Tweeting the meeting: an analysis of Twitter activity at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Annual Scientific Congress from 2015 to 2018

Background: Twitter has been shown to expand the audience and impact of material discussed at medical conferences, however, this phenomenon has not been analysed at the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons Annual Scientific Congress. The purpose of this study is to document the amount of Twitter activity at the Annual Scientific Congress, and to describe the way delegates use Twitter. Methods: The number of tweets, retweets and contributors from the 2015 to 2018 congresses were determined using the Twitter advanced search function. Tweets were categorized broadly as academic, social or promotional. Union Metrics, an online software, was used to calculate estimates of impact including impressions and reach at the 2018 congress. Popular topics of discussion at all congresses were defined and counted. Results: Twelve thousand five hundred and eight-six tweets were created with the official hashtag at the time of the four congresses. Activity increased over time except in the number of original tweets between the 2016 and 2018 congresses. Sixty-six percent of the tweets were directly related to congress content, and 23% were social in nature. At the 2018 congress, 16–34% of contributors were matched with a congress delegate. Conclusion: The tweets analysed were mainly informative. Twitter expanded the audience for material discussed at the Annual Scientific Congresses, and the amount of Twitter activity generally increased. It is in the interest of conference organizers to encourage and regulate Twitter use for maximum effectiveness because it is a powerful tool and use is likely to continue increasing in future.