a little birdie told me - #heweb11 #soc9

A Little Birdie Told MeWhat the H1N1 Outbreak Taught Us About Using Twitter

Tonya Oaks Smith25 October 2011

#SOC9

Let’s get started…

Who am I and why do you care?

Who are you? I do care

What are we talking about today?

@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

Who are you?

On the agenda today

Background

Theory

Research

Results

Application

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

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.”

The theory

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

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

The results

Content analysis – three themes: Information-seeking

behaviors Misinformation Uncertainty

reduction

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?

What’s different now?

Today, people expect to share information, 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

Influence means what?

Per Twitter: Indegree

influence Retweet

influence Mention

influence

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

The applicationFind out what information is useful for your listeners… and share

But first… kittens…

No, seriously…

Don’t: Share information

unworthy of your followers

Ignore followers’ legitimate concerns

Waste time sharing useless information

Ignore misinformation

No, seriously…

Don’t: Spread information

you can’t confirm Abuse your

followers’ trust Use Twitter without

pondering the ramifications

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

And even more seriously…

Do: Encourage

questioning Call attention to

misinformation Fill the information

vacuum Reduce uncertainty Verify your own

information

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.

Questions?

tosmith@ualr.edu

@marleysmom

501.324.9896

Complete research is on issuu.com/marleysmom

Credits

http://www.archives.gov/

http://exhibits.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/athome/1920/TeachR/posters/p1.jpg

http://2pela.posterous.com/tiffany-lims-propaganda-posters

http://www.mpi-sws.org/~gummadi/papers/icwsm2010_cha.pdf

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