#Putkids1st: Health Professionals Using Social Media for Public Policy Advocacy—From Collective Action to Connective Action

Abstract

This study examines public policy advocacy by pediatricians and other health professionals in the hashtag community: #putkids1st. The study explores 4321 tweets that feature the hashtag, generated by 1231 unique users largely drawn from the American Association of Pediatricians and its members. The data are used to explore the structural dynamics of the hashtag community, the role of homophily, and to test a source-message framework to predict and recommendations to help improve engagement and retransmission of professional health advocacy messages.

Keywords

• pediatricians
• electronic word of mouth
• public policy advocacy
• professional organizations
• healthcare
• #putkids1st