Social media can be a platform for knowledge dissemination for scholarly journals. An engaging “X” (formerly Twitter) presence for scholarly journals has been linked to increased citations. Journal staff have begun adding social media editors to their teams to promote their published articles, engage readers, and help boost their impact factor. The Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association (JAVMA) hired their first Social Media Editor, Dr. Sarah Wright, in February 2022. To the authors’ knowledge, JAVMA is the only peer-reviewed veterinary journal to have a dedicated Social Media Editor. In less than 2 years after developing and implementing a social media strategy, JAVMA increased its reach on Facebook by 1,000% (130,110 to 1,325,922 unique accounts), on Instagram by 8,679% (1,273 to 110,484 unique accounts), and on LinkedIn by 11,563% (974 to 112,621 unique accounts). Social media content with the highest engagement was supplemental videos posted as short reels. With the success of these short social media videos, JAVMA developed a new manuscript category called Technical/Tutorial Video. Once published on the journal website, these peer-reviewed video articles are posted as reels on social media to further their reach and impact. JAVMA plans to use its social media influence to increase reader engagement and recruit authors and reviewers. The team plans to stay apprised of social media trends and new platforms to maximize the dissemination of the latest advancements in veterinary medicine. Future research will evaluate the relationship between online attention scores and academic citations for studies published in JAVMA.
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