and possible treatments and vaccinationsSept. 4 = Number of deaths around globe ramped upOct. 24 = Obama declared national state of emergency to deal with outbreakFollowed survey with phone interviews with volunteers to glean even more information about vaccination behaviors
Started out with 3.4 MG of Tweets (almost 1200 pages of content – 140 characters at a timeApril 25 = WHO met to discuss epidemic and possible treatments and vaccinationsSept. 4 = Number of deaths around globe ramped upOct. 24 = Obama declared national state of emergency to deal with outbreakFollowed survey with phone interviews with volunteers to glean even more information about vaccination behaviors
Health information - Symptom identification, Preventative measures, VaccinationMisinformation and disinformation - Symptom misidentification, Preventative measure confusion, Vaccination misinformationUncertainty reduction – Deaths, Prevention of spread, Safety and availability of vaccines
Majority of users pass along information 1-3 times per day, however, some tweet 10 or more times per day and pass along information that much tooImportant to myself and followers, useful to me, “something of interest that comes from someone who I know who isn’t in my circle of followers”CONNECTIVE TISSUE in communityDon’t verify information they see on Twitter, they trust those they followTwitter is one of a set of tools they use to make decisions – this was disheartening to me, but revealing, Users glean information from a variety of places – family, friends, experts. Twitter cannot be the only way we share important information.COMMON, IMPORTANT, VALUABLE information“I feel that the people I follow on tweeter are credible resources of information - as they are professional folks whose reputations are tied to what they say in this forum”
In our heads, we’ve always known this. But it seems like now we have to be even more careful about how we work to influence our customers. We are the twitter spitter-outers and we have to make sure that we don’t abuse people’s trust. Cause they’ll talk about us even more then.
Influence is a tricky thing. And that’s what we’re trying to do with users, right?So let’s examine what some research says about Twitter influence…
1. Indegree influence, the number of followers of a user, directly indicates the size of the audience for that user.2. Retweet influence, which we measure through the number of retweets containing one’s name, indicates the ability of that user to generate content with pass-along value.3. Mention influence, which we measure through the number of mentions containing one’s name, indicates the ability of that user to engage others in a conversation.
But share in a trustworthy manner. Don’t share misinformation Squelch it if it pops up – but do that in a nice way. :D You don’t want to create a highly verbal enemy with an open speaker and an audience
Promise your viewers/readers absolutely correct information – then give them ways to verify it. Links, external information sources. Set yourself up to be a trusted source. Remember those folks who said they did not verify the information they see tweeted? Don’t SCREW them. DON’T. Or don’t let someone else screw them. DON’TAlso – help to stamp out misinformation. But better yet, allow your followers to do that. Enable them to police the situation. Sometimes that requires giving them information to pass along themselves. Help them become subject matter experts!
Don’t wait to share information. Longing for the perfect opportunity isn’t smart, cause that perfect opportunity doesn’t happen.It’s all about salience – sharing information at the time folks need it. Just like getting a job was for this chick. ;)
The propensity for individuals to share (RT) information frequently – (Lindsey Lohan tweets about being sick, or the individual who talked about someone coughing on the train) – it’s important for subject matter experts to share the correct information in a timely fashion.Also, work with opinion leaders in order to pass along important information.
At times, the research taught us that it was important for change agents to stay out of the discussion. Instead, creating subject matter experts or opinion leaders within a community is important. Empowering individuals to share information for you is a good practice. I like to let people scoop me sometimes as an information provider. To that end, we have events to encourage students to participate as SMEs. Tweetups where we find natural leaders in certain areas are important too.
In this way, you’ll create a team of defenders for your organization. It won’t just be you against the world anymore. It is the same concept as getting students to blog for your school. By creating conversations with key users, you can also engage those who are in larger circles. These individuals happen to overhear and then can become more engaged in your cause as well.
Learn when it’s a smart thing to save your communication efforts for other channels. Or learn when you have to spread your message around in several areas. Not any one channel will totally convince someone to engage in a behavior.Users often found introductory materials – filling the information stage – from Twitter, but made their final decisions with the help of family or friends and implemented on that basis.