Abstract

This study conducted a content analysis of tweets from the top five pharmaceutical companies to examine the levels of engagement between these companies and their audiences. The research also investigated the relationships between different types of tweets, including topics and message frames, and user interactions. The results revealed that pharmaceutical companies were more inclined to engage with tweets related to their own business practices rather than other subjects. The analysis further showed that pharmaceutical companies predominantly utilized episodically framed tweets for disseminating information about their own company, while thematic frames were employed for almost all other topics. Surprisingly, thematically framed tweets garnered more retweets compared to episodically framed tweets. The study's findings highlight that pharmaceutical companies predominantly communicate about their own businesses with their audiences, instead of utilizing Twitter's conversational features to discuss various health-related topics.

Key words: Twitter communications, pharmaceuticals, engagement, message framing.