finding health influencers to impact health behavior: the...

Finding Health Influencers to Impact Health Behavior: The Opportunities for Social Research in Public Health

Amelia Burke-Garcia, MA Westat May 8, 2013

Establish a shared understanding of the opportunities for social research in public health.

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Social media usership

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1B users

500M users, 340M tweets/day, 1.6M searches/day

#3 social network

#2 search engine, 800M unique visitors/ month, 4B hours of video uploaded/month

100M users

50% of Americans age 12 & older listen to Internet radio

Social Media Users

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100B apps downloaded/week

88% of American adults use cell phones

57% have a laptop

19% have an e-Reader or tablet

63% go online wirelessly

Mobile Access

Projected Spending in Social & Mobile Media

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Trends in social research

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More Than 79% of Businesses

Use Social Media Sites To

Monitor & Extract

Information About

Competitors.

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More Than 60% of Companies are Planning

Social Intelligence

Projects.

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42% Of Companies Have Social Listening As A Top Priority

In 2013.

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32% Of Consumers Have

No Idea Companies Are Even Listening.

Why listen?

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“Matching social conversation with other data can allow you to

make data-driven decisions.”

~ business2community.com, 2013

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So how does social research fit into public health?

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“Family and social networks' role in personal health

decisions is paramount.”

~ StrategyOne, 2011

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“By monitoring conversation about flu symptoms, SickWeather was able to see a 30% increase of flu chatter

in October, which lead them to predict flu season earlier.”

~ business2community.com, 2013

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What are the opportunities?

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Understanding the landscape.

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Building relationships & changing the conversation.

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Evaluating program performance.

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Identifying share of voice.

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Tracking negative buzz.

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Adding depth & dimension to traditional data collection.

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Capitalizing on real-time data to initiate timely responses.

My conclusions

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§ Social research offers opportunities for public health communication campaigns and research studies.

§ These opportunities require both a wide and deep understanding of social media.

§ Social research requires nimbleness and adaptability.

§ The field requires both social media and research experts to come together for further testing & learning.

Thank you.

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Amelia  Burke-­‐Garcia  ameliaburke@westat.com  

@socialibriumm