Twitter Hashtag and Online Engagement During Surgical Society Meetings Over a 5-Year Period

Abstract

Background Utilizing social media platforms can augment medical conferences by sharing new knowledge and information through hashtags. We aim to investigate the use of Twitter, enhanced conference experience, and education at the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma (EAST) Annual Scientific Assembly 2016-2020. Methods EAST hashtags were analyzed for the Annual Scientific Assembly 2016-2020: #EAST2016, #EAST2017, #EAST2018, #EAST2019, and #EAST2020. Using #EAST2016 as a baseline, active interaction through engagement, measured by tweets and retweets, passive interaction through impressions, measured by views, as well as users, and influencers were analyzed. Results 2016-2018 saw a significant increase in engagement (7400 to 9200 to 11 000, respectively, P < .05). 2018-2020 then showed a significant decrease in engagement (11 000 to 9000 to 6700, respectively, P < .05). Impressions, increased significantly from 2016 to 2020 (6.6 million to 13.3 million to 12.6 million to 19.9 million to 20.3 million, respectively, P < .05). Users significantly increased to 2700 in 2018 compared with 1000 in 2016 ( P < .05), and significantly decreased to 814 in 2020 compared with 2700 in 2018 ( P < .05). The top online influencer was the EAST organization Twitter account. Conclusion #EAST2016-2018 showed a significant increase in engagement between users, measured by tweets/retweets. However, #EAST2019-2020 suffered declines in users’ engagement, maybe a result of social media fatigue. Although, #EAST2016-2020 showed a significant increase in impressions. Both passive and to a more extent active forms of online social media engagement can potentially disseminate new knowledge and medical information. Scientific societies should focus on more effective ways to maintain and enhance users’ online experience and engagement toward better utilization of social media platforms.

An Innovative Use of Twitter to Disseminate and Promote Medical Student Scholarship During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Usability Study

“…Our main outcome measures were impressions (ie, the number of times people viewed a post on Twitter), ( 2) engagements (ie, the number of times people interacted with a post), (3) likes (ie, the number of times people liked a post), (4) detail expands (ie, the number of times people viewed the details of a post), and ( 5) retweets (ie, the number of times people retweeted a post) [9]. Lastly, we also tracked the engagement rate (ie, the number of engagements divided by the number of impressions), a common metric used by both professionals and academics to evaluate the overall performance of tweets [10,11]. These outcomes are commonly used in professional societies as measures of successful dissemination of meeting content [11,12].…”

“…Lastly, we also tracked the engagement rate (ie, the number of engagements divided by the number of impressions), a common metric used by both professionals and academics to evaluate the overall performance of tweets [10,11]. These outcomes are commonly used in professional societies as measures of successful dissemination of meeting content [11,12].…”

Advancing trauma care through social media

“…7 Multiple medical conferences have found similar results in that Twitter and hashtags (phrases used to link together posts on a similar subject) help expand audiences and allow for valuable dialogue in real time. [7][8][9][10] Recently, a study done on the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma annual meeting showed a decline in tweets from 2016 to 2019 but an increase in impressions (estimated potential views of a tweet 7 ) from 5.8 million to 10 million. 10 The increasing number of impressions for these annual meetings shows that social media continues to provide large audiences despite decline in tweets.…”

“…During this time, impressions increased from 6.6 million to 20.3 million over 4 years. 9 Unfortunately, users and engagement decreased over time. 11 Social media fatigue could account for this decline, which occurs when users become overwhelmed with the amount of available content in a subject, leading to a decline in online activity.…”

“…11 Social media fatigue could account for this decline, which occurs when users become overwhelmed with the amount of available content in a subject, leading to a decline in online activity. 9 Despite this negative trend, the trauma community must continue efforts to encourage interactions and use of social media platforms during societal meetings to allow for dissemination of innovative research. At the same time, social media may act as the “great equalizer” as it allows access to conference content and material to people that may not be able to attend due to either geographical or financial constraints.…”