What is the best time to tweet a journal article? Quasi-randomized controlled trial

Leonardo Ferreira Fontenelle; Thiago Dias Sarti

doi:10.5380/atoz.v13i0.89296

Autores/as

Leonardo Ferreira Fontenelle Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES), Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brasil https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4064-433X
Thiago Dias Sarti Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo - UFES, Vitória, ES, Brasil https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1545-6276

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5380/atoz.v13i0.89296

Palabras clave:

Information dissemination, Twitter, Journals

Resumen

Introduction: Social media users are often advised to time their posts to increase readership and engagement. Our objective was to find out which is the best time to tweet a journal article. Methods: From January 2020 to October 2021, 112 articles from a medical journal were posted on Twitter three times each, once in each language: Portuguese, Spanish and English. Up to two articles were posted each week, with each of the week’s tweets being posted in a different hour of the day: 06, 09, 12, 15, 18 or 21:00. Tweet impressions and URL clicks were the two outcomes of the Bayesian multivariate multilevel negative binomial regression models. Results: No pair of times of the day achieved 95% posterior probability of including the best time to tweet a journal article, both for impressions and URL clicks. The expected outcomes, the ratio between standard deviations, and the explained variability (R²) all corroborated that the time of the day is of little consequence when tweeting journal articles. Conclusions: Contrary to popular advice and pre-algorithm research, journal staff need not bother with optimizing the time of the day when they disseminate their content on Twitter.

Biografía del autor/a

Leonardo Ferreira Fontenelle, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (UFES), Vitória, Espírito Santo, Brasil

Family and community physician at the Department of Social Medicine of the Federal University of Espírito Santo, working as preceptor in the primary care internship of the medical undergraduate course. Holds a doctorate in epidemiology and a certificate in scientific publishing.

Thiago Dias Sarti, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo - UFES, Vitória, ES, Brasil

Associate professor at the Department of Social Medicine of the Federal University of Espírito Santo, working in the medical undergraduate course, medical residency in family and comunity medicine, and the Postgraduate Program in Collective Health. Besides being a family and community physician himself, holds a doctorate in public health and a specialization in health management.

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