A recent social listening report conducted by Capstone-Intel Corporation revealed that the social media presence of HIV/AIDS in the Philippines, in time for the World AIDS Day commemoration, has gotten positive discussions across social and non-social media platforms, with top posts focused on information drives about the topic and the importance of HIV/AIDS awareness.
Capstone-Intel is a high-impact research company that uses innovative research technologies, tools, and methods to convert data and information into breakthrough insights and actionable intelligence outputs. It is committed to helping its clients solve problems, find solutions, grow markets and constituencies, build reputations, navigate risks, manage crises, and be the country’s leading private research and intelligence agency.
Background
The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a sexually transmitted infection that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) if not managed.
Initially, research argues HIV may have spread from chimpanzees to human beings as early as the late 1800s. The virus in chimps is known as the simian immunodeficiency virus. It was most likely transmitted to humans when humans hunted these chimps for meat and got in touch with their contaminated blood.
In the Philippines, the first case of HIV infection was recorded in January 1984. Since then, the case count for the virus has gradually increased, and some remain undiagnosed due to fear of being discriminated against.
The Department of Health (DOH) revealed in November that the daily average rate of new human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases in the country has grown.
According to Secretary of Health Ted Herbosa, there are approximately 50 new HIV infections documented daily, which is greater than the 22 daily case rate in 2022.
Despite the growing number of daily new cases, Herbosa claims that the total number of HIV patients is less than one percent of the country’s population.
Herbosa further stated that the younger generation is becoming more HIV-positive. Data also shows that as of January 2023, there were a total of 110,736 HIV cases reported in the Philippines, which adds to the growing concern of the national government.
In an effort to destigmatize HIV/AIDS across the world, the World Health Organization (WHO) founded World AIDS Day as a “reminder” to end the global stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS.
Methodology
Capstone-Intel examined the online presence of HIV/AIDS in the country as a topic of discussion for one year, from November 30, 2022, to November 30, 2023, by utilizing all publicly accessible posts from social and non-social media platforms in order to gather the sentiments of the public about the topic.
Facebook Performance
Capstone-Intel found that the topic HIV/AIDS garnered a 56,888.1 engagement score for its 1,838 total post count, which yielded over 115,590 total reaction count. When broken down, “Facebook like” accounts for 49.6 percent of the total reactions, with 57,304. Followed by “Facebook love” with 42,313 reactions (36.6 percent), “Facebook sad” with 13,762 (11.9 percent), “Facebook haha” with 7,047 (1.1 percent), “Facebook wow” with 916 (0.8 percent), and “Facebook angry” with 64 reactions (0.1 percent).
Looking at the data, the majority of “Facebook love” and “Facebook like” reactions can be attributed to several Filipino social media users loving and receptive to the idea of discussing HIV/AIDS across Facebook.
Online mentions
Capstone-Intel likewise revealed that McDonald’s received 50 percent positive mentions, and the remaining 50 percent were negative mentions. This means that the article mentions the brand was angled equally. It is also worth noting that HIV/AIDS received 1,166,065 social media reach, while its non-social media reach yielded over 7,183,525 non-social media reach.
Top posts
In terms of top posts, the top post for HIV/AIDS was a social media post from Emmylou Lala Taliño-Mendoza about its measures to ensure that facilities and employees are equipped with necessary awareness about teenage pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, mental health problems, bullying, and other pressing concerns, which received a 3,170.0 engagement score.
This was followed by a news report from TV Patrol featuring the rising cases of HIV/AIDs in the Philippines. This post yielded a total of 2,907.7 engagement score.
The third most engaging post for HIV/AIDS was another social media post from Emmylou Lala Taliño-Mendoza, which also promotes a program that aims to strengthen awareness about pressing issues, including HIV/AIDs among the youth, yielding a total of 2,546.8 engagement score.
Despite showing a number of Filipinos loving the idea of talking about HIV/AIDs in a completely positive light, the engagement it generated is small and remains a concern as it did not engage a massive audience.
