Utilizing Social Media to Disseminate Information and Engage Feedback: Experiences from the Lancet Commission on Global Surgery

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: The Lancet Commission on Global Surgery (LCoGS) aims to address the critical need for surgical care worldwide. To galvanize the global health community, engage key stakeholders, build an inclusive movement, and strengthen the content and impact of the commission, LCoGS launched a Social Media (SM) campaign. This is the first SM Campaign of any Lancet Commission. METHODS: LCoGS Twitter and Facebook accounts were launched in December 2013. Information about LCoGS, live updates from the first commission meeting (LCoGS1), current global surgery updates, and audience-generated feedback were posted. SM analytic tools were used to assess the reach of the SM campaign. RESULTS: In 82 days, 470 Twitter followers from 37 countries and 6 continents and 188 Facebook fans from 32 countries were amassed. The majority of SM engagements were from high-income countries and mirror global use of SM. The LCoGS's launching publication reached over 180,000 people on Twitter. Among over 1.7million scientific articles tracked by a tool called Altmetric, the launching publication is in the top 5% of all articles discussed on Twitter. During LCoGS1, we received over 1000 replies to SM posts. Several novel ideas from these interactions have strengthened the commission process. CONCLUSIONS: SM enables a global, multidirectional engagement that can fortify academic pursuits. Engagement is largely seated in high-income countries. Analytic tools can be used to understand the demographic reach of SM campaigns. Although we can investigate the reach of the LCoGS SM efforts, we cannot determine the impact of that reach.