The use of digital media as a tool for scientific dissemination on physical activity and health

Abstract

Understanding the digital environment as an important space to enhance interaction with scientific communication and the society, since the beginning of its activities, the 2020–2022 board of the Brazilian Society of Physical Activity and Health (SBAFS) intensified its participation in social media. This essay describes the structuring and planning processes, as well as the progression of the work carried out on social networks at SBAFS. In this way, we can highlight the creation of a team of voluntary collaborators to work on social media (page and electronic address, ®Facebook, ®Instagram, ®Twitter and ®Youtube), based on continuous planning and work plan, focused on the strategic dissemination of knowledge, advances and interactions with people interested in the different subjects that permeate the topic of physical activity and health. On ®Instagram, due to the greater frequency of content posted, the increase in the number of followers and, consequently, interactions were notable. ®Twitter also showed impressive results, with a 23.2% increase in profile visits and an 18.8% increase in impressions in the number of views (“tweets”). Due to the work carried out, the spread of SBAFS actions among people interested in the subject increased considerably. This can be explained because, with the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw the emergence of digital interactions and, therefore, greater engagement with the profile content was identified. Such information confirms the usefulness of social networks as a tool for scientific dissemination in a fast, dynamic, widely accessible, attractive, interactive, and practical way.