Twitter Activity Associated With U.S. News and World Report Reputation Scores for Urology Departments

• Published in: Urology (Ridgewood, N.J.) N.J.), 2017-10, Vol.108, p.11-16
• Main Authors: Ciprut, Shannon, Curnyn, Caitlin, Davuluri, Meena, Sternberg, Kevan, Loeb, Stacy
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0090-4295; 1527-9995
• DOI: 10.1016/j.urology.2017.05.051

To analyze the association between US urology department Twitter presence and U.S. News and World Report (USNWR) reputation scores, to examine the content, informational value, and intended audience of these platforms, and to identify objectives for Twitter use. We identified Twitter accounts for urology departments scored in the 2016-2017 USNWR. Correlation coefficients were calculated between Twitter metrics (number of followers, following, tweets, and Klout influence scores) with USNWR reputation scores. We also performed a detailed content analysis of urology department tweets during a 6-month period to characterize the content. Finally, we distributed a survey to the urology department accounts via Twitter, inquiring who administers the content, and their objectives for Twitter use. Among 42 scored urology departments with Twitter accounts, the median number of followers, following, and tweets were 337, 193, and 115, respectively. All of these Twitter metrics had a statistically significant positive correlation with reputation scores (P