TY - JOUR
T1 - Twitter tweets and twaddle
T2 - Twittering at AHPA's National Health Promotion Conference
AU - Anderson, George
AU - Gleeson, Suzanne
AU - Rissel, Chris
AU - Wen, Li Ming
AU - Bedford, Karen
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - Issue addressed: This paper explored the first-time use of Twitter by the Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA) at its 2013 National Health Promotion Conference. Methods: The @AHPA-AU Twitter account and #AHPA2013 hashtag were established and included in the conference program. Attendees were encouraged throughout the conference to use it. A total of 748 tweets were captured under the hashtag #AHPA2013 in chronological order from 16-19 June 2013. Tweets with photos and more than one hashtag were recorded. A thematic analysis of tweets was conducted. Results: Thirteen broad themes were identified, with each of the 748 tweets allocated to one of the themes. Tweets about keynote sessions made up 38% of all tweets, followed by 14% for concurrent sessions. A photo was included in 11% of tweets, and 25% were sent to more than one hashtag. There were 96 tweeters; 75% of them posted five or less tweets and ∼9%, including a professional blogger, posted greater than 20 tweets. At the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pre-conference workshop there was a relatively high level of Twitter engagement. Conclusion: Twitter could potentially be useful for promoting conference content and activities, but what it adds in value to a health promotion conference cannot be determined by this study. So what?: This paper highlights the engagement of tweeters with conference content and activities and suggests that tweeting benefited from the engagement of a professional health blogger.
AB - Issue addressed: This paper explored the first-time use of Twitter by the Australian Health Promotion Association (AHPA) at its 2013 National Health Promotion Conference. Methods: The @AHPA-AU Twitter account and #AHPA2013 hashtag were established and included in the conference program. Attendees were encouraged throughout the conference to use it. A total of 748 tweets were captured under the hashtag #AHPA2013 in chronological order from 16-19 June 2013. Tweets with photos and more than one hashtag were recorded. A thematic analysis of tweets was conducted. Results: Thirteen broad themes were identified, with each of the 748 tweets allocated to one of the themes. Tweets about keynote sessions made up 38% of all tweets, followed by 14% for concurrent sessions. A photo was included in 11% of tweets, and 25% were sent to more than one hashtag. There were 96 tweeters; 75% of them posted five or less tweets and ∼9%, including a professional blogger, posted greater than 20 tweets. At the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pre-conference workshop there was a relatively high level of Twitter engagement. Conclusion: Twitter could potentially be useful for promoting conference content and activities, but what it adds in value to a health promotion conference cannot be determined by this study. So what?: This paper highlights the engagement of tweeters with conference content and activities and suggests that tweeting benefited from the engagement of a professional health blogger.
KW - Twitter
KW - National Health Promotion Conference
KW - Social Media Interaction
KW - thematic analysis
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84907010933&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1071/HE13112
DO - 10.1071/HE13112
M3 - Article
C2 - 25200470
AN - SCOPUS:84907010933
SN - 1036-1073
VL - 25
SP - 143
EP - 146
JO - Health Promotion Journal of Australia
JF - Health Promotion Journal of Australia
IS - 2
ER -