Facebook has once again been busy redesigning its site, this time focusing on the fan pages used by brands, organisations and specialist medical journals! The Facebook page makeover essentially makes Facebook’s public pages look more like personal profiles, which themselves were redesigned about two months ago .

So what’s new?

Facebook pages, like their profile counterparts, now show a line of photos at the top of their main wall (see screenshot below). For pages, these photos include any images posted by the page owner.

Aside from that, page elements are shifted around a bit: the navigation area, which allows you to toggle through different tabs, is now on the left-hand column of the page instead of the top. The other update Facebook is adding is an “Everyone” filter that brings the most interesting and engaging posts from a page’s community to the top of the page.

The posts displayed on the wall are now filtered through an algorithmic process similar to what’s done in the “Top News” option on the main Facebook stream. Previously, posts were shown in a purely chronological order.  This makes it easier for users and admins to easily find the most “liked” and commented-on conversations on a particular page. The new Facebook Pages are also smart enough to filter out posts that are not in a language you speak.

New social media links on our journal sites

By coincidence, new Facebook and Twitter links have also gone live on each of our journal websites. As mentioned in a previous post, each of our journals has a dedicated Twitter account and Facebook fan page, where users can keep up to date with the latest Editor’s choice and Unlocked articles, podcasts, blogs and mentions in the press. These accounts are now directly linked to from the right-hand column of each journal website (see below).

Users can either navigate to an individual journal website to access the Facebook and Twitter pages, or they can use this central list of all journal social media accounts:

https://group.bmj.com/products/journals/social-media

You may have noticed over the past few days that Twitter has been looking slightly different. That’s because the microblogging site has finally finished rolling out the new version of its web interface (a.k.a. the “New Twitter”) to all 160 million of its users in six different languages. For those of you averse to change, the option to view the old version of Twitter is still available (see screenshot below) but this will eventually disappear and all users will automatically be redirected to the new and improved Twitter.com. So, it’s time to familarise yourself with the new design.

The New Twitter brings many innovative features to Twitter’s web interface. Most notably, it provides support for multimedia viewing directly on Twitter.com, which prevents users from having to click off-site to view images and video. Media content partners now include YouTube, Vimeo, Ustream, TwitPic, Flickr and 11 other firms. Multimedia content now appears in a sidebar beside a relatively traditional newsfeed.

The new interface also displays a slew of improved navigation controls, concentrated in a drop-down menu bar that runs across the top of the screen. Another big feature is the ability to view threaded conversations more easily on the Messages page. Other changes include:

• The screen is split into two panes, left is the tweet stream, the right is helpful information (video, photos, etc.)
• Click on a video link and it will play within the right pane
• If somebody posts with geolocation enabled, a map will show in the right pane
• Helpful profile information on Twitter users [e.g. profile picture] is displayed

So, how do I use the new Twitter?

This video will help you get to grips with the key differences between the old site and the new design:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NshQFrpC2O4

We covered the basics of Twitter and its potential value in a previous post but now it’s time to get down to the nitty gritty; how do you Tweet and what are those @ symbols all about?

Do I need special software to Tweet?

All you need to use Twitter is an internet connection or a mobile phone. Once you’ve signed in, type your first 140 character update into the web box at the top of your page (underneath ‘What’s happening?’).

What exactly does ‘following’ somebody on Twitter mean?

Following another person simply means subscribing to their Twitter updates. When you follow someone, every time they post a new message, it will appear on your Twitter home page.

How can I check who I’m following?

After you select the follow button on a person’s profile, you will start following them. The follow button changes to a green check mark next to the word “Following” with a button on the right to remove a person if you want to.

How can I see who is following me?

Twitter sends out email alerts when a new user starts to follow you. It’s possible to alter your email preferences at any time. The followers link on your profile page or home page’s sidebar will also tell you how many followers you have.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91zurrk69_w

This video tutorial demonstrates the major aspects of Twitter’s functionality

What are @Replies?

An @reply is a public message sent from one person to another, distinguished from normal updates by the @username prefix. If a message begins with @username, it is automatically collected as a reply. Reply publicly to any update on Twitter by using the @username rule. Following is not necessary to reply to somebody, and all of your replies are visible in the @username tab in your home page sidebar. (Tweets with @username elsewhere in the tweet are also collected in your sidebar tab; tweets starting with @username are replies, and tweets with @username elsewhere are defined as ‘mentions’.)

Can tweets be edited once posted?

Once it’s out there, you can’t edit it. You can, however, delete an update by clicking the bin icon on the right-hand side of the update.

What does RT, or retweet, mean?

RT is short for retweet, and indicates a re-posting of somebody else’s tweet. This isn’t an official Twitter command or feature, but people add RT somewhere in a tweet to indicate that part of their tweet includes something they’re re-posting from another person’s tweet, often with a comment of their own.

What do the stars at the end of updates mean?

The star is a way for you to mark an update as favourite. People can view your favourites, and you theirs, by clicking on the Favourites link in the profile page.

Still have unanswered questions?

Check out the official Twitter Help Center or help resources for more information or feel free to contact me with your queries (cbower@bmjgroup.com).

To build interest in the future launch of BMJ Open, a new open access journal for general medical research, a blog has been created and linked with various Web 2.0 technologies. Not only does the new journal have a blog, Twitter account and Facebook fan page, but all these sites are interconnected to create a seamless and consistent experience for our users. Please show your support by following BMJ_Open on Twitter or liking BMJ Open on Facebook.

What is BMJ Open?

Using a continuous publication model the journal will provide rapid publication for research from any medical discipline or therapeutic area. Not only will the journal publish traditional full research reports, including small or low-impact studies, but we intend to shed light on all stages of the research process by publishing study protocols, pilot studies and pre-protocols. The journal will also place great emphasis on the importance of data sharing; raw data will be linked to at its repository or hosted online as supplementary material wherever possible. As in its sister journal, the BMJ, all research will immediately be open access upon publication.

This emphasis on transparency will continue with research protocols and reviewers’ comments being published alongside final papers. Authors will need to provide clear statements of their studies’ strengths and limitations. Peer review will be open, and the criteria for acceptance will be that the research was conducted in a transparent and ethical way. Naturally, all articles will need to comply with the BMJ Group’s high standards of research and publication ethics.

Authors will be asked to pay article-processing charges on acceptance, although waivers will be available on request. The ability to pay will not influence editorial decisions; payment requests will be made on acceptance.

Watch for updates on the BMJ Open blog (or via Twitter/Facebook) to track the new journal’s progress – and for advance information on how to submit your research. Meanwhile, for more information you can contact the editorial office at editorial.bmjopen@bmjgroup.com.

Twitter is a simple social network.You can think of it as a hybrid of email, instant messaging and SMS messaging all rolled into one neat and simple package. The idea behind Twitter is that you broadcast short messages (also known as “tweets”) to anyone who chooses to follow you. It could be as basic as describing what you’re doing right now or perhaps asking a specific question of your followers. Likewise, you can choose to follow people and recieve their messages. The video below provides a basic explanation of the workings behind the microblogging site.

Given its ability to generate site traffic and communicate instantly with users, Twitter is increasingly being used as a business promotional tool. As such, we have recently created individual Twitter accounts for all of our specialist journals. These work on both automated and manual input methods. We use a third-party site called Twitterfeed to automatically generate “tweets” from Editor’s Choice and Unlocked topic collection RSS feeds. Updates from Podcasts and Blogs are also configured to automatically create a new “tweet” on the relevant journal Twitter page. This very post will also be pushed through to all of our Twitter accounts using the same technology! Although having automated feeds directly from our journals is great and removes the need for editorial input, users appreciate a personal touch so we are encouraging Editor’s to contribute with their own comments as well.

Below is a list of links to all journal Twitter accounts. We will shortly be implementing “Follow us on Twitter” icons onto each of the journal sites but in the meantime please show your support by clicking on the links below and “following” us!

• Archives of Disease in Childhood
• Acupuncture in Medicine
• Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases
• British Journal of Ophthalmology
• British Journal of Sports Medicine
• BMJ Case Reports
• Drug and Therapeutics Bulletin
• Evidence-Based Medicine
• Evidence-Based Mental Health
• Evidence-Based Nursing
• Emergency Medicine Journal
• Gut
• Frontline Gastroenterology
• Heart
• Injury Prevention
• JAMIA
• Journal of Clinical Pathology
• Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health
• Journal of Medical Ethics
• Journal of Medical Genetics
• Journal of NeuroInterventional Surgery
• Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry
• Medical Humanities
• Occupational & Environmental Medicine
• Postgraduate Medicial Journal
• BMJ Quality & Safety
• Sexually Transmitted Infections
• Tobacco Control
• Thorax

Other BMJ Group Twitter accounts that are already going strong include:

• BMJ
• BMJ Evidence Centre
• BMJ Group