Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Health Evidence is an online registry featuring 2400+ quality-appraised reviews evaluating public health interventions. Social media offers new ways to connect public health decision makers with reviews.
Objectives: To facilitate evidence-informed decision making using social media to generate awareness of and access to systematic reviews of public health interventions.
Methods: Development of a social media strategy to promote engagement, focused mainly on Twitter, but also including: YouTube, SlideShare, and Google Alerts.
Results: Social media has increased awareness and use of Health Evidence, with a 16.7% increase in 2011 compared to 2010. Daily tweets direct followers to the Health Evidence website, YouTube, and SlideShare profile pages, increasing exposure to reviews. Consistent posting to Twitter resulted in a rapid increase in followers; as of December 2011 Health Evidence had 1096 followers, representing a 326% increase over 2010. Twitter followers ReTweet ∼65% of content to countries including: USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Chile, Italy, Indonesia and Vietnam. Per week, the average Tweet is clicked 9.6 times and ReTweeted by five followers. 2011 Google Analytics reveal that Tweets increase user access by >78%. Webinars on interpreting review evidence, and user accounts of Health Evidence posted to YouTube have been viewed 900+ times. Presentations posted to SlideShare have been viewed 5300+ times.
Conclusions: During this session, we will share strategies for evaluating engagement, patterns of use and indicators of success; discuss challenges in using social media; and provide some recommendations about how social media can be used to promote review-level evidence.
Objectives: To facilitate evidence-informed decision making using social media to generate awareness of and access to systematic reviews of public health interventions.
Methods: Development of a social media strategy to promote engagement, focused mainly on Twitter, but also including: YouTube, SlideShare, and Google Alerts.
Results: Social media has increased awareness and use of Health Evidence, with a 16.7% increase in 2011 compared to 2010. Daily tweets direct followers to the Health Evidence website, YouTube, and SlideShare profile pages, increasing exposure to reviews. Consistent posting to Twitter resulted in a rapid increase in followers; as of December 2011 Health Evidence had 1096 followers, representing a 326% increase over 2010. Twitter followers ReTweet ∼65% of content to countries including: USA, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Chile, Italy, Indonesia and Vietnam. Per week, the average Tweet is clicked 9.6 times and ReTweeted by five followers. 2011 Google Analytics reveal that Tweets increase user access by >78%. Webinars on interpreting review evidence, and user accounts of Health Evidence posted to YouTube have been viewed 900+ times. Presentations posted to SlideShare have been viewed 5300+ times.
Conclusions: During this session, we will share strategies for evaluating engagement, patterns of use and indicators of success; discuss challenges in using social media; and provide some recommendations about how social media can be used to promote review-level evidence.