The Exercise Oncology Twitter Conference: Disseminating Research in the Age of Social Media

Abstract

ABSTRACT Background: Scientists are using social media to amplify their scientific impact. As such, researchers are looking for novel ways to engage this medium to promote scientific findings and communicate research to a broader audience. Here, we examine the use of a Twitter conference as a means to effectively communicate advances in the field of exercise oncology. Methods: The Exercise Oncology Twitter Conference (ExOncTC) occurred in October 2018. Each presentation consisted of 6 tweets over 15 min. Attendees were able to interact during a presentation via the conference hashtag (#ExOncTC). Registration data were used to characterize presenters and participants while Twitter Analytics/Union Metrics were used to aggregate data to determine engagement and reach. Results: The ExOncTC featured 68 presenters from 13 countries and 48 institutions. Presenters varied in academic background (ranging from undergraduate students [1.5%] to terminal degree holders [46%]) and profession (including researchers [42.5%] and physicians [6%]). Participants, including researchers, physicians, students, patients, and organizations could register via the Web site (n = 231), follow the @ExOncTC Twitter handle (n = 805), and/or search the #ExOncTC hashtag. During the conference, #ExOncTC was tweeted 1,501 times by 483 unique users for 4,943 total engagements (number of times a user interacts with a tweet). Collectively, these tweets reached 453,900 distinct users with potential impressions equaling 1.8 million (number of views possible). Conclusion: Reach of the ExOncTC demonstrates the potential effectiveness of using a Twitter conference as a platform to communicate the field of exercise oncology, suggesting Twitter conferencing should be explored as a tool for scientific dissemination to the broader field of clinical exercise physiology.