The Importance of Engagement in the Dissemination of Audio-Visual Content by Spanish Health Influencers on Instagram
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
I sincerely thank you for the opportunity to review this manuscript. The topic of social media use and user engagement, especially in relation to health information, is certainly of interest in our current society and it is useful to further study these phenomena.
I found your article interesting but there are a few things I find worth pointing out.
Abstract
1) The purpose of the study must be clearly stated in the abstract.
2) The engagement metrics of individual posts were not analyzed nor for the digital format (images, reels, infographics, etc.), therefore a direct impact of the type of content on the level of engagement cannot be affirmed. For this reason, it would be appropriate to modify the last sentence of the abstract by saying only that the profiles which used a greater number of reels and infographics are those with a higher engagement value.
Introduction
3) In the section on the purpose of the research (line 120) you wrote that the frequency of publication would be analyzed and then not considered in the article. Please insert this data or change the sentence.
Results
4) At what time were the data reported in table 1 (i.e., followers, posts, followings) collected? Please add this information.
Discussion
5) Provide a reference for the sentence written on lines 228-230.
6) It would be appropriate to include the fact that engagement is calculated only on the last 10 posts of each Instagram page among the limits of the study.
7) As highlighted in comment 2, the engagement was not calculated in relation to the type of content published (reels, etc.) nor the engagement of individual posts was calculated.
Similarly, as indicated in comment 3, the relationship between the number of published posts and engagement level was not considered. It would be interesting to add this data to better understand the dynamics of engagement. If you cannot provide these results, it would be appropriate to indicate this among the limits and future perspectives of the study.
Author Response
First of all, we would like to thank you for your valuable advice and for taking the trouble and interest to evaluate our research. Your considerations have undoubtedly improved the manuscript considerably.
We will try to answer your questions:
Abstract
1) The purpose of the study must be clearly stated in the abstract.
The purpose is to identify which communication strategies provided by digital platforms such as Instagram have the greatest impact on the dissemination and engagement of this content. Whether it is exclusively attributed to the subject matter to be commented on or whether the format has a certain influence on this dissemination. We have modified the abstract with this sentence:
The aim of this study is to determine which communication strategies and content generate more engagement with users who follow health and pharmacy topics.
2) The engagement metrics of individual posts were not analyzed nor for the digital format (images, reels, infographics, etc.), therefore a direct impact of the type of content on the level of engagement cannot be affirmed. For this reason, it would be appropriate to modify the last sentence of the abstract by saying only that the profiles which used a greater number of reels and infographics are those with a higher engagement value.
We have modified the last sentence as indicated.
Engagement is a determining variable in the impact of health-related dissemination content and is not necessarily linked to a greater number of followers; the profiles which used a greater number of reels and infographics are those with a higher engagement value.
Introduction
3) In the section on the purpose of the research (line 120) you wrote that the frequency of publication would be analyzed and then not considered in the article. Please insert this data or change the sentence.
Indeed, we have modified the sentence by deleting "frecuency of publication".
As specific objectives, we will identify the communication techniques that generate a greater impact on the dissemination of the content of these influencers, as well as the type of content most used.
Results
4) At what time were the data reported in table 1 (i.e., followers, posts, followings) collected? Please add this information.
We have included the day on which the data was collected in the following sentence:
Table 1 shows the number of followers, posts and other profiles followed for each influencer from October 2021 to March 2022 (Data extracted the day 24/03/22).
Discussion
5) Provide a reference for the sentence written on lines 228-230.
We understand that you are referring to this sentence which has no reference, we include it here.
This phenomenon is frequently observed in social media marketing studies, where nano or micro influencers, those with modest numbers of followers, tend to have more reach among their audience than the so-called mega influencers (Cuevas-Molano, Matosas-López, and Bernal-Bravo 2021).
6) It would be appropriate to include the fact that engagement is calculated only on the last 10 posts of each Instagram page among the limits of the study.
To correct this we have included the following sentence:
It is also a limitation of the study to have taken only the last ten publications and not to extend this range.
7) As highlighted in comment 2, the engagement was not calculated in relation to the type of content published (reels, etc.) nor the engagement of individual posts was calculated. Similarly, as indicated in comment 3, the relationship between the number of published posts and engagement level was not considered. It would be interesting to add this data to better understand the dynamics of engagement. If you cannot provide these results, it would be appropriate to indicate this among the limits and future perspectives of the study.
To correct this we have included the following sentence in study limitation:
It would also be possible to measure the level of engagement for each post in particular, as well as the frequency of publication of each type of post.
Once again we would like to thank you for your contributions, which have undoubtedly improved the quality of our research.
Reviewer 2 Report
Introduction :
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review this paper. The paper is well written and the method and data analysis is clear an easy to understand. However, the biggest weakness of this paper is lack of adequate theoretical grounding. Theories such as UGT can be helpful in devising theoretical framework relevant to this study. Please see : Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Fahy, J., & Goodman, S. (2016). Social media engagement behaviour: A uses and gratifications perspective. Journal of strategic marketing, 24(3-4), 261-277.
More recent research should be embedded while highlighting research gap.
I would also like to see more background information concerning the rationale of selecting the areas of 115 pharmacy and health on Instagram in Spain as a context of the study?
Method : Did you you seek ethical approval for you study? Did you receive informed consent from the profile owners?
Results- Clearly presented
Discussion - I would like see a paragraph clearly outlining the theoretical and practical implications of the study. At this stage, implication of this study is not clear.
Author Response
First of all, we would like to thank you for your valuable advice and for taking the trouble and interest to evaluate our research. Your considerations have undoubtedly improved the manuscript considerably.
We will try to answer your questions:
Theories such as UGT can be helpful in devising theoretical framework relevant to this study. Please see : Dolan, R., Conduit, J., Fahy, J., & Goodman, S. (2016). Social media engagement behaviour: A uses and gratifications perspective. Journal of strategic marketing, 24(3-4), 261-277.
More recent research should be embedded while highlighting research gap.
We have included this paragraph in the introduction, section 1.2. Influencers in social media to introduce the UGT.
According to the theory of uses and gratification (UGT), individuals tend to make a utilitarian use of communication channels seeking to satisfy specific needs, a practice that has been used since the beginning of the media but has more importance than ever today with the social networks (Ko, Cho, and Roberts 2005). Applying UGT in this new media ecosystem reveals that the user not only wants to consume certain products, but also needs to interact with other users about the product and the environment. UGT directly in-fluences the way in which influencers relate to their followers and the degree of en-gagement they produce (Dolan et al. 2016).
And in the discussion
,behaviour that we associate to the UGT and that relates the user's desire to obtain products or compensation and the need to share it (Dolan et al. 2016).
I would also like to see more background information concerning the rationale of selecting the areas of pharmacy and health on Instagram in Spain as a context of the study?
In the second paragraph of section 1.2. Influencers in social media, we describe how influencers are categorised according to the number of followers they have. Based on these categories we have selected the study population. We have used this as the basis for selecting the study population, and we also indicate the tool with which we have obtained the data (Infludata). But we understand that it is necessary to contrast this information with reference sites in the field of pharmacy, so we add this paragraph indicating the sources where we have contrasted the data obtained by Infludata.
We also contrasted the results obtained in infludata with three reference websites on pharmaceutical issues such as Portalfarma, the website of the General Council of Official Pharmacists' Associations, Club de la Farmacia, a blog based on the experiences of Spanish pharmacists, and En Genérico, the website of the Spanish Association of Generic Medicines.
Method : Did you you seek ethical approval for you study? Did you receive informed consent from the profile owners?
This study does not require the supervision of an ethics committee as all the information analysed in the study is acquired from the public data of the accounts that can be accessed by any user. No confidential information has been published, nor has any form been administered to the influencers.
Results- Clearly presented
Discussion - I would like see a paragraph clearly outlining the theoretical and practical implications of the study. At this stage, implication of this study is not clear.
We have added the following sentence to the discussion to resolve this:
In terms of the practical implications of the study, we can indicate that these results can help to establish an analysis method to determine the impact of individual posts and associate it with the format of the post. On the other hand, we can establish associations between the communication tools or strategies on Instagram, with the engagement of the audience that usually follows health-related social media accounts.
Once again we would like to thank you for your contributions, which have undoubtedly improved the quality of our research.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Thanks for making the changes. The paper can still be improved in terms of sentence structure and clarity of expression. Rest is good and I am happy to recommend publication
Author Response
Dear Reviewer
A professional translator, a native speaker of British English, has reviewed the manuscript and corrected the indications you have made.
Once again we thank you for your help and effort in this process, your input has been very valuable to us.
