Introduction:
The social media arm of the International Society of nephrology (ISN) is dedicated to advancing education, raising public awareness and fostering networking in the nephrology community. The X platform offers distinct activities like XSpaces, Xchat, and Xorials. X Spaces are used for live discussions on trending topics, X chat facilitates case-based discussions on everyday cases in nephrology and Xorials provide concise summaries on key nephrology topics. This study aims to compare these modalities to assess their usage and effectiveness within the nephrology community. These modalities were chosen because X is an extremely popular social media platform in the nephrology community and these three methods are only deliverable via X.
Methods:
Effectiveness and use of XSpaces, Xorials and Xchats were compared using participant numbers, impressions, and engagement metrics. Engagement metrics included direct engagements, detail expands, likes and shares of posts. For XSpaces numbers of live participants and listeners of the recordings were assessed. Average data was compiled over a two-year period from April 2022 to April 2024 for Xorials, and August 2022 to August 2024 for XSpaces. Data on X chats was extractable for 6 months from February to August 2024 using the hashtag #ECNeph.
Results:
Twenty-two XSpaces, 12 Xorials and 3 Xchats had been conducted during the relevant periods under study. There was an overlap between some of the topics discussed in XSpaces and Xorials. The average number of participants tuning in to XSpaces was 771 with 145 joining in live. The most popular XSpaces appeared to be those covering scientific themes such as specific disease entities or syndromes. The average number of impressions for the first post of an Xorial was 8358, with 280 (3%) total engagements and 126 (1.5%) detail expands. For Xchat based case discussions over each 3-month period there were on average 275 distinct users engaging with the material.
Conclusions:
Among the modalities studied, XSpaces demonstrated the highest participant engagement, indicating their effectiveness in facilitating live discussions on relevant nephrology topics. Conversely, while Xorials reached a broad audience, the relatively low total and direct engagement compared to impressions suggests an opportunity to enhance interactivity and user involvement. This may include surveys to identify popular topics and themes for Xorials, and using polls, images or other tools to capture and maintain the attention of the users. XChat, though with limited data, showed promising engagement in case-based discussions. These findings highlight the strengths of each modality and suggest areas for improvement to maximize their impact within the nephrology community.
I have no potential conflict of interest to disclose.
I did not use generative AI and AI-assisted technologies in the writing process.