Twitter for Scientists Workshop: Why Bother and How To Get Started

TCGA 2015 SymposiumTwitter Workshop for Scientists

Emma J. Spaulding, MPH@TCGAupdates

@emmajspaulding

Agenda

• Twitter Basics• 5 Reasons You Should Use Twitter• Twitter Terminology• Hits and Misses– From @TCGAupdates and Others

• Lessons Learned• Twitter Analytics

What is Twitter?

• Microblogging platform • New technology, old concept

5 Reasons You Should Care

1. Connect with people in a very public way2. Patient’s perspectives3. Follow conferences from afar4. It’s fun!5. Advance your career

1. Connect with people publicly

• Professionally

1. Connect with people publicly

• ….and personally.

2. Patient Perspectives

3. Follow Conferences

3. Follow Conferences

4. It’s fun!

• #Overlyhonestmethods

4. It’s fun! #Overlyhonestmethods

4. It’s fun!

• @SarcasticRover

4. It’s fun! @SarcasticRover

4. It’s fun! @SarcasticRover

5. Advance Your Career

• 94 % of employers are using social media as part of their recruiting strategies

• Only 20 to 30 percent of jobs are filled by people applying for published vacancies. It’s who you know.

• The easiest way to connect with potential employers is through social media.

• You can form online relationships with people who could help you in the offline world.

• LinkedIn is still the most widely-used career management web site, but Twitter enables you to engage in conversations with people

5. Advance Your Career

5. Advance Your Career

5. Advance Your Career

5. Advance Your Career

An Introduction to Social Media for Scientists, April 23, 2013

c/o Mark Story, @mstory123

Your Searchable Public Profile

• Facebook vs Twitter• Expect potential employers and collaborators

to scan through your social media presence as part of the selection process

• “…Scientists should use social media to make them "much more likely to be approached by someone looking for an expert in a particular field.”

• @emmaspaulding and @emmajspauldingc/o Mark Story, @mstory123

@emmaspaulding

@emmajspaulding

5. Advance Your Career

Publishing • Using Twitter, you can:

• Create additional links to your work: point people to other sites where you have published information, like ResearchGate, Google Scholar, Academia.edu or a prominent blog

• Make your voice heard: share your opinion on scientific matters in a very visible fashion

• Highly tweeted journal articles are 11 times more likely to be highly cited compared with those with minimal or no social media presence (source: Journal of Medical Internet Research)

c/o Mark Story, @mstory123

The Illustrated History of Twitter

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzRkszaGBbY

Twitter Terminology

Twitter Terminology

– Tweet: 140 character post– Tweet: Noun and verb

– Carolyn: Did you see that tweet saying what a great job Julia Zhang did organizing the conference?

– JC: Yes, I tweeted that during the morning break.

– Handle: your username (@TCGAupdates or @emmajspaulding)

– Followers: Other people on twitter who want to follow what you post

– Hashtag: Topic identifier (#TCGA or #TCGA15)– RT or MT: Tweeting another’s tweet with no or small changes– Favorite: Similar but more private

@reply

.@mention

Twitter Terminology

– Feed: the constantly updated stream of tweets from people you follow

– URL shortener: makes a shorter version of a link so that it uses up fewer characters• Often automatic, Bit.ly

– Live-tweeting: Tweeting what’s happening from a conference

Best Practices

• Twitter as a cocktail party• Getting Started– Brevity• Additional Content• Photos

– NCI’s Visuals Online: https://visualsonline.cancer.gov – CDC's Public Health Image Library:

http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/home.asp– Flickr's "The Commons": https://www.flickr.com/commons– Wikimedia Commons:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

c/o Mark Story, @mstory123

Best Practices

• Don’t hashtag dump

Best Practices

• Engage with your followers– Have you used @23andme? What did you think?– Ancestry.com’s genetic testing? Interesting? Worth

it?– Personalized medicine or precision medicine?

• Twitter or 3rd Party Apps– Tweetdeck and Hootsuite

• If you’re unsure, don’t.

Hits and Misses

• From @TCGAupdates and others• Twitter Analytics

Hit from @TCGAupdates

Hit from @TCGAupdates

Miss from @TCGAupdates

Miss from @TCGAupdates

Miss from @TCGAupdates

Others’ Hits

Others’ Hits

Others’ Hits

Others’ Misses

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVHlCtX5Ucs (00:59)

Others’ Misses

Others’ Misses

Lessons Learned

• Check your hashtags• Use specific hashtags• A twitter misstep is not the end of the world

Check your hashtag: #RhoA

Check your hashtag: #RhoA

Use specific hashtags: #cancer

Another type of #cancer

Another type of #cancer

Another type of #cancer

Another type of #cancer

Another type of #cancer

Another type of #cancer

Use specific hashtags: #cancergenomics

Use specific hashtags: The Healthcare Hashtag Project

• http://www.symplur.com/healthcare-hashtags/

Use specific hashtags: The Healthcare Hashtag Project

Accidental Tweets

Accidental Tweets

• Not the end of the world• Private person, not official account• You monitor your account most closely• Can always delete

Twitter Analytics:analytics.twitter.com

Terms and Definitions

• Twitter’s analytics website – analytics.twitter.com

• Impression – number of times a user saw our tweet

• Engagements – number of times users interacted with our tweet

• Engagement Rate - Engagements ÷ Impressions• Twitter’s Promoted Tweets – 3-5% Engagement Rate

Engagement

What’s a good engagement rate?

• Twitter’s Promoted Tweets – 3-5% Engagement Rate

• Tweets from #AACR15

Tour of Twitter Analytics

Tweet Details

Successful Tweet

IDing a Successful Tweet

ID a Failed Tweet

ID a Failed Tweet

Take Aways

• Don’t delay!• Get on and start listening • Resources available

c/o Christie Wilcox, @NerdyChristie

Acknowledgements

• Teagan Keating Kuruna (@TeaganMPH)

• Mark Story (@mstory123)

Questions?