#SocialWorkEducation: A Computational Analysis of Social Work Programs on Twitter

Abstract

Computational social science methods provide a better understanding of how social work education programs use Twitter. Data mining and sentiment analysis of 2,509 tweets were conducted using the Information, Community, and Action conceptual framework. Programs primarily tweet content related to the theme of Information and the tone of the tweets are mainly positive. Statistics such as the number of followers, number of tweets, types of hashtags (#) used, and when tweets are shared during the day are also provided to illustrate how programs use Twitter. A composite score was also developed to highlight the top 10 social work programs on Twitter. Implications for social work education are given along with suggestions for programs in developing a social media strategy.