Article type
Year
Abstract
Background: Social media have emerged as a potentially useful tool for knowledge transfer (KT) in recent years. To date, however, there is little information about the impact of dissemination of translated Cochrane Plain language summaries (PLS) via social media tailored to regional audiences.
Objectives: To test and evaluate the use of a Croatian Facebook page and Twitter account as dissemination tools for Croatian PLS translations.
Methods: In early 2013, Cochrane Croatia started translating PLS into Croatian to overcome the language barrier. In March 2013, a 'Cochrane Croatia' Facebook page was set up. It was mainly used to post new PLS translations and other relevant information in Croatian. A Croatian 'Cochrane Health' Twitter account was set up as well in April 2014 for the same purpose.
Results: To date, the Cochrane Croatia Facebook page has attracted 1858 followers (February 2015), mostly from Croatia and neighboring countries with similar languages. Most of the followers are in the 25-44 years age group. The most popular PLS were related to pregnancy, childbirth, dental care, occupational health, depression and prostate cancer. The Facebook page has enabled direct interaction with our audience, which allowed us to determine that our followers include lay persons, health professionals and journalists. As a result of the Facebook activities, we experienced a substantial increase in media uptake of Cochrane stories from an average of one per month before Facebook activities to about 20 per month now (February 2015).
The popularity of Twitter in Croatia is not comparable to that of Facebook. As a result, the Twitter account attracted only 34 followers.
Conclusion: Facebook proved successful in creating multiple opportunities to engage with our Croatian target audience, to disseminate evidence-based health information, and to increase the uptake of Cochrane evidence by regional media. Cochrane groups should however focus on the most popular social media tools in their setting for KT purposes.
Objectives: To test and evaluate the use of a Croatian Facebook page and Twitter account as dissemination tools for Croatian PLS translations.
Methods: In early 2013, Cochrane Croatia started translating PLS into Croatian to overcome the language barrier. In March 2013, a 'Cochrane Croatia' Facebook page was set up. It was mainly used to post new PLS translations and other relevant information in Croatian. A Croatian 'Cochrane Health' Twitter account was set up as well in April 2014 for the same purpose.
Results: To date, the Cochrane Croatia Facebook page has attracted 1858 followers (February 2015), mostly from Croatia and neighboring countries with similar languages. Most of the followers are in the 25-44 years age group. The most popular PLS were related to pregnancy, childbirth, dental care, occupational health, depression and prostate cancer. The Facebook page has enabled direct interaction with our audience, which allowed us to determine that our followers include lay persons, health professionals and journalists. As a result of the Facebook activities, we experienced a substantial increase in media uptake of Cochrane stories from an average of one per month before Facebook activities to about 20 per month now (February 2015).
The popularity of Twitter in Croatia is not comparable to that of Facebook. As a result, the Twitter account attracted only 34 followers.
Conclusion: Facebook proved successful in creating multiple opportunities to engage with our Croatian target audience, to disseminate evidence-based health information, and to increase the uptake of Cochrane evidence by regional media. Cochrane groups should however focus on the most popular social media tools in their setting for KT purposes.