Urology Week events of previous years were a success, with more than 30 events organised across Europe. This year we've given more exposure to these inspiring efforts, and offered an opportunity for all participants to communicate their progress and share experiences with each other.
It is important that we know that ours is a huge effort, with many countries participating. Through connecting and exchanging ideas, and also telling the rest of Urology Week participants about the successes, challenges, and inspirations – we've made a first noticeable step towards a movement, rather than a collection of individual efforts. What better way to connect than by using social media, such as Twitter?
What to Tweet
Twitter was established in 2006, and has since grown to over 200 million users. It is based around the free publication of short messages, inspired by mobile phone text messages (SMS). Twitter has changed the face of modern media by opening up the untapped resources of the public voice. Indeed, breaking news tends to be reported on Twitter through word-of-mouth before reaching the traditional press.
Twitter is a particularly helpful tool leading up to and during Urology Week. Set up an account to act as your own personal newsfeed. For instance, if you have some sort of booth planned, you can report on its activities throughout the day, or give a taste of the atmosphere. Sponsored events, like bicycle rides, can be monitored by regularly tweeting the distance covered. Reporting on the preparations can be equally interesting; it sets the scene and raises interest.
The basics on running an account can be found here: Twitter for Business.
#urologyweek
Twitter's main tool for categorising different topics that people "tweet" about is the hashtag (#) used together with a keyword.
The EAU uses the hashtag #urologyweek to report on related events. Use the same tag at the end of your tweets to show that you are talking about Urology Week. That way, it is combined with all Urology Week content from other initiatives around the world.
