@marcela's introductory guide to health twitterverse
Twitter is what you make of it. Some people may use it to talk about celebrity gossip and favorite TV shows while others may use it to follow politics and current events. You can easily use it to further your career and establish yourself in the healthcare community online, but it will take effort on your part. Here is a short guide:
1) Decide what your tweeting strategy will be If your twitter feed is public, then your tweets will be archived by the Library of Congress so be mindful on how you want to present yourself. If you want your tweets to have visibility beyond just who is following you, then add hashtags to your tweet (Ex. #hitsm for Health IT social media) . A list of healthcare hashtags is at http://www.foxepractice.com/healthcare-hashtags/ You can broadcast your own messages, link to articles you read or simply retweet other people.
2) Follow others Unlike LinkedIn, you are not expected to know the people or institutions you follow and there is no requirement that they follow you back. A strategy may be to start by adding your institution and colleagues and then progressively add other people you meet or would like to know better. Twitter also helps by making recommendations of feeds you might be interested in based on the people you are already following. Examples:
3) Follow lists An easy way to separate the different types of people you follow are by creating lists so you can read all your news feeds together and all your personal feeds together, etc. You can also follow other people's lists which makes it easier if you're new to twitter. Examples
4)Follow hash tags (Ex. #hcsm) If you are interested in specific topics, it may be easier to use hashtags to search for related posts. For example #mhsm relates to mental health. You can type #mhsm in the search window at the top of your screen. You can save your searches if it's a topic you follow often. You can look at trending topics on the side of your screen to see what other people are talking about on twitter. To get an idea of the range of healthcare topics look at: http://www.foxepractice.com/healthcare-hashtags/
5) Participate in tweet chats Twitter chats are a great way to make your twitter experience more interactive and connect with others. There is an online calendar where you can see the times and days for the different tweet chats at http://www.foxepractice.com/healthcare-hashtags/tweet-chats/. The easiest way to participate is to go to tweetchat.com and type in the hashtag of the tweet chat to automatically display what other people in the chat are saying. It automatically adds the hashtag for what you want to contribute to the chat. Typically there will be a topic with a moderator putting forth discussion questions to respond. Examples:
#hcsm stands for Healthcare social media and is one of the biggest and liveliest chats, focusing on how doctors and patients use social media. It meets at 6PM PST Sunday evenings.
#hitsm stands for health IT social media and is more tech focused. It meets Friday mornings at 9 AM PST.
#MDchat for doctor-related issues and #mhsm for mental health issues both meet Tuesdays at 6 pm PST.
#meded for med student/med school issues and #RNchat for nursing issues both meet Thursdays at 6 pm PST.