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Social media have developed into popular platforms for promoting online content for individuals, businesses, and news media sites. Many peer-reviewed medical journals have followed suit to advertise recent publications.1 2 A randomized controlled trial of Journal of the American College of Radiology publications showed significantly increased page visits in those advertised with an organized social media strategy from editorial board members compared with a control arm.3 It is therefore not surprising that the impact indicated by social media traffic shortly after publication may be highly predictive of future citations.4 5

In February 2015, the Journal of Neurointerventional Surgery social media team began a campaign to expand the journal’s social media presence through Facebook and Twitter posts. These efforts began with tweets highlighting new online first publications followed by identical posts to the journal and Society of Neurointerventional Surgery (SNIS) Facebook pages. Each post was tagged with a shortened Bitly link allowing the editors to analyze the number of post clicks and the websites through which articles were accessed. In the months that followed, we included images from the manuscripts and notified corresponding authors of the posts to enhance participation. A published initial analysis in February 2016 showed an exciting, positive trend in article accessions, with modest increases with our interventions.6 We have since increased our number of assistant editors and have begun to identify and highlight controversial or important new articles on SNIS discussion boards to promote member commentary and drive online traffic to these articles. Additionally, we now post information about podcasts highlighting editor’s choice articles.7

Between February 2015 and May 31, 2017, the JNIS social media editors (SMEs) have promoted a total of 569 JNIS online first articles on Twitter and Facebook. These efforts have been responsible for over 10 000 link clicks to JNIS article abstract webpages. As Bitly links are discoverable only by viewing SME posts, article accessions via link clicks are a direct and specific metric of our social media efforts. Furthermore, Twitter posts for these 569 articles have accounted for over 320 000 impressions (potential views) and 14 700 engagements (likes, retweets, etc). These statistics show that the JNIS readership is web-savvy and has welcomed the journal’s expanded social media presence.

The most exciting aspect of this endeavor is the increasing engagement from our readership on social media. There has been a strong, consistent increase in clicks, impressions, and Twitter engagements over each ensuing 6-month period (p<0.001; figure 1; table 1). In the most recent 6 months (January 1 through June 30, 2017), 17 of the 77 (22%) published articles achieved 50 or more clicks via SME posts, with five articles (6%) achieving over 100 clicks. Further, we have noted a progressive increase in Twitter followers. As of the end of June 2017, the JNIS Twitter profile has over 1200 followers. By comparison, in February 2015, the number was less than 600. These numbers are particularly impressive given that neurointerventional surgery is a small specialty, with the SNIS having fewer than 900 physician members, suggesting a high participation rate among members. While an increasing number of views due to more followers might explain the increase in impressions, we continue to see increases in engagement rates over time. The witnessed rise in engagement rate, defined as engagements divided by impressions, suggests that more readers are not just viewing these posts but actively participating in JNIS social media posts over time.

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Figure 1

Clicks, impressions, engagement, and engagement rate by 6-month period.

Over the past 2 years, we have additionally composed and posted 14 SME commentaries on the SNIS discussion forum (connect.snisonline.org) to highlight recent controversial or important JNIS articles and promote commentary by SNIS members. With each posted editor commentary, Bitly links are included for rapid article access by readers. These posts resulted in an additional 930 clicks from SNIS members to the 18 articles that were highlighted (on average, an additional 52 accessions per article). These findings suggest that SME forum commentaries are an effective means of driving online traffic to select articles.

Based on the ever-increasing number of clicks, engagements and Twitter followers, it appears that social media will continue to perform a vital role in the promotion and dissemination of journal content. If you have not yet done so, please join our efforts in expanding JNIS social media presence. If you have a Twitter or Facebook account, please follow us to get the most up-to-date JNIS and SNIS information and articles!