title: Twitter tweets and twaddle: twittering at AHPA. National Health Promotion Conference.
abstract: ISSUE ADDRESSED This paper explored the first-time use of Twitter by the Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA) at its 2013 National Health Promotion Conference.
  
  
  METHODS
  The @AHPA_AU Twitter account and #AHPA2013 hashtag were established and included in the conference program. Attendees were encouraged throughout the conference to use it. A total of 748 tweets were captured under the hashtag #AHPA2013 in chronological order from 16-19 June 2013. Tweets with photos and more than one hashtag were recorded. A thematic analysis of tweets was conducted.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirteen broad themes were identified, with each of the 748 tweets allocated to one of the themes. Tweets about keynote sessions made up 38% of all tweets, followed by 14% for concurrent sessions. A photo was included in 11% of tweets, and 25% were sent to more than one hashtag. There were 96 tweeters; 75% of them posted five or less tweets and ~9%, including a professional blogger, posted greater than 20 tweets. At the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pre-conference workshop there was a relatively high level of Twitter engagement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Twitter could potentially be useful for promoting conference content and activities, but what it adds in value to a health promotion conference cannot be determined by this study. SO WHAT? This paper highlights the engagement of tweeters with conference content and activities and suggests that tweeting benefited from the engagement of a professional health blogger.
authors.affiliation: Health Promotion Service, Sydney Local Health District, King George V Building Missenden Road, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia.
authors.forename: George
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.affiliation: Health Promotion Service, Sydney Local Health District, King George V Building Missenden Road, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia.
authors.forename: Suzanne
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gleeson
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, University of Sydney, Level 6, Charles Perkins Centre (D17), University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Rissel
authors.affiliation: Health Promotion Service, Sydney Local Health District, King George V Building Missenden Road, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia.
authors.forename: Li Ming
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Health Promotion Service, Sydney Local Health District, King George V Building Missenden Road, Camperdown, NSW 2050, Australia.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Bedford
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D003226:Congresses as Topic; D006293:Health Promotion; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods*; D020407:Internet