As ESGE celebrates its 60th birthday, it is hard to imagine that at its birth, the
Internet did not exist and neither did social media, both of which became mainstream
in the early 2000s. Now, more people on the planet have Internet and social media
access than those who do not [1]. Social media has revolutionised how individuals and organisations communicate.
Content, ranging from education to entertainment and personal views can be instantly
shared from the convenience of a smartphone, enabling interactions that can create
virtual communities without borders. Like many individuals who have adopted social
media in their late 40s, ESGE has been no different! ESGE embraced social media relatively
early on, starting with a Facebook account in 2011 (now with 16K followers), followed
by Twitter (X) in 2017 (@ESGE_news; 9.5K followers), LinkedIn (9.1K followers) and
YouTube in 2019 (@esgeendoscopy8242; 3.8K subscribers). These accounts serve to disseminate
and publicise ESGEs’ scientific activity, publications, guidelines and educational
content in real time to a global audience. This is possible due to the coordinated
efforts of the ESGE Office, in particular Alexandra Mace who oversees the social media
working group.
In 2020, a social media working group was established by the ESGE Executive Committee
and the ESGE Young Endoscopist (EYE) committee to streamline management of ESGE social
media channels. By 2022, the current ESGE president Ian Gralnek (@iangralnek) had
a vision to formalise ESGE’s social media content and a working group was created
and chaired by Dr. Manmeet Matharoo. The ESGE social media working group ([Fig. 1]) has been curated with equity, diversity and inclusion in mind and now comprises
11 members from 7 countries. This has helped expand ESGE’s international reach and
to open communication beyond the English language. The strategic objectives of the
ESGE social media working group align with the ESGE strategic plan and consist of:
a) developing, supporting and promoting ESGE activities and educational content worldwide
through social media, b) to use social media to augment circulation of ESGE-derived
updates/alerts/scientific documents, c) to propose and respond to endoscopy-related
topics raised on social media, presenting an authoritative and representative ESGE
opinion and d) to advertise and promote ESGE-delivered and ESGE-endorsed courses.
In the spirit of collaboration, ESGE has joined forces with affiliated societies for
campaigns such as #ColorectalCancerAwarenessMonth and #ESGEGreenTips which share and
showcase high yield tips for sustainable practice from the ESGE Green Endoscopy working
group. To keep up with 21st century trends, posts will focus on high quality endoscopy
video content, particularly those focused on education and training and topics that
are relatable to a broader audience including the public at large as part of efforts
to reach out to the wider community, while respecting patient confidentiality and
maintaining professionalism.
Fig. 1 Members of ESGE Social Media Working Group 2024.
Endoscopy journal which is affiliated with ESGE also has a respectable social media following
on Facebook (37K followers), Twitter (@endoscopyjrnl; 9K followers), YouTube (@endoscopythieme;
1.4K subscribers) and most recently, LinkedIn (1K followers), led by Ioannis Papanikolaou.
These showcase state-of-the-art endoscopy content and techniques (e-videos), aiming
to enhance the visibility and impact of publications to both the scientific community
and the authors. The journal now invites authors to provide their X handles and a
short social media abstract for content promotion. Graphical abstracts, i.e. a single
figure which summarises the essence of a paper, have now been incorporated into the
Endoscopy journal strategy to aid social media dissemination.
ESGE Days, ESGE’s annual congress, is now celebrated as the premier endoscopy conference
in Europe and is a focal point on the ESGE calendar. The power of social media enhances
our ability to share the latest scientific abstracts, key endoscopy developments and
technological advances live and in real-time from the conference across the globe
for endoscopists engaging remotely. At ESGE Days 2022 and 2023, ESGE has also organised
workshops and “How to guides” to welcome new users to social media ([Fig. 2]). To cover the 60th Jubilee, ESGE endeavours to increase social media presence to
share the very best of the scientific content and endoscopic advances from #ESGEDays2024
in Berlin, Germany, to enhance the conference experience for attendees, and to impart
some of the atmosphere at the Jubilee celebration. This is a moment to reflect on
the very significant advances that have been made in endoscopy for the benefit of
our patients, and to look to the future to strive to improve and innovate our practice.
Fig. 2 Social Media Workshop at ESGE Days 2023.
We hope that you can join us through our social media channels, and we look forward
to growing the conversation with the global endoscopy community!
