A Tutorial on Collecting and Processing Longitudinal Social Media Data

Abstract

Longitudinal research using social media data has been under-explored in social and behavioral sciences. Despite its great potential, longitudinal analysis using social media data faces unique challenges. Researchers must consider many influential factors and incorporate them when designing their studies and conducting analyses. Over the past decade, best practices have originated from both studies focusing on social media data in general and those applying longitudinal designs. This tutorial aims to educate those unfamiliar with such a growing field, outlining the different steps that may exist within data collection, data processing, and data analysis of longitudinal social media data. To illustrate these techniques, we apply our basic steps to a Twitter dataset about the 2020 U.S. wildfires, examining sentiment throughout the wildfire period.