Are you new to Twitter? Are you a pathology resident or a pathologist? Are you wondering what to tweet about or where to start? This brief tutorial is for you. Pathology on Twitter is awesome 👍🏾❤️✅
#Tweetorial = Tutorial of tweets
#pathtweetorial = Pathology version
First step, check out this awesome guide to social media for newcomers. SUPER useful.
pathinfo.wikia.com/wiki/Social_Me…
It had great tips, like this one: ALWAYS include a picture of yourself on your profile. He’s right: please do it NOW! It’s essential. Just use a selfie 😊
Follow a few pathologists. Use this handy guide created by @RoseannIWu to begin with, and then just follow people whose tweets you like. Following is a friendly gesture on Twitter, and conveys that you are interested that person’s tweets.
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk6LwOpU0AAjVET.jpg)
Retweet the tweets you like. People like their tweets retweeted because it gives their tweets greater exposure. How to do it? Just hit the button that looks like a rectangle made of 2 arrows chasing each other. These pics show how I retweeted a tweet by @vighnesh_w
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk6Mu0kXcAA6MTP.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk6Mu0jWsAAQ5sa.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk6Mu0jXcAAMRPI.jpg)
Or you can retweet with a comment. These pics show how I retweeted a tweet by @kriyer68 with a comment. I’ve magnified the retweet button with a technique called #pembified described by Twitter guru @pembeoltulu
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk6TzWaV4AAyY4h.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk6TzWZVsAAt_50.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk6TzWbVsAAH2im.jpg)
If retweeting doesn’t float your boat, you could just hit the “like” button on a tweet.
Here I “like” a beautiful tweet by @Konzult_
Retweets are generally considered a stronger endorsement than likes, but not always. They might just mean “hey folks, look at this!”
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk6Xy6HX0AAlu2S.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk6Xy6AWsAAufIf.jpg)
Twitter is built for interaction. You get to “reply” to a tweet with a comment, question or even a picture or a gif. Do this! Even the most famous and busy experts will reply! You will learn a lot.
Here I reply to a post by my fav lung pathologist from Spain @lara_pijuan
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk6Z1BgX0AYOIeQ.jpg)
![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dk6Z1BiX4AUURH0.jpg)
Caution! Do not EVER include info that could identify the patient. Let’s look at examples:
“Look at those R-S cells” = good ✅✅
“Young man, thigh mass” = ok ✅
“47/F, 11 cm uterine mass” = risky
“87/M with lung mets. We autopsied him yesterday” = unacceptable ❌
Before you start posting, I strongly recommend reading this paper written by @evemariecrane and @JMGardnerMD . They had the foresight to address privacy concerns formally way before anyone else. Excellent recommendations grounded in common sense.
wire.ama-assn.org/delivering-car…;
Once you get the hang of it, the sky’s the limit. Here are some examples from masters of pathology education on Twitter:
From @BinXu16
From @histiocytosisX
From @DraEosina
Top notch Pathologists educate others 24/7, free of charge, like this:
From @SGottesmanMD
From @LizMontgomeryMD
From @yro854
For fun, you could post pics and turn them into art. We call it #pathart
Here are some of the masters:
@IHeartHisto
@MPathyart
The Pathologist magazine @pathologistmag highlighted this:
If you’re a good teacher, try to come up with an educational tweet with a combination of text and pics. You could get a cash award and recognition and help to educate thousands in many countries. It’s called #PathTweetAward
Dos and Don’ts:
DO
✅ Post links to articles or books you have authored or liked
✅ Encourage others who tweet good stuff
✅ Promote a good conference or speaker
✅ Share pearls from a good article (always cite the author)
✅ Attend Twitter Journal clubs like #pathJc
DON’T
🛑 Call people names
🛑 Harrass anyone in any way
🛑 Get into fights if people are rude to you on Twitter (better to ignore or block)
🛑 Post copyrighted material
🛑 Post someone else’s pics without citing them
🛑 Post ANYTHING you wouldn’t want your boss to see
Twitter has so many benefits it’s impossible to list them all. You “meet” people online and “know” them for years before you meet them in real life. You become friends. Check out the hashtag “met on Twitter, then in real life” #mottirl
You can come across research ideas on Twitter, find people from all around the world who are willing to collaborate, and present your research in mainstream conferences.
For example, check out the hashtag #ebustwitter
Want to learn about infectious disease pathology? Try #pathbugs or #crittersontwitter
Immunohistochemistry gets you down? Try #ihcpath
Want to learn about sarcomas? There’s #bstpath
Here’s a helpful list of pathology hashtags:
Are you taking the boards and paralyzed by fear? You will find #pathboards immensely helpful. It was created by @RMeunierMD
Are you in a panic because there’s only a day or two left to read? Browse through #knoworfail
Tag your tweets with these hashtags to help others
Hashtags are not the same as “tagging” someone. Tagging a person involved using their “handle”, which is their “Twitter name”
My name is Sanjay Mukhopadhyay but my “handle” is @smlungpathguy
My friend Frank Ingram has the handle @Chucktowndoc
...you get the idea!
If you tweet something you would really like me and Frank to see, or you think we would be interested in, you would “tag” us in your tweet, like this:
It’s so important to minimize unnecessary immunostains in lung cancer @smlungpathguy @Chucktowndoc
Pretty easy! 👍🏾🙏🏾
Acknowledgments:
Everything I know about social media I learned from sensei @JMGardnerMD
Thank you @erikacytogal for the idea to write this guide
Thank you @kriyer68 @mvmd0908 @missle @DrjohninNE @CArnold_GI @mreyesm for your steadfast support!
/end of Tweetorial
@AmyHDeekenMD @BinXu16 @SGottesmanMD @mreyesm @yro854 @NRiddleMD @FRodriguezNP @GeronimoJrLapac @Gleason4plus5 @VijayPatho @DrFNA @Sinchita_Roy @TheKarenPinto @feldstej @lara_pijuan @evemariecrane