Lessons learned from rebranding a radiology education facebook page

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Radiology
• Social Media Analytics

Background:

• Social media platforms like Facebook are increasingly utilized for medical education.
• Radiology educators often share diverse content, including educational materials and non-academic posts.
• The impact of content focus on audience engagement for specialized educational pages is not well-defined.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the effect of curating a Facebook page exclusively for radiology education on audience growth.
• To compare audience engagement metrics before and after a content refinement strategy.

Main Methods:

• Facebook post data from two periods were analyzed: November 2020–October 2021 (pre-refinement) and March 2023–February 2024 (post-refinement).
• Content included general posts (news, memes) before February 2023 and exclusively radiology education materials afterward.
• Statistical analysis involved comparing mean reach and engagement using Wilcoxon rank sum tests and linear regressions.

Main Results:

• The daily post frequency decreased by over half, from 24.8 to 11.71 posts.
• Mean post reach significantly increased from 1,743 in 2021 to 4,660 in 2023/24 (p=0.0000).
• Statistically significant reach increases were observed for specific educational content types, including AI, case images, and instructional videos (p<0.005).

Conclusions:

• A dedicated focus on radiology education content on social media enhances audience reach and engagement.
• Specialized educational content is more effective for audience growth than a mix of academic and non-academic posts.
• Radiology educators can optimize their social media presence by prioritizing accessible, high-quality educational materials.