NOD ANALYTICS

SOCIAL MEDIA
ANALYSES & INSIGHTS
A REPORT FOR THE AMERICAN
ASSOCIATION OF KIDNEY PATIENTS

Prepared by
Tejas Desai, MD
NOD ANALYTICS
________________________
Email: tejas.p.desai@gmail.com
Twitter: @nephOnDemand
Web: http://goo.gl/mfziXG

26 September 2016

SOCIAL MEDIA ANALYSES &

INSIGHTS
A R E P O R T F O R T H E A M E R IC A N A S S O C IA T IO N O F K ID N E Y P A T IE N T S

TABLE OF CONTENTS

v Background
v Social Media Activity
v Social Media Content
v Social Media Engagement/Influence
v Recommendations and Strategies
v Final Thoughts
BACKGROUND

The American Association of Kidney Patients (AAKP) held its 42nd annual meeting from 23-25
September 2016. The meeting had its most notable online presence on Twitter, designated through
the official conference hashtag/community of #AAKP2016. This report details three specific social
media domains: Activity, Content, and Engagement/Influence. Within each domain we quantify
various metrics for the current social media campaign. This report concludes with recommendations
and strategies, grouped by domain, to improve future social media campaigns.
SOCIAL MEDIA - ACTIVITY

The official hashtag for the 42nd Annual Meeting was #AAKP2016. For the time period 23 -25
September 2016, a total of 318 tweets were composed. A total of 338 tweets were composed when
the pre- and post-meeting periods (one day each) are included (see Figure below). The largest
number of tweets composed occurred on the second full day of the meeting (2016-09-24). The first
and third days of the meeting were nearly identical in the number of tweets authored.

Of the 318 tweets during the conference, 66% were original tweets, 27% were evidence-based
tweets (tweets with links to websites), and 30% were enhanced with a multimedia file (picture or
video) (see Table below). Interestingly, the ratio of Original:Retweets favored the former on Days 0
and 1 of the conference but became nearly 1:1 on Day 2 (the last day). While not as pronounced, the
ratio of multimedia:text tweets also trended towards 1:1 by Day 2. The most common website found
in Evidence-based tweets was a link to the main page of AAKP.org (https://t.co/mNEuxBQbF0).
There were links with such tweets to the member registration page.

Forty-eight unique authors composed 318 tweets, with the most prolific authors @iCare_USC,
@kidneypatients, and @gratefull080504 (see Figure below). Of the top 7 authors, 5 are on the
Board of Directors.
Those authors without a leadership role within AAKP include:
@whatbugsmaycome (an individual passionate about infection control), @DCI_dialysis (the official
account of Dialysis Clinic, Inc.), and @RobertBlaser1 (a health policy analyst). @SLeonMD and
@leecauble are the only medical practitioners (physician and nurse, respectively) that made it into the
top 12.

SOCIAL MEDIA - CONTENT

The following word cloud shows the most frequently used words in the collection of tweets that
populated #AAKP2016. This data, along with a hashtag analysis of the tweets (not shown in this
report), indicate that the most popular theme at the 42nd annual meeting was Patient Engagement
(see Figure below). Dialysis was the only medical-specific term that was often tweeted. Other
terms such as transplant, policy, payment, meds, and/or their derivatives, were not popular
at this years meeting.

As with any social media campaign, some messages are more popular than others. In the case of
#AAKP2016, the following 12 messages were retweeted the most:

The individuals that authored these tweets are listed after the RT. @kidneypatients,
@icare_USC, and @nephondemand were the authors whose tweets (and the message contained with
them) were amplified the most.

SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT/INFLUENCE

Perhaps no domain is as critical to a successful social media campaign as influence. Users that
engage with AAKP will increase AAKPs influence in social media. The first figure illustrates the
accounts that were most often mentioned within #AAKP2016 community of tweets. While many of
these accounts authored a large number of tweets, accounts such as @CDCgov and @rogosin
should be studied in greater detail. These accounts composed relatively few tweets compared to the
number of times they were mentioned.

The table below summarizes the most relevant influence metrics. The highlighted green
indicates those accounts with the most favorable influence metric. @KidneyPatients did not author
the highest proportion of original tweets. Despite this finding, AAKP impressively gained 12
followers during the conference period. Unfortunately, the effort required to earn those followers
was tremendous. AAKP needed to author 100 original tweets in order to acquire 34 new followers.
Tweets that are retweeted offer the easiest and most effective way of spreading an
organizations message. One can consider retweets as an earned amplification of an organizations
social media efforts. AAKP needed to author 10 original tweets to gain 6 retweets a ratio less
favorable than that earned by 3 board members (@knightra, @suzanneruff, and @nephondemand).
As expected, the host organization had the greatest name popularity AAKP was mentioned 2
times for every one tweet authored.

RECOMMENDATIONS AND STRATEGIES

Domain: Twitter Activity

Recommendation 1: Increase the number of tweets (from all authors) in the time
leading up to the meeting. Consider tweeting sneak peaks of activities and sessions that will be
held at the meeting
Recommendation 2: Continue original tweeting in a 2:1 ratio but include more
evidence-based tweets. Evidence-based tweets can connect the Twitter reader to the newly
redesigned AAKP.org website. Links to PDFs, policy statements, and the registration/membership
portal will increase traffic to AAKP.org, showcase AAKP content, and possibly increase
membership.
Recommendation 3: Encourage non-Board members, such as attendees, exhibitors, and
guest speakers, to tweet during the meeting.

Domain: Twitter Content

Recommendation 1: Consider incorporating established Twitter terms into tweets. This
will allow AAKP tweets to be found on Twitter searches. This recommendation can be
accomplished by assigning a specific hashtag for each scientific session. For example, a session in
which payment for transplantation medications is being discussed can be promoted by using the
hashtags #AAKP2017 + #transplantation.
Recommendation 2: Include multimedia images with tweets. Such tweets are
considered enhanced and are more likely to be read and/or retweeted. Including images of PDF
titles or charts in a tweet will increase reader engagement with that tweet.
Recommendation 3: Encourage audience members and exhibitors to retweet messages
authored by AAKP. This can especially be helpful to those individuals who want to use Twitter but
are unsure what to compose. Such individuals can turn to @KidneyPatients to retweet messages
from this account.
Domain: Twitter Engagement/Influence
Recommendation 1: AAKP should have the highest number of original tweets
authored. The host organization should have access to more original content than any other
participant.
Recommendation 2: AAKP should consider adding multimedia images and URL
citations to tweets to increase the number of followers it accrues. The 100:34 ratio (original tweets
authored:followers gained) needs to decrease in order to increase social media effectiveness.
Recommendation 3: Call upon select board members to retweet AAKP messages. This
will increase AAKPs efficiency of reach.

FINAL THOUGHTS

In this inaugural report the data show that AAKP has conducted a successful social media
campaign. The metrics in this report should be used as a historical reference against which future
performance can be measured. The recommendations and strategies are suggestions to improve
future social media campaigns and build upon the success that was achieved at the 42nd annual
meeting.
Please let me know if you have any questions about this report.