Does Cancer Matter To Twitter Users?

OK, so it’s a controversial title for one of my first blog entries but now I might have your attention it’s an interesting topic, I think. If you’re on twitter then you will be aware of the various hashtags used for cancer, two of the main ones I see are #BoobWednesday and #KickCancer. These are primarily used by women to promote awareness of breast cancer, however I see very little from men on the subject. Why is that? Is it just that we (men) don’t think about it, know all we need to or just want bury our head in the sand?

Last week, after a bit of banter with @1candycupcake and @advancedtaxis I proposed we had a male version #BoobWednesday and called it #TesticularTuesday, with the aim of promoting awareness of testicular cancer. There were two reasons I considered this:

  • to promote awareness of testicular cancer, having seen 2 friends go through it it’s one of the only forms of cancer I have had close experience of; and
  • to see whether we could generate as much interest for #TesticularTuesday as we see for #BoobWednesday

So, what happened?

Well today I uploaded a new avatar using the #BoobWednesday approach of a photo of me in underwear. As soon as I posted it I wondered if anyone would want to see mens pants, all different shapes and sizes appearing on their twitter feed, and this is where the inspiration for this post came from, and ultimately the question:

Do we really care about cancer, or is #BoobWednesday and now #TesticularTuesday just an excuse for people to show off their bodies, or look at pictures of other bodies. Women tend to gain new followers when they change their avatar for #BoobWednesday, and certainly plenty of retweets. I on the other hand saw very few retweets or new followers as a result of #TesticularTuesday, which I’m afraid, leads me to think that #BoobWednesday is less about increasing awareness of cancer and more about those with an interest in the female form, but so what, its still spreading the word.

Twitter is a great tool, use it for meeting people, marketing your business or generating a buzz over something, obviously pictures of womens chests generates more buzz than pictures of men in pants. But does it matter? We’re talking about it, I’ve written my first proper blog entry, and thousands of people around the globe are thinking about Cancer, even for a split second, and I don’t think that can be a bad thing.

So, in answer to my first question, yes, cancer does matter, so does spreading awareness and making sure we don’t forget about it or the suffering it can cause, and if something gets us talking, whatever it is, well fantastic.

So strip down to your underwear, take a photo, change your avatar and support #TesticularTuesday or #BoobWednesday and lets #KickCancer.

Does Cancer Matter??

OK, so it’s a controversial title for one of my first blog entries but now I might have your attention it’s an interesting topic, I think.If you’re on twitter then you will be aware of the various hashtags used for cancer, two of the main ones I see are #BoobWednesday and #KickCancer.These are primarily used by women to promote awareness of breast cancer, however I see very little from men on the subject.Why is that?Is it just that we (men) don’t think about it, know all we need to or just want bury our head in the sand?

Last week, after a bit of banter with @1candycupcake and @advancedtaxis I proposed we had a male version #BoobWednesday and called it #TesticularTuesday, with the aim of promoting awareness of testicular cancer.There were two reasons I considered this:

·to promote awareness of testicular cancer, having seen 2 friends go through it it’s one of the only forms of cancer I have had close experience of; and

·to see whether we could generate as much interest for #TesticularTuesday as we see for #BoobWednesday

So, what happened?

Well today I uploaded a new avatar using the #BoobWednesday approach of a photo of me in underwear.As soon as I posted it I wondered if anyone would want to see mens pants, all different shapes and sizesappearing on their twitter feed, and this is where the inspiration for this post came from, and ultimately the question:

Do we really care about cancer, or is #BoobWednesday and now #TesticularTuesday just an excuse for people to show off their bodies, or look at pictures of other bodies.Women tend to gain new followers when they change their avatar for #BoobWednesday, and certainly plenty of retweets.I on the other hand saw very few retweets or new followers as a result of #TesticularTuesday, which I’m afraid, leads me to think that #BoobWednesday is less about increasing awareness of cancer and more about those with an interest in the female form .

After nearly 12 hours (and maybe Twitter will get busy tonight) I have seen the following trending for #TesticularTuesday:

·A reach of 1,927 people, via 13 tweets (Just 13!!)

·5 retweets

Personally, I think this is pretty poor that 2 men on Twitter changed their avatars or posted photos in an attempt to start some discussion around testicular cancer. We’ll see what the stats are like for #BoobWednesday tomorrow

Twitter is a great tool, use it for meeting people, marketing your business or generating a buzz over something, obviously pictures of womens chests generates more buzz than pictures of men in pants.But does it matter? We’re talking about it, I’ve written my first proper blog entry, and thousands of people around the globe are thinking about Cancer, even for a split second, and I don’t think that can be a bad thing.

So, in answer to my first question, YES, cancer does matter, so does spreading awareness and making sure we don’t forget about it or the suffering it can cause, and if something gets us talking, whatever it is, well fantastic.

So strip down to your underwear, take a photo, change your avatar and support #TesticularTuesday or #BoobWednesday and lets #KickCancer/

One thought on “Does Cancer Matter To Twitter Users?”

  1. I should add that @A_J_R1L3Y was the only other person to post a suitable #TesticularTuesday picture, two is a poor show given a reach of nearly 2000.

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