Who do you trust when it comes to mould? What have other people done? Am I the only one with these problems? Surely other people have dealt with mould and water damage and been successful and put it all behind them? Who will you turn to for advice, acceptance and wisdom? Social networks and health communication may be an important component of a solution that fits your needs. Online social networks, social influence and information cascades happen because of two types of influence. The first is PEER INFLUENCE where acceptance of information is dominated by users of the social network who influence the acceptance and consumption of information. The second type of influence is EXTERNAL INFLUENCE where for example the traditional news media introduces ‘a story’.
WHY WOULD I WANT TO KNOW ABOUT THIS? Some estimates say that 55% of users spend less than 15 seconds actively on any web page. Social media engagement is fundamental to increasing the probability of reaching a target audience or being exposed to content you want. Facebook Groups are hot property! In 2018, 1.4 Billion people on Facebook used Groups every month. Closed Groups offer a way for like-minded people to community-build, share information and interact without a gatekeeper and without brand approvals or at least where known brands are in the background and people are at the interface of the dialogue. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT FOR ME TO KNOW ABOUT THIS RIGHT NOW? Facebook is also changing their own rules and is rolling out “health support groups” where it will be possible for patients to post sensitive information anonymously through groups admins. Other groups are: public, closed or secret! WHAT ARE THE FACTS? Before I get into the specifics of the Top 10 Facebook Mould Groups I want to review what we know about social media, communication and misinformation. If we take a step back and look at what the academics are saying about the topic of vaccination on Facebook some interesting trends emerge: 1. Vaccine hesitancy is recognized as a major global health threat 2. Accessing any type of information on social media has been suggested to be a powerful influence factor on hesitancy 3. 2.6 Million users were analysed over 7 years interacting with just under 300,000 posts and they discovered that: 4. Content consumption about vaccines is dominated by the echo-chamber effect. The echo-chamber effect is when users or readers are exposed to information inside a bubble that supports their previously held beliefs. This is caused in part by machine learning algorithms at Google and Facebook where information content is tailored to users interests. 5. Echo-chambers explain why social media campaigns that deliver accurate information may have limited reach. 6. In fact, scientifically accurate information may only be effective in sub-groups and may even cause further polarisation away. What I mean here is that introducing dissenting information into a sub group can back-fire and in fact reinforce existing opinions within groups. 7. Other research shows that TRUST contributes to the success of social groups especially by encouraging people to interpret the actions of others favourably. 8. Some key facts emerge: (a) The likelihood of trust depends on how much they trust the group (b) Smaller, closed groups are trusted more (c) The individuals position within the group can predict trust (d) There are gender gaps - across countries, women tend to have larger networks of close friends than men and female users living away from their home town are more likely to engage in Facebook compared to their male counterparts. WHAT ARE THE WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NOT CHECKING OUT FB GROUPS? You could miss out on timely and valuable peer-support. Consensus thinking in your niche can be subtle and by not joining in, you risk missing out on trends. Post popularity also gives you clues about these trends at work in your community.