Swine Flu Social Media Monitoring

Presented by Heather HampsonApril 10, 2023

Background

Action stations…

The Department of Health launched its response to the swine flu outbreak on 24th April, which included tactical use of digital media

Search marketing campaign

Dedicated ‘swine flu’ pages on key

Government websites

Aims and Objectives

There was clear rationale for monitoring social media channels following the outbreak of Swine Flu in the UK:

Highlight issues of concern to social media audiences and the wider public

Gauge immediate responses to the wider swine flu campaign materials and tools

Counter misinformation circulating through social media channels

Discover new uses of data and tools created by social media users to educate about swine flu

Ensure that information and advice provided by the Government can be readily shared between members of the public

Gain audience insight on pandemic flu and related topics to help shape planning

Our approach

Presented by April 10, 2023

Down to business…

Social media monitoring is carried out daily. A member of the team uses both quantitative and qualitative tools to produce a daily

headline report, which is circulated among key stakeholders. The report contains daily posting stats for

Microblogs Blogs Videos Social networks

as well as a more in-depth analysis of trends and hot topics circulating within the social media sphere.

Tools – all free!

Dashboards like Netvibes.com help us to find out what the public are talking about.

Sites like Trendrr provide great Twitter statsSocial media search sites like Social Mention

Results

Presented by Heather HampsonApril 10, 2023

The rumour that the vaccine contained a toxin linked with Gulf War Syndrome was first noted in US blogs on Aug 3rd, it was picked up by UK Tweeters and bloggers within the week, then eventually by the Daily Express, but not until 23rd August.

We were able to compile a list of ‘vaccine myths’ which we could then rebuff with scientific evidence.

Early in the campaign the government noted concerned chatter about swine flu affecting pregnant women and young children…so Health Secretary Andy Burnham did a live chat on Mumsnet.

Monitoring helped the key sites to keep web content up to date and relevant.

And the daily reports were fed into longer term campaign planning.

Monitoring social media has informed how the Department of Health communicates with the public:

Real time monitoring, Real time response

Monitoring which accurately gauges the public mood can be done quickly and cheaply using the right tools.

Social media monitoring on this scale got people in COI talking…it’s now being done on a wider scale, using a range of free and paid for tools.

The monitoring reports encouraged policy makers to take social media seriously, because it was proven that news broke on blogs/Twitter before it hit the main news sites…

…And because social media more accurately reflects the public mood than the main-stream press does…

We and our clients learnt that…

In the longer term

While the mainstream media panicked…

…bloggers and tweeters saw through the headlines and accused the press of hype and hysteria.

Many people in the social media space kept a cool head and at least saw the funny side…

There was no ‘parma-geddon’

The social media world helped us to keep a sense of humour, or not…

“I called the swine flu hotline today but I couldn’t get through…all I got was crackling!”

“If you get an email from the Dept of Health telling you not to eat pork, ignore it, it’s just spam”

“Apparently my mate's got Swine Flu, I think he's just telling porkies, though.”

“Swine Flu is like Susan Boyle. It hasn't really done much, but anyone with an internet connection has heard of it.”

“News Flash .... this just in. The world's religious leaders have issued a joint declaration that the Swine Flu pandemic is the start of the a-pork-alypse!”

Heather.hampson@coi.gsi.gov.uk