Social Media & Science, Part 2:

How To Write On Twitter

Katja Reuter, PhDAssociate Director of Communications

Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI)University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

Sunday, June 10, 2012

The Anatomy of a Tweet

RT@FasterCures: "We overpay for health care, but weunderpay the people we expect to fix it“@matthewherper #Forbes http://t.co/5SDcQRxM+ #in

Retweet: Re-posting of someone else's Tweet

Mention: Another user's Twitter username. Content of the message

Mention: Another user's Twitter username.

Shortened link

Hashtagged keyword: Used to categorize messages. People follow particular hashtags. Those that become popular are often trending topics.

Appears as update on integrated LinkedIn pages.

By adding a “+” sign in the end of a url you can track the clicks statistics for any bitly URL without having to register, login or install any software.

Hashtag marks keywords or topics in a tweet. Can occur anywhere in the tweet.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Types of Tweets

Normal tweet: Any message with up to 140 characters posted to Twitter.

Mention: A Tweet containing another user's Twitter username, preceded by the "@" symbol.

Example: This is very useful advice on participant recruitment. @PRSatCTSI

@Reply: Begins with another user's username and is in reply to one of their Tweets.

Example: @FasterCures "It is no longer sufficient to have a novel product that’s safe and effective and gets through #FDA #WhoWillPay?

Direct message: A personal message sent directly to someone who follows you or sent directly to you from someone you follow.

Retweet: Re-posting of someone else's Tweet. They are distinguished by the retweet icon (RT) and the name of the user who retweeted the Tweet. 

Example: RT @ImSatCTSI: National Assoc. of Public #Hospitals & #HealthSystems Aannual Meeting San Francisco June 20-22

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Things to keep in mind when writing a tweet...

Sunday, June 10, 2012

How to Write a Tweet

1. Start a tweet using action verbs, or via and @. Suggest your reader do something.

Examples:

Find tips @link to design a successful clinical #research study.

@FasterCures asked interesting Q about #mobile software in #healthcare. "Will government regulators suffocate it?" http://on.wsj.com/MWGIqi

Sunday, June 10, 2012

How to Write a Tweet

2. Use a capital letter with each new sentence.

3. Hyphens, periods and colons are the most retweetable punctuation. (Ref. http://danzarrella.com/science-of-retweets.pdf, 2009)

Sunday, June 10, 2012

How to Write a Tweet

4. Focus on keywords: Include the most relevant keywords related to your field. Anticipate your readers’ search behavior. (Ref. http://danzarrella.com/science-of-retweets.pdf, 2009)

Examples:

"We cannot conquer disease without engaging patients" MI's Margaret Anderson http://bit.ly/KgGK9Y #disease #NIH

Learn from routine site visits conducted by the #QualityImprovement Unit (QIU). Get training at #UCSF, Aug 7. bit.ly/JOP4wq

Approx. 2500 #OrphanDrugs approved to date with an average #trial size of 100 patients. Jim Healy @sofinnova @orphandrugsum #ctsi

Sunday, June 10, 2012

How to Write a Tweet

5. Place the link about 25% of the way through the tweet. (Ref. Dan Zarrella, HubSpot)

Examples:

Find tips @link to design a successful clinical #research study.

See new article @http://bit.ly/JBlGtY on preparing hispanic students for the real world: problem-based learning projects. @ccph201ian

Sunday, June 10, 2012

6. Include “Please RT” on your tweets. People are more likely to respond favorably to “please” and retweet. 

How to Write a Tweet

Ref. http://danzarrella.com/science-of-retweets.pdf, 2009

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Words that Are Least Likely to Get Re-Tweets

Ref. http://danzarrella.com/science-of-retweets.pdf, 2009

Sunday, June 10, 2012

7. Include numbers: People react to numbers, especially when associated with funding, impact & results.

How to Write a Tweet

Examples:

About 5 cents of every U.S. health dollar goes to medical research. #investincures

500+ #UCSF researchers benefited from #ConsultationService last year. View all areas of expert advice @http://bit.ly/vb1maP+ and get your first hour for free.

10 recommendations aim for more transparent #ClinicalTrial reports http://sbne.ws/r/aIil #SmartBrief

Sunday, June 10, 2012

8. Entice readers to go to your Webpage for more information to increase traffic.

How to Write a Tweet

Examples:

See new article @http://bit.ly/ILXDZa on UCSF clinicians who get new ammunition in fight against childhood. #cancers #in

Successful leadership in #teamscience. Join #UCSF workshop for faculty leaders, June 5. bit.ly/JONNp1

Find UCSF experts and their networks with a few clicks. #UCSFProfiles bit.ly/yjhd62

Sunday, June 10, 2012

9. Mention influential individuals & groups that might be interested in a tweet. They’ll be likely to read it, tweet about it, re-tweet it, and potentially they’ll start following you.

How to Write a Tweet

Example:

UCSF gene therapy may offer relief for 116 million Americans with #ChronicPain http://bit.ly/Ka6odU @ccfa @CrohnsandUC@aapainmanage #ctsa

Q&A with @WSJHealthBlog Amy Dockser Marcus "Working toward a new social contract for #healthcare"

Sunday, June 10, 2012

How to Write a Tweet

10. Keep it short and to the point. To allow maximum retweetability, write 120 characters or less to leave room for others to retweet your message.

11. Learn Twitter lingo, for example:

FF = Follow Friday RLRT = Real Life Retweet (used to quote sth. a person said in "real life") atm = at the moment lol = laugh out loud.

See Twitter Glossary http://bit.ly/MydFJn+ | http://mashable.com/2008/11/15/twitterspeak/

Sunday, June 10, 2012

12. Use hashtags (#)

One that already has some popularity in search engines, and one that will support your organization.

Best practices recommend using no more than 2 hashtags per tweet.

Use hashtags only on Tweets relevant to the topic.

Example: Join @Predoc at UCSF’s Students Research Festival this week & learn about the latest research trends Bit.ly link. #diabetes #WeCanDoBetter

How to Write a Tweet

More on how to find and create hashtags in this series’ part 4

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Shorten URLs

13. Examples of free, popular URL shortening services:

Bitly (https://bitly.com/)

Tiny URL (http://tinyurl.com/)

Google (http://goo.gl/)

More examples @http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/01/11-best-url-shortening-services-vote-your-favorite/

Note: Microblogging Management Tools such as Hootsuite and Buffer offer URL shorting functionality as well.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

CTSI is a member of the National Institutes of Health-funded Clinical and Translational Science Awards network.

Under the banner of "Accelerating Research to Improve Health," it provides a wide range of services for researchers, and promotes online collaboration and networking tools such as UCSF Profiles.

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Katja Reuter, PhDAssociate Director of Communications

Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI)University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)

ctsi.ucsf.eduhttps://twitter.com/CTSIatUCSF

Sunday, June 10, 2012