Competing voices : marketing and counter-marketing alcohol on Twitter

Excessive alcohol consumption constitutes a global health problem, and despite increasing efforts to promote safe drinking, spending on alcohol advertising far outweighs spending on safe-drinking messages. Twitter represents a new channel for social marketing, but its use to promote safe drinking has not been examined. In this study, six Twitter accounts maintained by advocates of safe drinking and/or abstinence were compared with six accounts maintained by alcohol companies using a mixed-method design. The Twitter accounts of alcohol companies were followed by more people, and their tweets were more likely to use interactive features such as hashtags, to be forwarded to others, and to be associated with positive stimuli, suggesting greater interactivity and influence than prohealth Twitter messages. The results suggest social marketers may benefit from adopting the practices of for-profit marketers to increase the visibility of, engagement with, and influence of their tweets.