Use of Twitter at a major national pharmacy conference

Purpose. The results of a study of Twitter use by attendees of the 2013 ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting (MCM) and other interested parties are presented. Methods. All messages posted on the social media platform Twitter under the official MCM hashtag (#ashpmidyear) during the five-day conference were archived and evaluated. Demographic data on authors of MCM-related tweets were collected by evaluating information provided by Twitter users in their public profiles. The archived messages were classified by content type. Results. A total of 1539 messages originating from 400 unique U.S.- and foreign-based Twitter accounts were posted under the MCM hashtag, an average of 3.84 tweets per account. The estimated rate of conference-related Twitter use by MCM attendees was 1.7%. One third of Twitter users posting conference-related tweets were identified as pharmacists; 86 (21.5%) and 65 (16.25%) tweets originated from accounts held by pharmacy students and pharmaceutical industry representatives, respectively. The authors of MCM-related tweets represented a broad cross-section of pharmacy practice settings and specialties. About 39% of the evaluated Twitter postings were classified as social, with about 31% of postings pertaining to specific MCM educational sessions and nearly 25% classified as advertising. Conclusion. The majority of MCM-related tweets by onsite and remote Twitter users were social in nature or pertained to educational sessions held over the course of the conference.