1. It’s not as scary as you think!
@ukcochranecentr
#cochranesm
Item B: Sharing Cochrane
reviews through Twitter
2. • Why using Twitter is a good idea!
• How to use Twitter effectively to promote
your work and activity:
– Basic tweets
– Better tweets!
– Building a following
– Spotting and creating opportunities to
maximise your impact
– A few Dos and Don’ts
What we’ll cover
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3. 3UK Cochrane Centre
“There is great power in the conversation.
Know the risks and behave accordingly,
but do not be so risk averse that you do
not participate.”
Faris Timimi M.D., Medical Director for the Mayo Clinic Center for
Social Media
Why use social media?
4. • Don’t Lie, Don’t Pry
• Don’t Cheat, Can’t Delete
• Don’t Steal, Don’t Reveal
(A 12-Word Social Media Policy, Mayo Clinic Center for Social Media,
2012)
• Add value
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Simple rules for using social media
5. Twitter is like a room full of people you want
to network with – a very big one!
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• Self-promotion: target those
who may be interested in your
work & can use/promote it
• Others want to do this too –
you can help each other!
• It’s an opportunity to put on a
public display/represent your
organisation
• Great for information-gathering
• Remember – anyone in the
room could be listening
• It’s social, it’s conversational
• You might enjoy it!
6. • You have 140 characters per tweet
• At its most basic this will be the thing you
want to say….
• …and most often a link too (if you’re
tweeting about a review, for example, you
need to give people the link to it)
Twitter: the bottom line
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7. • Updated falls prevention review: good
evidence that exercise helps http://ow.ly/iJJ8a
#falls #exercise @AgeUK
# - hashtags
@ - Twitter handle
http:// - link or shortened link
A tweet is built up of…
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8. • Associate your tweet with a topic
or event #epilepsy #cochranequebec
• Make your tweet searchable by that tag
• Can act as a sub-clause to your
tweet, for added comment, emphasis or humour:
#Cochrane researchers find #Relenza data provided by
GSK unusable. http://ow.ly/lGCId #frustrated
Hashtags (anything with # in front)
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9. Using Hootsuite, a free social media management
tool, shortens the links
Shortened link = 18 characters http://ow.ly/iJJ8a
Full link = 74 characters
http://summaries.cochrane.org/CD007146/interventions-for-preventing-
falls-in-older-people-living-in-the-community
There are other advantages to using Hootsuite too
A word about links
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13. This is ok:
Pressure-relieving interventions for treating
diabetic foot ulcers
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/14651858.CD002302.pub2/ab
stract
But this is better:
Pressure-relieving interventions for treating
diabetic foot ulcers http://ow.ly/kOY9u #diabetes
#diabeticfoot
I’ve added #diabetes and #diabetic foot so people searching for that
would find it. I’ve also shortened the link by using Hootsuite
Tweeting your review
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14. This is better still:
Non-removable, pressure-relieving casts more
effective in healing #diabeticfoot ulcers than
removable casts http://ow.ly/kOYKi #Cochrane
This adds value by saying something about the review’s findings. It tells
people it’s a Cochrane review and a search for #Cochrane will find it.
Tweeting your review
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15. 15UK Cochrane Centre
Build a following
I found the account for @DiabetesUK -
I could add them to my tweet
I could look at who they follow and are
followed by to find similar accounts
Using a hashtag e.g. #diabetes may gain
me some new followers
16. Tweeting your review
• Updated falls prevention review: good evidence
that exercise helps http://ow.ly/iJJ8a #falls
#exercise @AgeUK
• If you haven’t got space to add hashtags at the end you can put #
before the relevant word in the main text of the post
• If you include a Twitter name for an individual or organization they
will get an email alerting them to it – a good way to be seen!
Build a following
#’s & Twitter handles in
your tweets can attract
new followers
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17. You can highlight different aspects of a review:
Missing data weakens evidence in #Cochrane
review of efficacy of fluoride supplements.
http://ow.ly/kOZxP #caries #fluoride
Fluoride supplements are better than none in
preventing tooth decay in children: #Cochrane
review http://ow.ly/kP015 #caries #fluoride
Tweeting your review
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18. Tweeting your review
Some reviews really lend themselves to multiple tweets:
Home safety interventions effective in reducing
#falls: updated #Cochrane review
http://owly.org/CD007146
#Cataract surgery on 1st eye reduces #falls in
older women http://owly.org/CD007146
#Cochrane
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19. 19UK Cochrane Centre
Build a following
Searching for a hashtag e.g. #exercise
or #cataracts can show who is
tweeting about these & may bring up
some accounts worth following
20. You can target different audiences by the language you use
Taking antioxidant vitamins won’t cut your risk of
getting #cataracts http://ow.ly/ivrBU
No evidence that antioxidant vitamin
supplementation slows visual acuity loss or
reduces #cataract risk or progression
http://ow.ly/ivrBU
Tweeting your review
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21. It’s fine to tweet about uncertainties…
• Evidence on provision of educational
materials to prevent #falls inconclusive
http://ow.ly/iJJ8a #Cochrane
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22. …and to shout about the review’s reach
• Washington Post on #Cochrane falls
prevention review: Obama calls it “the
most important review of our time” link
#falls
• @bbchealth features new #Cochrane
review on #probiotics for #diarrhoea
prevention ow.ly/lzrtx #CochraneEvidence
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23. Spot and target a potential audience
• It’s Falls Awareness Week: there’s a designated
hashtag – #fallsweek add it to your tweet, &
search for the # to see what’s being talked about
• There’s a conference (as above)
• It’s January & icy, time to tweet about falls
prevention:
anti-slip shoes can reduce #falls in icy
conditions http://ow.ly/iJJ8a #ice #winter
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24. • I’ve spotted the International Epilepsy Congress,
Montreal, I’ve found the designated Twitter
account @EpilepsyCongres and hashtag
#30thIEC
• I’ve had a look at the programme
• I’m ready to tweet some relevant reviews e.g.
#Cochrane review finds good evidence lacking on melatonin as add-on
treatment for #epilepsy http://ow.ly/kP3Sr #30thIEC
• I’ll also search for #30thIEC to see what people
are tweeting about
Upcoming conference
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25. 25UK Cochrane Centre
Build a following
Events are opportunities to reach new
audiences and to find new accounts to
follow too.
26. 26UK Cochrane Centre
Build a following
When someone retweets or replies to
your tweet, check if you’re following
them. If not, perhaps you should!
27. These will usually be health-related, but not always!
Awareness/Special Days
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28. 28UK Cochrane Centre
Build a following
I tend to follow more organizations
than individuals, but some individuals
are powerful influencers with large
followings – engage with them if you
can!
29. I tweeted…
Health professionals: has a #Cochrane review
changed your practice? We’d love to hear!
Take a risk!
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30. The lifestyle editor from NHS Choices responded:
These conversations followed…
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32. 32UK Cochrane Centre
Build a following
This was retweeted by
@MyEyeHealth – they could be
worth following! Do they
have followers I should follow?
33. • Caroline Fiennes also commented on the tweet & I
started following her. Then this:
…and I made a new connection
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34. EXAMPLE: Jumping into conversations
#cochranesm
34UK Cochrane CentreUK Cochrane Centre 34
35. Jump into a conversation
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36. 36UK Cochrane Centre
Build a following
Engagement is more important than
numbers. Increasing your following is
good but you can show value & reach
by the conversations you’re having.
38. Dos and don’ts
DO
• Listen, engage, join in conversations
• Link often, direct people to useful sites – especially your
own!
• Keep it active
• Credit others
• Keep the tone pleasant and professional
DON’T
• Use abbreviated text-talk; cutting corners in your tweets
suggests you might cut them elsewhere!
• Allow your tweets to be truncated at the end – people
may miss things
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39. • Twitter offers big returns for even a small
amount of time spent
• Hootsuite makes managing Twitter easier
• Keep it active
• Aim for a mixture of scheduled and
responsive tweets
• Look for people discussing your topics
(events, conversations)
• Don’t be scared – give it a go!
Takeaway points
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Editor's Notes
There’s so much to be gained from getting stuck in and using SM. We hope by the end of the day you’ll be feeling more confident about it, or that we’ll have persuaded you that it’s worth doing
DO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS AT THIS POINT?WE REALISE TWITTER LOOKS VERY BAFFLING ….
I don’t know what to say (we’re coming to that)I might say the wrong thing (stick to the rules, admit mistakes quickly)Everyone else is more intelligent/witty/amusing/insightful than me (almost everyone else will be thinking this too)I haven’t got the time (you can keep it to a small amount of time and still reach a wide audience)
Reviews/protocolsnew/updated, or linked to a news item, event, conversation, or just because you want to alert people to it! Include links to the summary or full reviewCitations of reviews in the media, journals etc(remember to give the link!)Events: Cochrane events & training (especially yours!); events you’re attendingPosition statements e.g. “It’s important not just to produce good reviews but to influence health”
The first is the review title and a link to the review in the Cochrane Library, or you might link to the Cochrane Summary instead.I searched in Twitter to see if people were using a hashtag relating to diabetic foot – they were so I’ve used it. It’s worth checking.
I’ve used the #diabeticfoot hashtag in the main body of the tweet because no room to add it after the link
This adds value – when we tweet different aspects of the review we find some people will retweet each oneIt also attracts different people, according to their interests. These might attract people interested in issues around data and evidence as well as those interested in fluoride and caries
The first is aimed at a lay audience, the second at health professionalsDO YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS AT THIS POINT?
Awareness events and conferences can be very useful platforms for targeting your reviews. We have a link on our website to a site listing these for the UK(half time?)
The conference website should display a hashtag – I couldn’t find one here but clicked the Twitter symbol on the conference page and found the Twitter account and hashtag that wayYou can email the contact person of an event to ask about the hashtag if you can’t find it on their pages
Those retweeting included Ben Goldacre, with a following of around 262, 000 followers.
This got a handful of retweets and 3 responses – or conversations
This conversation has the potential to be taken up by @CochraneEyes, who will have interested followersRetweeted by NIHR Research (@OfficialNIHR, over 6000 followers), an epidemiologist ‘interested in eyes and systematic reviews’, Mona Nasser (Cochranite, systematic reviewer & dentist), My Eye Health (@eyehealthinfo) ‘championing patient focused, quality eye care)
Note the back-scratching! When someone says something positive about you, it’s a good idea to retweet. You can see here that I have something nice about us to retweet and she also has something nice about her to retweet, including a plug for her article!But I missed a trick here – should have used Evidence Aid’s Twitter handle – then they’d have seen this and hopefully joined in the conversation
Using a package like Hootsuite allows links to be shortened – very useful
