PewInternet.org

Public Relations in the Networked Age The new information ecosystem of e-patients

PRSA – Health Academy

Indianapolis

May 3, 2013

Lee Rainie (@Lrainie): Director, Pew Internet Project

Email: Lrainie@pewinternet.org

What is Pew? A “fact tank”?

“Tell the truth, and trust the people”

-- Joseph N. Pew, Jr.

http://bit.ly/dUvWe3

http://bit.ly/100qMub

3

“Tweckle (twek’ul) vt. To

abuse a speaker to Twitter

followers in the audience

while he/she is speaking.”

4

5

“Tweckle (twek’ul) vt. To

abuse a speaker to Twitter

followers in the audience

while he/she is speaking.”

we need a tshirt, "I survived the

keynote disaster of 09"

it's awesome in the "I don't want to

turn away from the accident because I

might see a severed head" way

too bad they took my utensils away w/

my plate. I could have jammed the

butter knife into my temple.

Networked patients and the triple revolution

1) internet/broadband 2) mobile connectivity

3) social networking; social media

Lisa Kimbell email: “If you're reading this it's because I managed to convince Peter to send it which makes me very happy even tho I'm sure it makes Peter feel uncomfortable. I'm sending a check out to Oregon today…. Since most of us are far away, we can't do much of that but we can provide some cash to reduce the stress of figuring out how to deal with the day-to-day while they're dealing with something way more important.”

Blogger Jessica Lipnack: “… because you are reading this post, you are connected to P+T. Without their pioneering ideas and frameworks, this kind of connection, between you and me right now, would be very different.” Then she quotes Lisa Kimbell’s email text

Meaning of P+T for public relations

• Social world has moved from tight groups and organizational hierarchies to looser and more diverse networks – “networked individualism”

• Networks have risen in trust / institutions have declined … but institutions can become network “nodes”

• Networks have segmented and layered

• Social media is a part of networking behavior

• Amateurs stand beside experts as teachers and helpers

Three tech revolutions

Digital Revolution 1: Broadband Internet (85%)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

June 2000

April 2001

March 2002

March 2003

April 2004

March 2005

March 2006

March 2007

April 2008

April 2009

May 2010

Aug 2011

Dec 2012

Broadband at home

Dial-up at home

68%

3%

Networked creators and curators (among internet users)

• 69% are social networking site users

• 59% share photos and videos

• 46% creators; 41% curators

• 37% contribute rankings and ratings

• 33% create content tags

• 30% share personal creations

• 26% post comments on sites and blogs

• 16% use Twitter

• 15% use Pinterest

• 13% use Instagram

• 14% are bloggers

• 6% use Tumblr

• 18% (of smartphone owners) share their locations; 74% get

location info and do location sharing

Internet and health

Other key facts

• Women do many things for e-health at greater levels than men

• Search engines are by far the most likely starting point for health queries

• Half of health searches are for someone else

• Better educated folks are health-seeking omnivores

Impact on health public relations

• More volume, velocity, and variety of information

• New pathways to customers / tastemakers

• Rise of “fifth estate” of media actors (including citizen “vigilantes”) – harder to control message

• More arguments and harder to assess threats

• Collapsed contexts of messaging

Revolution 2: Mobile – 89% of adults 51% smartphones / 31% tablets

321.7

Total U.S.

population:

315.5 million

2012

Apps > 50% of adults

22%

29%

38% 43%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

Sept 2009 May 2010 August 2011 April 2012

% of cell owners who have downloaded apps

Mobile Health Information: Demographics 31%

(among all cell owners)

45% (among smart phone owners)

Men 29 46

Women 33 45

Age

18-29 42** 66***

30-49 39** 59**

50-64 19* 34*

65+ 9 11

Race/ethnicity

White, Non-Hispanic 27 42

Black, Non-Hispanic 35* 47

Hispanic 38* 49*

Annual household income

Less than $30,000/yr 28 35

$30,000-$49,999 30 42*

$50,000-$74,999 37* 56**

$75,000+ 37* 68***

Education level

No high school diploma 17 21

High school grad 26* 36*

Some College 33** 50**

College + 38** 61***

Health and mobile – self-tracking

21% use technology -- 7% use apps

• Attention zones change – “Continuous partial attention” – Deep dives – Info snacking

• Real-time, just-in-time searches and availability change process of acquiring and using information – Spontaneous activities – Be “ready for your closeup”

• Augmented reality highlights the merger of data world and real world

Impact on health public relations

9%

49%

67%

76%

86% 87% 92%

7% 8%

25%

48%

61% 68% 73%

6% 4%

11%

25%

47%

49% 57%

1% 7%

13%

26%

29% 38%

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

18-29 30-49 50-64 65+

Digital Revolution 3 Social networking – 59% of all adults

% of internet users

Health and social networks

• Composition and character of people’s social networks changes AND networks become important channels of … – learning

– trust

– influence

• Organizations can become media companies themselves …

• … and “helper nodes” in people’s networks

Impact on health public relations

• More demands for transparency

A few more thoughts

• More attempts at hacking, breaking and entering, and messing with you

Health outcomes payoff

• Monitoring

• Interventions and reinforcement

• Skills training – meds/devices

• Emotional and social support among peers

• “Information prescriptions”

• Amateur research contributions – online recruitment, communities and clinical trials

Be not

afraid

Thank you!