Please Retweet #SocialWorkEducation: A Content Analysis of Social Work Programs on Twitter
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This study analyzed over 2,600 tweets from social work programs in the US to understand how they use Twitter. It found that most schools joined Twitter in 2012 or later and tweet primarily in the afternoon. Tweets focused on sharing information, building community, and encouraging action. Larger schools with more programs engaged more users and received more likes/retweets. While correlations between engagement and school size were weak, social media can help schools share information and connect with students/alumni if policies and strategies are developed.
![Background
Social Media use and Specifically Twitter as identified by
the Pew Research Center, Internet and Technology (2018).
• Microblogging Social Media platform that allows for communication,
connection, and general information sharing.
• Professional Networking
• Life-long Learning & Pedagogy
• Live Twitter Chats
• Hashtags #
• More?!?!
There is a growing awareness that social media can be a valuable tool in social work
education to help collaborate with others, promote their programs, engage with
alumni, and promote interprofessional education. Social media are defined as an array
of digital technologies that allow for the creation and exchange of user generated
content (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Kanter & Fine, 2010) and include digital platforms
such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat. Social work practitioners, students
and educators need to be adept at using social media and information communication
technology as part of their practice with clients and organizations of all sizes (Coe Regan
& Freddolino, 2008; Getz, 2012; Hitchcock & Young, 2016; National Association of Social
Workers [NASW], 2017). As more and more organizations adopt social media to
promote their services (Goldkind, 2015; Young, 2017), social work education programs
have also utilized social media for a variety of purposes.
Literature Review
TAP TO GO TO
FIRST SLIDE
What is Twitter?](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
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Please Retweet #SocialWorkEducation: A Content Analysis of Social Work Programs on Twitter
- 1. Please Retweet #SocialWorkEducation: A Content Analysis of Social Work Programs on Twitter Jimmy A. Young, PhD, MSW, MPA California State University San Marcos Material & Methods Conclusion • Schools of social work can play a pivotal role in helping students with their professional development. • Schools can share information, connect with a broad and diverse community, and encourage action like never before. • Schools should consider social media policies within their institution, availability of resources, & developing an overarching strategy that will support their mission & goals. • Content Analysis • Sentiment Analysis • Use of web-based software to collect tweets. • Analysis conducted with web-based software and MS Excel. • Majority of Schools joined Twitter in 2012 or later. • Average number of Followers = 856 • Average number of Likes = 387 • Most Tweets contain a web-link. • Most Schools Tweet during the PM hours. • 84% of Schools link to their website from their Twitter Profile. • Majority of tweets have neutral sentiment or tone. Abstract Results This project examined how social work programs use Twitter. A content and sentiment analysis of 2,606 tweets illustrates what schools share, when they share tweets, how often they use Twitter, the tone or sentiment of the tweets, and the type of engagement the tweets receive. Results vary based on the size of the program, type of content shared and liked by users. TAP TO GO BACK TO KIOSK MENU Email: Jyoung@csusm.edu Web: www.JimmySW.com
- 2. Background Social Media use and Specifically Twitter as identified by the Pew Research Center, Internet and Technology (2018). • Microblogging Social Media platform that allows for communication, connection, and general information sharing. • Professional Networking • Life-long Learning & Pedagogy • Live Twitter Chats • Hashtags # • More?!?! There is a growing awareness that social media can be a valuable tool in social work education to help collaborate with others, promote their programs, engage with alumni, and promote interprofessional education. Social media are defined as an array of digital technologies that allow for the creation and exchange of user generated content (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010; Kanter & Fine, 2010) and include digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Snapchat. Social work practitioners, students and educators need to be adept at using social media and information communication technology as part of their practice with clients and organizations of all sizes (Coe Regan & Freddolino, 2008; Getz, 2012; Hitchcock & Young, 2016; National Association of Social Workers [NASW], 2017). As more and more organizations adopt social media to promote their services (Goldkind, 2015; Young, 2017), social work education programs have also utilized social media for a variety of purposes. Literature Review TAP TO GO TO FIRST SLIDE What is Twitter?
- 3. Methodology Design and Methods The purpose of this project was to examine how social work education programs use Twitter. A total of 2,600 Tweets from schools of social work in the United States were collected over a six month period. Content analysis was performed to identify how programs engage other Twitter users and promote their respective programs. This analysis provides various descriptors and codes to help identify meaning. Sentiment analysis was utilized to examine the tone of the tweets. Both forms of analysis help to yield information regarding whether schools engage in one or more of the three key functions of microblogging (Lovejoy & Saxton, 2012). Descriptive statistics also illustrate when schools send tweets, frequency of hashtags, Retweets, and other content. Data collection was performed using a free web-based service called If This Then That. Data analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel. Research Objectives • Understand how Twitter is being used by social work programs in the United States. • Understand how social work educators and programs can collaborate and network via Twitter to help with professional development. • Evaluate the use of Twitter as an engagement and promotional/marketing tool in social work education. Research Questions • What Hashtags (#) do schools use? • What do Schools share via Twitter? • When do Schools Tweet (am or pm)? • What is the Tone or Sentiment of Tweets? TAP TO GO TO FIRST SLIDE 2,606 Tweets Figure 1. Tweet Word Cloud
- 4. Methodology TAP TO GO TO FIRST SLIDE Table 1. Content Analysis Code Book. *Adapted from: Lovejoy K., & Saxton, G. D. (2012). Tweet text indicates some cynicism, discrimination or violence. Tweet implies no emotions or may merely be ambivalent about the topic or subject. Tweet text indicates openness, enthusiasm, and or kindness. Text Data Sentiment Lexicon Text Mining Visualizations Theme Definition Example Words (codes) Information Tweets contain information about the School’s activities, highlights from events, or any other news, facts, reports, job and career opportunities. It involves mainly one-way interaction with the exchange of information from the school to the public. Learn Deadline Career Apply Training Job Community Tweets serve a dialogue and community- building function by sparking conversations between the school and others. Secondly, these tweets also have a purpose to say something that strengthens ties to the online community without an expectation of interactivity. Join Chat Discuss Support Congrats Celebrate Welcome Action The aim of these tweets are to encourage followers to ”do something” like engage in advocacy campaigns, donate, or buy goods or services. It involves the promotional and mobilizational uses of social media where users are seen as a resource that can be mobilized to help. Advocate Mobilize Organize Help Share Attend Awareness What is Sentiment Analysis?
- 5. Figure 3. Average Number of... Results Description of Results Schools of social work have been using Twitter 2008, with a majority of schools joining the social network in 2012 or later. Schools tweet content related to their programs, job or educational opportunities, and they engage in some community-building conversations as well as in encouraging advocacy and action. Overall, the tone or sentiment of the Tweets is largely neutral or positive. Schools tweet more in the PM hours and a majority of programs on Twitter do contain a link to their school’s website, a key promotional opportunity. Larger programs (as determined by having BSW, MSW, & PhD programs available) were able to produce more tweets and engage with a larger audience. These tweets often received more likes and retweets (often included @ reply’s) than other smaller programs, although there were some outliers. However, the Spearman’s rho bivariate correlation produced a weak relationship (r ² ≤ .396) accounting for only 15.6% of the variance. Over 13% of tweets from schools contained the #MacroSW hashtag followed by #SocialWork (5%), and #MSW (2%). TAP TO GO TO FIRST SLIDE Table 2. Thematic Content & Sentiment Analysis *Earliest adopter was in 2008 54% of Schools joined in 2012 or later Followers a School has 865 Likes per School 387 Users a School follows 323 Years on Twitter 4 Thematic Analysis Number Percentage Information 293 24% Community 280 11% Action 152 20% Sentiment Analysis Positive 580 22% Neutral 2020 78% Negative 6 1% Figure 1. Location of Schools of Social Work (N=89) 14 26 24 25 1,092 1,508 2,101 2,131 2,514 2,600 0 500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% Retweets Just Tweets Tweets Containing # Tweets Containing a WebLink @ Replys Total Tweets Analyzed Figure 2. Tweets by the Numbers Figure 4. Tweet Time of Day PM 61% AM 39% Figure 5. Twitter Profile Contains a Link to School/Program Yes 84% No 16%
- 6. Conclusion Limitations Bivariate Correlations were weak and also not significant. A better lexicon needs to be developed to more accurately capture language social work uses for information, community, and action. Need to develop a better coding scheme that accounts for emojis. Implications Social Work schools and programs can play a pivotal role in helping students to become lifelong learners, increase their digital literacies, and model ethical and appropriate technology use through their curriculum and online presence. Programs have the ability to share information, connect with a broad and diverse community, and encourage action like never before. However, technology in social work education has been integrated sporadically with varying degrees of success. Schools of social work should also consider various social media policies within the institution, availability of resources, and developing an overarching strategy that will support the mission and goals of their respective programs. TAP TO GO TO FIRST SLIDE References Bruns, A., & Stieglitz, S. (2012). Quantitative Approaches to Comparing Communication Patterns on Twitter. Journal of Technology in Human Services, 30(3-4), 160-185. Coe Regan, J. A., & Freddolino, P. P. (2008). Integrating technology in the social work curriculum. Alexandria, VA: Council on Social Work Education. Getz, L. (2012). Mobile App Technology for Social Workers. Social Work Today, 12 (3), 8 -10. Goldkind, L. (2015). Social Media and Social Service: Are Nonprofits Plugged in to the Digital Age? Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership & Governance, 39(4), 380-396. Hitchcock, L. I., & Young, J. A. (2016). Tweet Tweet! Using Live Twitter Chats in Social Work Education. Social Work Education: The International Journal, 35(4), 457-468. Kanter, B., & Fine, A. H. (2010). The networked nonprofit: Connecting with social media to drive change. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media. Business Horizons, 53, 59-68. Lovejoy K., & Saxton, G. D. (2012). Information, community, and action: How nonprofit organizations use social media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17(3), 337-353. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01576.x Markham, A., & Buchanan, E. (2012). Ethical decision-making and Internet research. Retrieved from http://aoir.org/reports/ethics2.pdf NASW (National Association of Social Workers)/ASWB (Association of Social Work Boards)/Council on Social Work Education (CSWE)/Clinical Social Work Association (CSWA). (2005). NASW, ASWB, CSWE, & CSWA Standards for Technology in Social Work Practice. Retrieved from http://www.socialworkers.org/includes/newIncludes/homepage/PRA-BRO- 33617.TechStandards_FINAL_POSTING.pdf Padgett, D. K. (2008). Qualitative methods in social work research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Smith, A. & Anderson, M. (2018, March1). Social Media Use in 2018. Retreived from http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/03/01/social-media-use-in-2018/ Young, J. A. (2017). Facebook, Twitter, and Blogs: The Adoption and Utilization of Social Media in Nonprofit Human Service Organizations. Human Service Organizations: Management, Leadership, & Governance, 41(1), 44-57.
Editor's Notes
- NEED to put in the 3 key functions Code book graphic somehow!!! Maybe move the word cloud to the next page. The information function contains a single category, which covers tweets containing information about the organization’s activities, highlights from events, or any other news, facts, reports or information relevant to an organization’s stakeholders. In line with previous organizational website research (e.g., Saxton et al., 2007; Waters, 2007), it involves a one-way interaction, the exchange of information from the organization to the public. Organizations can thus use Twitter to interact, share, and converse with stakeholders in a way that ultimately facilitates the creation of an online community with its followers. We label tweets that fill this function ‘‘community.’’ There are effectively two aspects to this function: dialogue and community-building. First, there are tweets that spark direct interactive conversations between organizations and their publics; this is similar to the notion of ‘‘dialogue’’ in the organizational website literature (e.g., Kent et al., 2003). Second, there are those tweets whose primary purpose is to say something that strengthens ties to the online community without involving an expectation of interactive conversation. The third and final primary function is ‘‘action.’’ The heart of this function are messages that aim to get followers to ‘‘do something’’ for the organization—anything from donating money or buying T-shirts to attending events and engaging in advocacy campaigns. It involves the promotional and mobilizational uses of social media messages where, implicitly at least, Twitter users are seen as a resource that can be mobilized to help the organization fulfill its mission. Citation: Lovejoy K., & Saxton, G. D. (2012). Information, community, and action: How nonprofit organizations use social media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 17(3), 337-353. doi: 10.1111/j.1083-6101.2012.01576.x AQECAHi208BE49Ooan9kkhW_Ercy7Dm3ZL_9Cf3qfKAc485ysgAAAiowggImBgkqhkiG9w0BBwagggIXMIICEwIBADCCAgwGCSqGSIb3DQEHATAeBglghkgBZQMEAS4wEQQMOFpfja0pAf7U5VqwAgEQgIIB3cFFLUfTa_tYDgeAm7qMZk700jx52QPz9Lz9d7KYzYHUjAxoSl7afkcEW0vb8tXXI7qfPTr2E9FoqbsxO93fw
- Description of results Schools or programs of social work have been utilizing Twitter since as earlier as 2008, with a majority of schools joining the social network in 2012 or later. Schools tweet content related to their programs, job or educational opportunities, and they engage in some community-building conversations as well as in encouraging advocacy and action. Overall, the tone or sentiment of the Tweets is largely neutral or positive. Schools tend to tweet more in the PM hours and a majority of programs on Twitter do contain a link to their school’s website, a key promotional opportunity. Larger programs (as determined by having BSW, MSW, & PhD programs available) were able to produce more tweets and engage with a larger audience. Tweets by larger programs often received more likes and retweets (often included @ reply’s) than other smaller programs, although there were some outliers. However, the Spearman’s rho bivariate correlation produced a weak relationship (r ² ≤ .396) accounting for only 15.6% of the variance. Over 13% of tweets from schools contained the #MacroSW hashtag followed by #SocialWork (5%), and #MSW (2%). What Hashtags (#) do schools use? #MacroSW (329), #socialwork (133), #msw (33), #florida (27), #healthcare (24), #nonprofit (17), #socialpolicy (10).