Insights for NGOs helping older adults: a social network analysis in X-Twitter

Abstract

Several governments are putting the focus on policies aimed at a better integration of older people into society and an improvement in their quality of life. NGOs helping older adults are crucial to these policies communication and implementation. This research analyses the communication (80,640 original tweets of 40,094 users) carried out by 99 NGOs helping older adults, through the social network X-Twitter. The objective of this research is to analyse the format, polarity and objectivity of the messages published, relating each of these variables to the engagement generated, to establish the characteristics of the communication that achieves the greatest engagement. Sentiment analysis is used for this purpose. The results show that most NGOs helping older adults, use X-Twitter for informative purposes and communicate with neutral polarity. This limits the engagement and the possibilities of creating larger communities within the network and diminishes their potential to denounce injustices.