BRC Womens Metabolic Health – TikTok Dissemination Training

Author:Author Caroline Gillett
Published: Posted on
Image shows four women talking and working together on a group activity where they are writing on a large piece of paper with coloured pens. The purpose of the image is to show some of the activities that took place in the training event.

The Women’s Metabolic Health theme of the Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) in Birmingham recently hosted a patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) training event on December 8th.

The session was open to all and present were members of The Hildas, a PPIE group focused on women’s health, who had been attending a meeting earlier that afternoon.

Training looked at how different social media platforms can be used to disseminate science content and research, with a focus on TikTok as a channel to reaching younger audiences specifically. The purpose of the training was to give attendees a better idea of the planning needed to use social media as a dissemination tool and to provide some inspiration alongside practical guidance. The training topic had been chosen in response to feedback from staff and PPIE contributors who wanted more support with new dissemination ideas and reaching different audiences.

Leading this two-hour session was Dr Caroline Gillett and two University of Birmingham medical students, Maiar and Sangam. The students have been pioneering use of social media to share science with others.

The session covered:

  • The demographic appeal of different social media platforms
  • The opportunities and challenges of social media for dissemination
  • Case studies of how dissemination on TikTok has shown impact
  • Tips and tricks of using TikTok
  • Practical, hands-on collaborative activity to develop a TikTok-ready script
  • Rapid prototyping – creation of a group TikTok

Attendees gave positive feedback on the session, indicating how they had developed a new level of appreciation for the time, effort and imagination put in to creating social media content. Far from being ‘a quick and easy route’ to dissemination, they came to realise a lot of planning and thought needs to go into the use and continued curation of social media – something they will take away when asked to lead on or support dissemination ideas in future.

With attendees keen to get more guided experience with TikTok the workshop hosts aim to build on the session in future with a possible follow-up workshop next year. Stay tuned!

Image shows three women talking and working together on a group activity where they are writing on a large piece of paper with coloured pens. The purpose of the image is to show some of the activities that took place in the training event.
The image shows a woman giving a presentation to a group of other people. The purpose of the image is to show some of the training that took place in the event.
The image shows a woman giving a presentation to a group of other people. The purpose of the image is to show some of the training that took place in the event.