ABSTRACT

Social marketing thinking and strategies have been used by public health and nongovernmental organizations to improve treatment adherence, with encouraging results. However, in contexts characterized by high uncertainty regarding treatment outcomes, the role of social marketing can be problematic. This research is part of a vast investigation project in which the authors explore how the social support concept can be better approached in social marketing interventions targeting contexts of treatment uncertainty. The aim of the present study is to analyze the structure of social support interactions in two online health communities facing uncertainty in treatment outcomes. To achieve this goal, the social network analysis (SNA) technique was used. Results indicate that the online communities examined in the study shared a similar structural signature, that is characterized by scale-free and small world properties and reduced indexes of reciprocity. Results also indicate that users mostly search for informational types of support in these online communities and that the communities can be segmented into homogeneous groups based on the structural positions they occupy in the network and their profile of support interaction. Implications for social marketing segmentation and targeting are discussed.

摘要

公共卫生和非政府组织已使用社会营销思维和策略来提高治疗依从性，并取得了令人鼓舞的结果。然而，在治疗结果高度不确定的情况下，社会营销的作用可能存在问题。这项研究是一个庞大的调查项目的一部分，作者在该项目中探索如何在针对治疗不确定性背景的社会营销干预中更好地处理社会支持概念。本研究的目的是分析两个面临治疗结果不确定性的在线健康社区中社会支持互动的结构。为了实现这一目标，使用了社交网络分析 (SNA) 技术。结果表明，研究中检查的在线社区具有相似的结构签名，其特点是无标度和小世界属性以及减少的互惠指数。结果还表明，用户主要在这些在线社区中搜索信息类型的支持，并且可以根据他们在网络中占据的结构位置及其支持交互的概况将社区划分为同质组。讨论了社会营销细分和定位的含义。