Sensis social media report May 2015: how Australian people and businesses are using social media

Sensis surveyed 800 Australian consumers and 1,100 Australian businesses to continue this landmark study on how social media channels are being used. For the purposes of this report, the term “social media” refers to: • Social networking websites including Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter. • Online blogs and online rating and review mechanisms. The findings detailed in this report aim to help Australian businesses to make more informed decisions about how to use these channels to engage with consumers. Australians and social media Australians continue to embrace technology through use of multiple internet enabled devices. The average Australian owns three such devices with laptops (75%), smartphones (70%) and tablets (55%) most prevalent. The way we connect continues to evolve with social media still playing a significant role in many people’s lives. 68% of internet users have a social media profile and they mainly use it to catch up with friends and family. It’s becoming more prevalent in our daily lives as a majority (70%) are using their smartphone to access it (mainly through an app). Hence it is not surprising that the frequency of use is increasing - 24% check in more than 5 times a day which is up from 19% - but overall use appears to have plateaued as there has been no growth in social media use relative to last year when 69% had a social media profile. Facebook continues to dominate the social media space, capturing 93% of users and they spend an average of eight and a half hours a week on the site. Quite a few have profiles on LinkedIn (28%), Instagram (26%) and Google+ (23%) with use of each platform continuing to grow. Social media is a forum which is generally used for browsing and many consumers check in to keep their ‘finger on the pulse’, giving them a real time perspective of what is happening around them. This provides businesses with huge potential to engage and interact with the public. From a commercial perspective, a solid minority of Australians who use this media follow brands and businesses (32%), access offers and promotions (20%) or conduct research about products and services they want to buy (19%) which means they are willing to engage. In fact, half of those who are using social media to research products and services said they made a purchase and two thirds of them made that purchase online. Therefore, it remains paramount for businesses and marketers to establish a connection by engaging with them in a meaningful way if they want to capitalise on this opportunity. For example, stories about the brand or its product and services, shared in a compelling format (i.e. video or imagery) help to establish a positive connection and this is one of the major advantages of social media. Tangible benefits also attract consumers like discounts, give-aways and coupons but some are also seeking event invitations, tips and advice or an opportunity to provide feedback. Attitudes towards businesses advertising on social media remain mixed but there are still quite a few who like sponsored posts from businesses they follow (32%) or don’t mind seeing ads (38%) which they click on occasionally to find out more (42%). This suggests paid advertising or sponsorship is reasonably effective for targeting consumers of interest although it’s also likely to be ignored by many. Blogs and reviews continue to influence buying decisions, with over half of social media users (55%) reading reviews before making a purchase, which is less prevalent than the past few years. Most who read reviews look at up to 5 before making a decision. However, there remains just over a quarter of online users who post blogs or reviews (27%) and their shared experiences can influence potential buyer’s decisions

In their own words: A qualitative study exploring influences on the food choices of university students

Issue addressed: University students generally make independent decisions regarding food choices. Current research about knowledge of Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG), sources of nutrition information and influences on food choices for this group is scarce. Methods: Qualitative data were collected from gender‐separated focus groups comprising four female (n = 31) and four male (n = 18) to identify: knowledge of ADG; sources of nutrition information; factors that influence food choices; perceived relevant nutrition messages and how best to deliver them. Results: Gaps in knowledge were identified particularly regarding number of serves and serving size for food groups. Social media was the most commonly reported source of knowledge. Social media was also a major influence on food choice due to its impact on body ideals. Conclusion: Current health promotion nutrition messages were perceived irrelevant given the focus on long‐term health risks. Health and adhering to the ADG were not identified as important. The desire to look a particular way was the major influence on food choices. So what? While there is an awareness of ADG, our participants made a deliberate decision not to follow them. This provides a challenge for developing relevant preventive health messages for this target audience

The association between exposure to social media alcohol marketing and youth alcohol use behaviors in India and Australia

© 2018 The Author(s). Background: Alcohol marketing on social networking sites (SNS) is associated with alcohol use among young people. Alcohol companies adapt their online marketing content to specific national contexts and responses to such content differ by national settings. However, there exists very little academic work comparing the association between alcohol marketing on SNS and alcohol use among young people in different national settings and across different SNS. Therefore, we aimed to extend the limited existing work by investigating and comparing the association between self-reported exposure to alcohol marketing on three leading SNS (Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter) and alcohol use among young people in diverse national contexts (India and Australia). Methods: Cross-sectional, self-report data were obtained from a convenience sample of 631 respondents (330 in India; 301 in Australia) aged 13-25 years via online surveys. Respondents answered questions on their drinking behaviors and involvement with alcohol marketing on SNS. Results: Many respondents from both countries reported interacting with alcohol content online, predominantly on Facebook, followed by YouTube and then Twitter. The interaction was primarily in the forms of posting/liking/sharing/commenting on items posted on alcohol companies' social media accounts, viewing the event page/attending the event advertised by an alcohol company via social media, and/or accessing an alcohol website. Multivariate analyses demonstrated significant associations between respondents' interaction with alcohol content and drinking levels, with effects differing by SNS, demographic group, and country. For example, having friends who shared alcohol-related content was an important predictor of usual alcohol consumption for Indian respondents (p <.001), whereas posting alcohol-related information themselves was a stronger predictor among Australians (p <.001). Conclusions: The results suggest that interaction with alcohol-related content on SNS is associated with young people's alcohol use behaviors and that these behaviors vary by national settings. This study extends previous work by demonstrating this connection across varying social media platforms and national contexts. The results highlight the need to formulate and implement strategies to effectively regulate the SNS alcohol marketing, especially among younger SNS users

Prospects for early childhood feeding interventions: an exploration of parent's concerns and acceptability towards social media intervention opportunities

The present study aims to (i) consult with parents regarding child feeding concerns, as relevant to child feeding interventions, (ii) determine parents' willingness to participate in online and social media-based interventions and (iii) determine differences in intervention acceptability based on geographic diversity and demographic characteristics.Three hundred thirty Australian parents of children (2.0-5.0 years) with child feeding concerns participated in an online, cross-sectional survey. Kruskal-Wallis with Dunn's multiple-comparison test, using Bonferroni adjustment, was used to compare differences between variables and participants characteristics (region of residence, parent age, parent education and income).About 53.9% of respondents were concerned about child fussy eating, with lack of time and child tantrums common barriers to addressing concerns. Respondents indicated that a combination of online platforms (websites, email, Facebook) was their preferred method of intervention participation, although, a combination of online and face-to-face methods also had modest preference, particularly among lower educated parents. Participants indicated that they would participate in an online intervention (participating once a week) for more than 12 weeks (42.7%), compared with only 4 weeks (participating once a week) for traditionally delivered interventions. About 32.4% of respondents said they would be concerned about their privacy in an online intervention.Fussy eating is likely to be an appealing focus for future child feeding interventions, with strategies to address common barriers an important curriculum area. Online interventions are likely to offer an acceptable and plausible alternative to traditional interventions that are able to reach geographically diverse populations, although face-to-face intervention components still hold appeal

A Multi-Modal Unscented Kalman Filter for Inference of Aircraft Position and Taxi Mode from Surface Surveillance Data

We describe a multi-modal unscented Kalman lter developed for estimation of aircraft position, velocity and heading from noisy surface surveillance data. The raw data is composed of tracks generated by the Airport Surface Detection Equipment, Model-X at Boston Logan International Airport, and is obtained from the Runway Status Lights system. The multi-modal lter formulation facilitates estimation of aircraft taxi mode, described by di erent acceleration and turn rate values, in addition to aircraft states

#Frailty: A snapshot Twitter report on frailty knowledge translation

© 2018 AJA Inc. Objectives: The objectives of this short report are to: (i) explore #Frailty Twitter activity over a six-month period; and (ii) provide a snapshot Twitter content analysis of #Frailty usage. Methods: A mixed-method study was conducted to explore Twitter data related to frailty. The primary search term was #Frailty. Objective 1: data were collected using Symplur analytics, including variables for total number of tweets, unique tweeters (users) and total number of impressions. Objective 2: a retrospectively conducted snapshot content analysis of 1500 #Frailty tweets was performed using TweetReach ™ . Results: Over a six-month period (1 January 2017–31 June 2017), there was a total of 6545 #Frailty tweets, generating 14.8 million impressions across 3986 participants. Of the 1500 tweets (814 retweets; 202 replies; 484 original tweets), 56% were relevant to clinical frailty. The main contributors (‘who’) were as follows: the public (29%), researchers (25%), doctors (21%), organisations (18%) and other allied health professionals (7%). Tweet main message intention (‘what’) was public health/advocacy (41%), social communication (28%), research-based evidence/professional education (24%), professional opinion/case studies (15%) and general news/events (7%). Conclusions: Twitter is increasingly being used to communicate about frailty. It is important that thought leaders contribute to the conversation. There is potential to leverage Twitter to promote and disseminate frailty-related knowledge and research