Poster presented at the National Physicians Alliance 6th Annual Meeting: "Social Media and Social Activism"

2. Short, focused communication: “tweets”.

3. Users identified by a @Username.

4. Each account has followers, who can see each tweet that is sent.

5. Tweets can be shared (re-tweeted, or RT) by anyone following the account, making it visible to many people regardless of their locations.

6. Tweets can be sent generally,can mention or target one account directly (using the @ reply), or can sent as a private direct message (DM).

8. Officials will be more accountable because it is publicly visible when they have been contacted to address specific issues.

9. Tweets can mention a public official or policy maker along with mentioning local media sources, ensuring that local media is aware of the contact.

11. As a result, conversations can be held at a pre-set time with participants anywhere in the country (or overseas). NPA joined with the @MD_Chat account to host two twitter chats—one focused on Medicare and another focused on Medicaid:

12. TweetChatscan also be used to focus on issues important to specific medical specialties, such as in the case of #FamMedChat:

13. TweetChats can also be organized around specific health issues. The #HCSMVac campaign aimed to increase vaccination rates, and was organized after its participants met during the #HCSM TweetChat. #HCSMVac developed a web site, apps to help individuals find sites to get vaccines, and videos promoting vaccination. The project was enhanced by community outreach efforts, blog posts, and posters.

15. By recruiting a handful of active social media users and encouraging interactions and RTs, the #SaveGME campaign allowed thousands of people to see information related to this important topic.

16. Considering the #SaveGME idea was introduced just three or four days prior to launching the project, it is evident that Twitter can reach large, dispersed audiences very rapidly.

17. The short messages distributed by Twitter encouraged discussion, while Tweeted links to blog posts allowed for greater in-depth discussions of the issues at hand. The tweets drove readers to blog posts with additional contentand provided much more detail than could fit in 140 characters.

18. By planning ahead, recruiting participants, agreeing on a hashtag, and writing in-depth blog posts to explain the issues at hand, #SaveGME presented its message effectively via Twitter. V i r g i n i a C o m m o n w e a l t h U n i v e r s i t y