“Systematic, objective, quantification of data, of real content analysis, can serve as a powerful tool in understanding media and potentially affecting changes to media content.” (BU MET HC560, Mod. 6) In my current role in corporate communication, I use one form of content analysis routinely for public relations agenda-setting, whether for a specific campaign, or company brand overall. Our team needs to understand what the media is focusing on and this informs how we message at that moment to increase visibility. We think about this every day, down to the minute, given the rate at which publishing moves. We use Twitter as an aggregate media source. We also use Salesforce Social Studio for sentiment analysis targeting keywords on social media platforms (Mention and Brandwatch are two other good platforms). Our PR agency has coded positive, negative, and neutral keywords using Salesforce Social Studio for analytics. They are constantly analyzing and optimizing the coding because the units of analysis are integral to the way we measure data, which informs our overall communications strategy. This is an example of content analysis in public relations communication.
I could apply some of these strategies of content analysis for a health care company. For example, if I’m at a larger hospital system and we’re launching a campaign for a new cardiovascular unit, content analysis can be an evaluation tool for output and outcome. Our research question could be something like: Does the new cardiovascular unit campaign at Health Care Center X increase positive perceptions of our health care organization over the next 12 months? Pre, during, and post launch content analysis around the new cardiovascular center communication can inform strategy around advertising and PR. For output we would track the number of times the new unit was mentioned over a specific period of time in a variety of media outlets like local broadcast and media outlets, and Facebook (patient audience) and LinkedIn (if targeting medical students and the local medical community was part of the plan). For outcome, which is more time-intensive and expensive, we could do a more sophisticated analysis to determine if the campaign strategy was effective in increasing positive associations within the community (both current patients and the larger local area), and ultimately driving outcomes of new patients. For sentiment analysis, we could use keywords like the health care organization’s name + cardiovascular, as well as coded words and phrases for positive, negative, and neutral statements. This study by researchers at Elon helped me think through how a health care organization could use content analysis to measure patient perceptions and attitudes. I referenced this study in live class too. This research analyzed Facebook for cancer care at MD Anderson. It’s a good case study illustrating the power of content analysis.