Rabarison Kristina M, Croston Merriah A, Englar Naomi K, Bish Connie L, Flynn Shelbi M, Johnson Carolyn C
Centers for Disease Control and PreventionDivision of Population HealthAtlanta, GAUnited States.
Tulane Univeristy School of Public Health and Tropical MedicineTulane Prevention Research CenterNew Orleans, LAUnited States.
JMIR Public Health Surveill. 2017 Jun 8;3(2):e34. doi: 10.2196/publichealth.7181.
Little empirical evidence exists on the effectiveness of using Twitter as a two-way communication tool for public health practice, such as Twitter chats.
We analyzed whether Twitter chats facilitate engagement in two-way communications between public health entities and their audience. We also describe how to measure two-way communications, incoming and outgoing mentions, between users in a protocol using free and publicly available tools (Symplur, OpenRefine, and Gephi).
We used a mixed-methods approach, social network analysis, and content analysis. The study population comprised individuals and organizations participating or who were mentioned in the first #LiveFitNOLA chat, during a 75-min period on March 5, 2015, from 12:00 PM to 1:15 PM Central Time. We assessed audience engagement in two-way communications with two metrics: engagement ratio and return on engagement (ROE).
The #LiveFitNOLA chat had 744 tweets and 66 participants with an average of 11 tweets per participant. The resulting network had 134 network members and 474 engagements. The engagement ratios and ROEs for the #LiveFitNOLA organizers were 1:1, 40% (13/32) (@TulanePRC) and 2:1, -40% (-25/63) (@FitNOLA). Content analysis showed information sharing (63.9%, 314/491) and health information (27.9%, 137/491) as the most salient theme and sub-theme, respectively.
Our findings suggest Twitter chats facilitate audience engagement in two-way communications between public health entities and their audience. The #LiveFitNOLA organizers' engagement ratios and ROEs indicated a moderate level of engagement with their audience. The practical significance of the engagement ratio and ROE depends on the audience, context, scope, scale, and goal of a Twitter chat or other organized hashtag-based communications on Twitter.
关于将推特用作公共卫生实践双向沟通工具（如推特聊天）的有效性，实证证据很少。
我们分析了推特聊天是否有助于促进公共卫生实体与其受众之间的双向沟通。我们还描述了如何在使用免费且公开可用工具（Symplur、OpenRefine和Gephi）的方案中测量用户之间的双向沟通、传入和传出提及。
我们采用了混合方法、社会网络分析和内容分析。研究人群包括参与2015年3月5日中午12点至下午1点15分（中部时间）75分钟内首次#LiveFitNOLA聊天或在聊天中被提及的个人和组织。我们用两个指标评估受众在双向沟通中的参与度：参与率和参与回报率（ROE）。
#LiveFitNOLA聊天有744条推文和66名参与者，每位参与者平均发布11条推文。生成的网络有134个网络成员和474次互动。#LiveFitNOLA组织者的参与率和参与回报率分别为1:1、40%（13/32）（@TulanePRC）和2:1、-40%（-25/63）（@FitNOLA）。内容分析显示，信息共享（63.9%，314/491）和健康信息（27.9%，137/491）分别是最突出的主题和子主题。
我们的研究结果表明，推特聊天有助于促进公共卫生实体与其受众之间的双向沟通。#LiveFitNOLA组织者的参与率和参与回报率表明他们与受众的互动程度适中。参与率和参与回报率的实际意义取决于推特聊天或推特上其他基于主题标签的有组织沟通活动所针对的受众、背景、范围、规模和目标。
