One of the most differentiating characteristics that social media technologies bring to traditional health
knowledge management is the presence and interaction of individuals who have different needs and requirements.
As previously identified, the public peer-to-peer sharing of information can involve various users disseminating
information. This presents an interesting implication of content evaluation amongst peers, where certain users may
effectively pass judgment on a piece of health information via selectively deciding whether it has sufficient value
to pass along to other people they are connected with (Steele & Dumbrell, 2012). The viewing, downloading, and
saving/storing of health information by older adults are also important actions that should be emphasized in this
framework, as they are important quantitative measures that can be used to assess the type of information being
successfully communicated and provide this feedback (i.e. number of ‘likes’, ‘retweets’, ‘times downloaded’,
‘audience characteristics’) to sources of this information (e.g. health organizations). Thus, evaluation of content
amongst peers not only assists in relevant information being filtered to older adult communities, it can also allow
health information sources to determine the most effective ways to communicate their messages.