Social Media Usage for Radiology Education: A One-Month 2022 Global Survey

Lessons learned from rebranding a radiology education facebook page

OBJECTIVE

In May 2009, we created a Facebook page for radiology education. While we shared a host of learning materials such as case images, quiz questions, and medical illustrations, we also posted world news, music, and memes. In February 2023, we eliminated everything from the site not related to radiology education. Our aim was to determine how focusing on radiology education alone would affect audience growth for our Facebook page.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We exported our Facebook post data for the dates March 1, 2023 through February 29, 2024, to represent the full calendar year after we revised our content presentation, which we compared to data from November 1, 2020 to October 31, 2021. The mean and standard deviation for each post type's reach for 2023/24 were analyzed and compared against the 2020/21 statistics, and Wilcoxon rank sum tests were used to obtain p-values. Linear regressions for each year were performed to understand the relationship between reach and engagement.

RESULTS

A total of 4,270 posts were included in our new analysis. Our average number of posts per day decreased from 24.8 to 11.71, reducing by more than half the amount of content shared to our social media page. Our posts had a mean overall reach of 4,660-compared to 1,743 in 2021 (p=0.0000). There was a statistically significant increase in reach for posts on artificial intelligence, case images, medical illustrations, pearls, quiz images, quiz videos, slideshow images, and both types of instructional videos (p<0.005). For both 2021 and 2024, the linear regression slopes were positive (y=0.0687x-65.0279 and y=0.006334x+21.3425, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

Facebook and other social media have been found to be helpful sources for radiology education. Our experience and statistics with radiology education via social media may help other radiology educators better curate their own pages. To optimize experiences for students, professionals, and other users, and to reach more people, we found that providing readily accessible radiology education is preferred to the social aspects of social media.

The Role of Twitter in Radiology Medical Education and Research: A Review of Current Practices and Drawbacks

The trends in society have provided favourable conditions for the rapid growth of radiology on social media, specifically there has been an expanding presence on Twitter. Currently, simple searches on Twitter yield a plethora of radiology education resources, that may be suited for medical students, residents or practicing radiologists. Educators have many tools at their disposal to deliver effective teaching. Over time, strategies such as including images and scrollable stacks often are more successful at gaining popularity or clicks online. Journals and authors can use Twitter to promote their new scientific work and potentially reach audiences they couldn't have prior. Attendees at conferences can get involved in the conversation by tweeting about the meeting and engaging with other attendees with mutual interests. Interested medical students, residents and even practicing radiologists can use Twitter as a means of networking and connecting with other scholars all around the globe. Within its glory, Twitter does carry some drawbacks including privacy concerns, equality, and risk of misinformation. Above all, the future of Twitter is bright and promising for all who are currently on it and plan to use it for their education, research, or professional advancement.