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Abstract
Background: Cochrane’s mission is to promote evidence-informed health decision making by producing high-quality, relevant and accessible systematic reviews. Knowledge translation (KT) is an integral part of this process. Cochrane Gynaecology and Fertility Group (CGF) has implemented several KT initiatives aiming at communicating evidence to a wider audience. Here we discuss how health awareness campaigns focusing on polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) and endometriosis in particular can be used to facilitate evidence communication and dissemination on Twitter.
Objectives: to disseminate Cochrane evidence to a wider audience through social media (Twitter) using hashtag awareness campaigns.
Methods: in September 2018 and in March 2019 we joined two international health awareness campaigns on Twitter using specific hashtags (#PCOS, #PCOSAwarenessMonth, #Endometriosis, and #EndometriosisAwarenessMonth). The tweets contained summarised results from reviews on the aforementioned two health topics published by CGF. In addition, the posts included links to the reviews on the Cochrane Library. Moreover, for the endometriosis campaign we created a web page on our own group website and posted tweets that linked to the content so we could track page visits directly. We employed Twitter Analytics and Google Analytics to analyse the impact of the campaigns by measuring tweet impressions (how many times a tweet is seen), user engagement rate (retweets, likes, click links), and page visits. In addition, we used Data Studio for further analysis of the demographics of the audience we reached.
Results: during the PCOS Awareness campaign in September 2018 we posted 23 tweets. The tweets received 18,000 impressions and an average engagement rate of 0.8%, which is considered very high. The #PCOSAwarenessMonth tweets earned 3.5 times more impressions compared to the months before and after the campaign. For the annual #EndometriosisAwarenessMonth campaign in March 2019 we shared 20 tweets. The tweets earned 10,000 impressions, but received a much higher engagement rate, varying from 1.2% to 3.3%. Importantly, these Twitter metrics are based on data collected through our own account only and don’t take into account the impressions and engagement earned through retweets from other accounts. Thus, with the help of other Twitter users, posts can reach an even bigger audience. Moreover, using Google Analytics we measured a marked increase in website visits related to #EndometriosisAwarenessMonth, including a shift in visitors’ demographics demonstrating an increase in diversity as well.
Conclusions: joining health awareness campaigns on Twitter by using trending hashtags is an effective way to disseminate Cochrane evidence to a bigger audience. Collaborating with other Twitter users ensures an even broader reach.
Patient involvement: we are confident that sharing our evidence through social media is a vital tool to increase patient and consumer involvement within CGF.
Objectives: to disseminate Cochrane evidence to a wider audience through social media (Twitter) using hashtag awareness campaigns.
Methods: in September 2018 and in March 2019 we joined two international health awareness campaigns on Twitter using specific hashtags (#PCOS, #PCOSAwarenessMonth, #Endometriosis, and #EndometriosisAwarenessMonth). The tweets contained summarised results from reviews on the aforementioned two health topics published by CGF. In addition, the posts included links to the reviews on the Cochrane Library. Moreover, for the endometriosis campaign we created a web page on our own group website and posted tweets that linked to the content so we could track page visits directly. We employed Twitter Analytics and Google Analytics to analyse the impact of the campaigns by measuring tweet impressions (how many times a tweet is seen), user engagement rate (retweets, likes, click links), and page visits. In addition, we used Data Studio for further analysis of the demographics of the audience we reached.
Results: during the PCOS Awareness campaign in September 2018 we posted 23 tweets. The tweets received 18,000 impressions and an average engagement rate of 0.8%, which is considered very high. The #PCOSAwarenessMonth tweets earned 3.5 times more impressions compared to the months before and after the campaign. For the annual #EndometriosisAwarenessMonth campaign in March 2019 we shared 20 tweets. The tweets earned 10,000 impressions, but received a much higher engagement rate, varying from 1.2% to 3.3%. Importantly, these Twitter metrics are based on data collected through our own account only and don’t take into account the impressions and engagement earned through retweets from other accounts. Thus, with the help of other Twitter users, posts can reach an even bigger audience. Moreover, using Google Analytics we measured a marked increase in website visits related to #EndometriosisAwarenessMonth, including a shift in visitors’ demographics demonstrating an increase in diversity as well.
Conclusions: joining health awareness campaigns on Twitter by using trending hashtags is an effective way to disseminate Cochrane evidence to a bigger audience. Collaborating with other Twitter users ensures an even broader reach.
Patient involvement: we are confident that sharing our evidence through social media is a vital tool to increase patient and consumer involvement within CGF.
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