Objectives

During medical congresses Twitter allows discussions to disseminate beyond the congress hall and reach a wider audience. Insights into the dynamics of social media interactions during congresses, dissemination of scientific information and the determinants of a successful tweet may allow us to better understand social media's role in science communication.

Methods

We retrospectively extracted social media data during the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) 2017 and 2018 using NodeXL. We compared social media activity during these two congresses. Subsequently, we conducted in-depth analyses to identify the components of a successful tweet and multivariable analysis to assess independent factors associated with retweet activity.

Results

In 2018, approximately 13 000 delegates attended ECCMID, but only 591 Twitter accounts actively tweeted about the congress. Although fewer tweets were posted in 2018 compared with 2017 (4213 versus 4657, respectively), ECCMID 2018 generated a 63% increase in the total number of retweets (p < 0.001). According to multivariable logistic regression analysis, using multimedia, URL or hashtags and mentioning other Twitter account(s) were independently associated with retweet success. Mentioning of other users and use of multimedia were the only consistent predictors of retweets irrespective of the number of followers.

Conclusions

A substantial increase in retweet activity and a modest increase in the number of influential Twitter accounts were observed between two successive congresses. Dissemination of scientific messages is more successful when connected accounts are actively involved in social media activity, and social media posts constitute the right combination of components.

中文翻译：

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医务会议期间科学家和医师如何使用Twitter

目标

在医学会议期间，Twitter允许讨论在会议厅外进行传播，并扩大受众范围。深入了解大会期间社交媒体互动的动态，科学信息的传播以及成功推文的决定因素，可以使我们更好地理解社交媒体在科学传播中的作用。

方法

我们使用NodeXL回顾性提取了2017年和2018年欧洲临床微生物学和传染病大会（ECCMID）期间的社交媒体数据。我们比较了这两次大会期间的社交媒体活动。随后，我们进行了深入分析，以确定成功的推文的组成部分，并进行了多变量分析以评估与转推活动相关的独立因素。

结果

2018年，大约13000名代表参加了ECCMID，但只有591个Twitter账户积极发布了有关大会的推文。尽管2018年发布的推文数量少于2017年（分别为4213和4657），但ECCMID 2018产生的转发总数增加了63％（p <0.001）。根据多变量logistic回归分析，使用多媒体，URL或主题标签并提及其他Twitter帐户与转推成功相关。提及其他用户和使用多媒体是转发的唯一一致预测因素，无论关注者数量如何。

结论

在两个连续的大会之间，观察到转发活动的大量增加和有影响力的Twitter帐户的数量的适度增加。当关联帐户积极参与社交媒体活动且社交媒体帖子构成要素的正确组合时，科学消息的传播会更加成功。