Charities’ use of Twitter: exploring social support for women living with and beyond breast cancer

Abstract

Fo r m o r e info r m a tio n, in cl u di n g o u r p olicy a n d s u b mi s sio n p r o c e d u r e , pl e a s e c o n t a c t t h e R e p o si to ry Te a m a t: u si r@ s alfo r d. a c. u k . Charities' use of Twitter|: Exploring social support for women living with and beyond breast cancer.Twitter is one social media platform that enables those experiencing breast cancer to access support from others. This study explores how cancer charities provide support to women living with and beyond breast cancer (LWBBC) through their Twitter feeds. 772 tweets from seven purposively sampled cancer charities were used to explore Twitter posts made relating to social support. Two questions were posed: (1) what type of support is positioned by cancer charities on Twitter for women LWBBC and (2) what themes emerge from tweet content pertaining to support for women LWBBC?Using a peer reviewed typology of 'social support' (Rui, Chen & Damiano, 2013), a deductive content analysis was utilised to identify informational, instrumental or emotional social support tweets (n= 199). Over half (56%) of tweets offered informational support; 27% provided or sought instrumental support; and 18% related to emotional support. Interestingly, 74.3% (n = 573) of tweets were not related to providing or seeking social support. An inductive qualitative thematic analysis of the 199 tweets identified the focus (i.e. themes) of support. Three themes, were identified:(1) raising awareness (2) focusing on the future and (3) sharing stories. Cancer charities predominantly use Twitter to signpost women to informational resources and to seek instrumental support to meet charitable objectives. As the number of women LWBBC continues to increase, this study provides valuable insight into how charities represent themselves on Twitter in relation to the social support needs of women LWBBC.

Socially Designed: A Prescription for Brain Health

“…They found that there was more support than stigma messaging towards mental health or mental illness tweets, however, bipolar disorder related tweets had more stigma and less support than mental health and illness. Ure et al (2019) also found prevalence of tweets with raising awareness themes in support related tweets by cancer charities.…”

“…Budenz et al (2020) found that there was more support than stigma messaging towards mental health or mental illness tweets. Similarly, Ure et al (2019) found prevalence of tweets with raising awareness themes in support related tweets by cancer charities. Furthermore, online social networks have the potential to promote social influence for health and facilitate information sharing platforms (Eghtesadi & Florea, 2020).…”

“…Sharing stories with others can lead to social support, for example, Ure et al (2019) found the prevalence of a theme related to sharing stories in cancer charities tweets related to social support. O'Neill (2018) notes that storytelling is an important framework for self-disclosure.…”

“…Rui et al (2013) found that the provision of informational, emotional and instrumental support were the main types of support that health organisations give on Twitter. Ure et al (2019) conducted content analysis of Twitter posts from charities related to social support and found that most tweets (56%) offered informational support, with 27% instrumental, and 18% emotional support. The three main themes of tweets included: raising awareness, focusing on the future, and sharing stories.…”