Brainstorming my Reasearch Project

I need to come up with a project for my Social Media course, and therefore I have been brainstorming how I can relate SM to my thesis topic (Perceived Beliefs of Hospital Staff Regarding the Flu Vaccines).  I looked into using Radian6 or Sysomos to research what has been said about the flu vaccines on SM sites… but in all reality, I simply cannot afford to pay $600-$1,000/mo. on such a program.

Off to plan B.  I have looked at other free internet resources that also search what has been mentioned on SM sites.  All of the free resources are a bit different, none of them having the capabilities as the more expensive ones (unfortunately).  The one I liked the most was Twitter Search because I am able to choose my location and hook the results up to an RSS feeder.  Although Twitter Search does not look far back in time, I am able to save up to 2500 twitter responses from when I start my feed.

So here is the plan.  I am searching 9 cities across the US, and trying to figure out what people are tweeting about the flu shot. 

• Positive/Negative Comments?
• Sick from the Shot?
• How many Public Health Messages?
• Any other trends apparent?

I would also like to see the demographics of people who are tweeting about the flu shots.

• Age
• Gender
• Location

I would hopefully like to see the number of negative flu shot comments go down as public health messages go up.  Should be pretty interesting, and hopefully I will come up with some useful information.

Comments or suggestions?

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