title: Upgrading a Social Media Strategy to Increase Twitter Engagement During the Spring Annual Meeting of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine.
abstract: Microblogs known as "tweets" are a rapid, effective method of information dissemination in health care. Although several medical specialties have described their Twitter conference experiences, Twitter-related data in the fields of anesthesiology and pain medicine are sparse. We therefore analyzed the Twitter content of 2 consecutive spring meetings of the American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine using publicly available online transcripts. We also examined the potential contribution of a targeted social media campaign on Twitter engagement during the conferences. The original Twitter meeting content was largely scientific in nature and created by meeting attendees, the majority of whom were nontrainee physicians. Physician trainees, however, represent an important and increasing minority of Twitter contributors. Physicians not in attendance predominantly contributed via retweeting original content, particularly picture-containing tweets, and thus increased reach to nonattendees. A social media campaign prior to meetings may help increase the reach of conference-related Twitter discussion.
authors.affiliation: From the *Department of Anesthesiology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University; and †Department of Anesthesiology, Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Philadelphia, PA; ‡Department of Anesthesiology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN; §Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC; ∥Department of Anesthesiology and Pain Medicine University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; **American Society of Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA; and ††Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative & Pain Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.
authors.forename: Eric S
authors.initials: ES
authors.lastname: Schwenk
authors.forename: Kellie M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Jaremko
authors.forename: Rajnish K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Gupta
authors.forename: Ankeet D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Udani
authors.forename: Colin J L
authors.initials: CJL
authors.lastname: McCartney
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Snively
authors.forename: Edward R
authors.initials: ER
authors.lastname: Mariano
mesh_terms: D000765:Anesthesia, Conduction / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D003226:Congresses as Topic / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods; D009505:Nevada; D059408:Pain Management / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D010820:Physicians / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D061108:Social Media / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*; D012955:Societies, Medical / Q000592:standards / Q000639:trends*