Coronavirus Spreading Globally and on Social Media
Nearly one month ago, COVID-19, more commonly known as the Coronavirus, spread through mainland China. At that point, just a few cases had been reported outside of the country, including in the United States.
In the time since, the virus has continued to escalate. And the list of those affected outside of China continues to steeply increase.
On Jan. 29, we noted the concerns the virus had caused throughout social media. With the Coronavirus now daily in the news, it’s time to revisit the conversation on social media.
Just like our last post on the subject, a search on Social Studio for simply the keyword, “coronavirus,” yielded 11 million posts in the past seven days. But just like the virus itself, the conversation has steered away from China. Now, as the word cloud below shows, other people, places, and phrases have dominated the conversation.
Of the total tweets in the past seven days, three million occurred on Feb. 25. This likely coincided with comments made by President Donald Trump. According to CNN, yesterday during his trip to India to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Trump told reporters, “I think that’s a problem that’s going to go away,” when asked about the effect on the global economy.
That and other comments by Trump explain why his name is one of the trending words according to Social Studio. ‘Italy’ and ‘Italia’ are also among the top words due to the virus’ increased outbreak in the European nation. According to the New York Times, there have been 150 confirmed cases in Italy.
Another measure of the global implication is a look at the languages in which social media posts have been made. While English still dominates the conversation, other languages have also been widely used.
We’ll continue to monitor the conversation around Coronavirus from our perch atop the Communication building and the Adam Brown Social Media Command Center.