Twitter 101

Twitter 101

Twitter 101

Refer to Social Media Requirements & Best Practices for general tips. 

Twitter works well for departments/clinics that:

  • Want to connect with other researchers and healthcare providers
  • Want to share links to relevant content
  • Don’t have enough photos/videos to be successful on more visual platforms

Twitter Audience

  • Twitter demographics
    • 330 million active monthly users
    • 45% of new users have college degrees

Content

  • Tweets have a 280-character limit, including links. Be short and to the point.
  • Be interactive with your audience and reply to tweets from other accounts.
  • Hashtags: No more than 3 per post. Try UVA-specific ones like #UVA, #uvahealth, #Charlottesville, #UVAChildrens
  • This platform is much more active than others. Tweet/retweet daily. More is better.
  • Retweet:
    • Make your posts “retweetable” with links to your own content or a reliable source
    • Retweet other posts from reputable sources to increase chances of those accounts retweeting yours
  • Prepare evergreen content to make it easier to continuously tweet.
  • Host a Twitter chat, where your audience follows your page on a specific day and time to live chat with you about a specific topic.
  • Consider an account takeover, where you give someone access to tweet from your account for a day and promote in advance. Example: a program trying to recruit residents might let current residents do “a day in the life of.” Make sure to change your account password afterward!
  • After being active for six months, request to get verified. Verified accounts show followers that they can trust your content.