Abstract
BackgroundSocial media provides the potential to engage a wide audience about scientific research, including the public. However, little empirical research exists to guide health scientists regarding what works and how to optimize impact. We examined the social media campaign #datasaveslives established in 2014 to highlight positive examples of the use and reuse of health data in research.ObjectiveThis study aims to examine how the #datasaveslives hashtag was used on social media, how often, and by whom; thus, we aim to provide insights into the impact of a major social media campaign in the UK health informatics research community and further afield.MethodsWe analyzed all publicly available posts (tweets) that included the hashtag #datasaveslives (N=13,895) on the microblogging platform Twitter between September 1, 2016, and August 31, 2017. Using a combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses, we determined the frequency and purpose of tweets. Social network analysis was used to analyze and visualize tweet sharing (retweet) networks among hashtag users.ResultsOverall, we found 4175 original posts and 9720 retweets featuring #datasaveslives by 3649 unique Twitter users. In total, 66.01% (2756/4175) of the original posts were retweeted at least once. Higher frequencies of tweets were observed during the weeks of prominent policy publications, popular conferences, and public engagement events. Cluster analysis based on retweet relationships revealed an interconnected series of groups of #datasaveslives users in academia, health services and policy, and charities and patient networks. Thematic analysis of tweets showed that #datasaveslives was used for a broader range of purposes than indexing information, including event reporting, encouraging participation and action, and showing personal support for data sharing.ConclusionsThis study shows that a hashtag-based social media campaign was effective in encouraging a wide audience of stakeholders to disseminate positive examples of health research. Furthermore, the findings suggest that the campaign supported community building and bridging practices within and between the interdisciplinary sectors related to the field of health data science and encouraged individuals to demonstrate personal support for sharing health data.
Highlights
Social Media Use by AcademicsSocial media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook have changed the way scientists interact with others, both socially and professionally
The specifics may vary between individuals, platforms, and scientific disciplines [1], common scholarly purposes for using social media among academics include discovering peers and enhancing collaboration, sharing links or citations to their own or others work, communicating the proceedings of conferences and meetings, raising their own profiles, engaging in discussions and keeping up to date with scholarly work, answering questions and solving problems, and discovering job opportunities [2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13]
The highest number of tweets was observed during the week commencing July 6, 2017 (237 posts and 757 retweets), during which the UK government published a response [24] to a national review of security, consent processes, and opt-outs relevant to health data [25]
Summary
Social Media Use by AcademicsSocial media platforms such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook have changed the way scientists interact with others, both socially and professionally. Social media provides the potential to engage a wide audience about scientific research, including the public. We examined the social media campaign #datasaveslives established in 2014 to highlight positive examples of the use and reuse of health data in research. Objective: This study aims to examine how the #datasaveslives hashtag was used on social media, how often, and by whom; we aim to provide insights into the impact of a major social media campaign in the UK health informatics research community and further afield. Thematic analysis of tweets showed that #datasaveslives was used for a broader range of purposes than indexing information, including event reporting, encouraging participation and action, and showing personal support for data sharing. Conclusions: This study shows that a hashtag-based social media campaign was effective in encouraging a wide audience of stakeholders to disseminate positive examples of health research. The findings suggest that the campaign supported community building and bridging practices within and between the interdisciplinary sectors related to the field of health data science and encouraged individuals to demonstrate personal support for sharing health data
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