Twitter tweets and twaddle: Twittering at AHPA's National Health Promotion Conference

George Anderson, Suzanne Gleeson, Chris Rissel, Li Ming Wen, Karen Bedford

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)143-146
Number of pages4
JournalHealth Promotion Journal of Australia
Volume25
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2014
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Twitter
  • National Health Promotion Conference
  • Social Media Interaction
  • thematic analysis

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