This document summarizes research analyzing over 100,000 health care tweets to identify conversational archetypes on Twitter. Five archetypes were matched to the health care context: unified, fragmented, divided, clustered, and in-hub and spoke. The analysis was based on a Pew Research study that originally identified six general archetypes of Twitter conversation.

1. FIVE ARCHETYPES OF
HEALTH CARE TWITTER
CONVERSATIONS
THE PEW RESEARCH INTERNET PROJECT
IDENTIFIED SIX CONVERSATIONAL
ARCHETYPES ON TWITTER.
WE MANAGED TO MATCH FIVE OF
THESE ARCHETYPESFIVE TO THE
HEALTH CARE CONTEXT BY
BY ANALYZING AND VISUALIZING
OVER 100 000 HEALTH CARE
FOLLOWERS AND TWEETS.
UNIFIED
FRAGMENTED
DIVIDED
CLUSTERED
IN-HUB & SPOKE
OUT-HUB & SPOKE
Conversations with large
number of disconnected
contributers who
mention same topic, but do not
link to or follow one another.
Health care examples:
Most pharma brands
(ex.: Novartis)
Close communities formed
around events or topics, where
participants strongly connect with
one another for information,
ideas and opinions.
Health care examples:
Medical conferences, tweet chats
1. POLARIZED CROWDS
2. TIGHT CROWDS
3. BRAND CLUSTERS
4. COMMUNITY CLUSTERS
5. BROADCAST NETWORK
6. SUPPORT NETWORK
Two large groups on Twitter
discussing polarized topic.
Often even use same hashtag,
but do not interact with
group that disagrees with them.
Health care examples:
Obamacare, Vaccinations
Groups created around popular
topics. Highly interconnected
within clusters, but not across.
Health care examples:
Some pharma brands
(ex. Boehringer)
News media outlets with loyal
followers who retweet them.
Few interactions amongst
audience.
Health care examples:
CDC, FDA, NHS,
most EU hospital accounts
Created when government
agencies or organizations
reply to complaints or customer
requests.
Health care examples:
?
This info graphic is the result of a research project analyzing over
100 000 health care and pharmaceutical followers and their tweets
in the teamcurious database.
The analysis was triggered by the PewResearchCenter study: «The
six archetypes of twitter conversation. » http://ow.ly/Ecvmo
Pew archetypes to health care.
FIVE HEALTHCARE TWITTER ARCHETYPES OF CONVERSATION