Social media, specifically Twitter, has the ability to enhance your academic career, connect you with students, urologists, and leaders across the globe, and amplify the voices of those who traditionally have been marginalized. There are myriad benefits to using social media for your academic career. However, as stated by Voltaire, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Advancing your career utilizing a social media account requires some thoughtful integration.

Academic Dissemination

Twitter is an effective medium for amplifying your academic work. There are supportive data that the use of Twitter can significantly increase engagement with academic literature. By tweeting relevant publications, you can engage a larger audience than with print publication alone.¹ In addition to traditional impact measurements (h-index), altmetrics scores have been developed to measure the scholarly impact of work based on Internet views and interaction. Altmetrics are increasingly being utilized by journals, as well as institutions, to assess scholarly impact.² Some tips on helping boost the impact of your work:

• Follow relevant journals, organizations, institutions.
• Retweet and/or comment on articles of interest.
• Tweet links to your published articles:
  • For your personal articles, consider tagging coauthors, journals, experts.
  • Include a short description of your findings to help entice readers to click on your work.
• Altmetrics can be incorporated into your curriculum vitae.

Community

Social media, including Twitter, has a different hierarchy than academic medicine traditionally follows. Students, patients, and experts alike have an equal opportunity to create community and interact with one another. One of the most unique aspects of the Twitter platform is the access given to people at every level in their career paths. On Twitter a medical student can ask a question, only to be answered by experts across the country. This fascinating “level playing field” allows for a more dynamic community to be built. To get started in building community:

• Follow people who are experts in your field.
• Follow people who are doing work that interests you.
• Interact with posts that discuss topics of relevant interest.
• Answer other peoples’ questions.
• Ask questions from your community.

The Power of Authenticity

Urologists are multidimensional people, with families and personal interests. To ensure you are making the most of your Twitter community, it’s advisable to integrate your authentic self into your online presence. This is powerful in connecting with colleagues you have never met before but who may share common interests. Authenticity can guide your social media journey while strengthening your community. Ultimately, your extracurricular activities, or adjacent interests, are important for role modeling and creating bonds.

• Consider posting on topics that relate to your life outside of work.
• Photos are humanizing (however, consider turning off your geotags).

Marketing

Currently, in large part due to the pandemic, we are more reliant on virtual platforms. This will be the third year that residency interviews will be virtual. Without personal interaction, social media has been an important medium for programs to market themselves to prospective applicants. Applicants have used Twitter to learn about resident satisfaction, program training, and virtual open houses.^3,4 We have even seen recent publications that suggest that students utilizing Twitter have a higher match rate.⁵

• Link back to your institution in your profile (see Figure).
• Reference your program in your posts.
• Advertise open houses or other educational opportunities.

Profile Design

Your profile is part of your “brand” and should reflect that (see Figure):

• Your name should be easily searchable, and be the same on other platforms such as your institutional website and Doximity.
• Include credentials and professional roles, which will help others connect with you.
• Link your profile to your workplace, as well as other roles you may have.
• Consider using your professional headshot as your profile photo, and using an action shot pertaining to your work or hobbies as your banner photo.
• Remember to include that views you post online are your own, and not representative of your employer.
• Consider including that your account is not for medical advice.

Caution

You may be familiar with the saying that “the Internet is forever,” and all it takes is 1 screenshot to prove that point. With that in mind, it is generally good practice to be kind on social media. The lack of personal interactions coupled with bravado can sometimes breed contemptuous back and forth. Remember that everyone can see your posts, and behave accordingly. Similarly, on Twitter, your followers can see all of the content that you “like.”

Social media can also attract extremist views and users who utilize the platform for targeted harassment of scientists and physicians. Recently, the COVID-19 pandemic has seen an increase in harassment from anti-vaccine extremists. When utilizing Twitter, be cautious of comments that are threatening, and do not hesitate to report, block, and tell your institution if you are being harassed.

Research has shown that social media consumption can have addictive effects.⁶ In order to maintain a healthy relationship with social media and to continue to use it professionally:

• Set aside a small amount of regular time for this—consider it part of your work.
• Set limitations on screen time.
• Report and block harassment and personal threats.

Final Thoughts

If you’re new to Twitter, take the time to introduce yourself. Friendly introductions can go a long way to building your community. Do not hesitate to follow people you admire professionally; you may quickly find they are your new friends or virtual collaborators. Consider embracing the 5 A’s of mission-based tweeting: Authenticity is key, Amplify other voices, Accelerate your work, Avoid arguments, Always be professional.⁷

Twitter is a fantastic way to promote and skyrocket your career. My personal experience utilizing the platform has helped promote my advocacy for gender equity in urology. I am still amazed by the multitude of connections and opportunities that have arisen from social media. I recently signed on to be the Assistant Online Content Editor for The Journal of Urology^®, Urology Practice^®, JU Open Plus, and AUANews, thanks in part to these virtual relationships.

Happy tweeting, and feel free to say hello @CaseySeidemanMD!