Academic Pathology (Jul 2020)

Social Media Engagement at Academic Conferences: Report of the Association of Pathology Chairs 2018 and 2019 Annual Meeting Social Media Committee

  • Yonah C. Ziemba MD,
  • Dana Razzano MD,
  • Timothy C. Allen MD, JD,
  • Adam L. Booth MD,
  • Scott R. Anderson MD,
  • Anne Champeaux MD,
  • Michael D. Feldman MD, PhD,
  • Valerie Fitzhugh MD,
  • Simone Gittens MHA,
  • Marilea Grider MS, MT(ASCP),
  • Mary Gupta MD,
  • Christina Hanos BS,
  • Karen Kelly MS, C-TAGME,
  • Tarush Kothari MD, MPH,
  • Jennifer Laudadio MD,
  • Amy Y. Lin MD,
  • Kamran M. Mirza MD, PhD,
  • Kathleen T. Montone MD,
  • Victor G. Prieto MD, PhD,
  • Daniel G. Remick MD,
  • Nicole D. Riddle MD, FCAP, FASCP,
  • Michael Schubert,
  • Kelley Suskie MHSA, FACMPE,
  • Nadeem Zafar MD,
  • Stanley J. Robboy MD,
  • Priscilla S. Markwood CAE

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1177/2374289520934019
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7

Abstract

Read online

The use of social media at academic conferences is expanding, and platforms such as Twitter are used to share meeting content with the world. Pathology conferences are no exception, and recently, pathology organizations have promoted social media as a way to enhance meeting exposure. A social media committee was formed ad hoc to implement strategies to enhance social media involvement and coverage at the 2018 and 2019 annual meetings of the Association of Pathology Chairs. This organized approach resulted in an 11-fold increase in social media engagement compared to the year prior to committee formation (2017). In this article, the social media committee reviews the strategies that were employed and the resultant outcome data. In addition, we categorize tweets by topic to identify the topics of greatest interest to meeting participants, and we discuss the differences between Twitter and other social media platforms. Lastly, we review the existing literature on this topic from 23 medical specialties and health care fields.