Have you ever heard someone remark, “Twitter doesn’t interest me – I don’t care what Justin Bieber had for breakfast,” or anything similar? Those individuals communicate in this manner because they are unable to distinguish between personal, official, and professional uses of Twitter or social media in general.
Use for personal purposes
On platforms like Facebook or Instagram, you may share photographs of your vacation with family and friends for personal use. If you’re curious about Justin Bieber’s breakfast, you may follow him on Instagram or Twitter to see what he has to share with the world (don’t worry, we won’t criticise you – it’s your decision).
Officially sanctioned
The Royal College of Nursing Twitter account, for example: @theRCN, is an official usage of social media where a corporation or organisation promotes their brand and distributes information online.
Use in the Workplace
The way you utilise social media professionally depends on your area of expertise and interests. This type of social media interaction allows you to exchange information and engage with other people and organisations that share your interests.
I’ll name a few of the nurses and midwives who are using Twitter in this way further below, but first, I’d want to make a brief hard sell in response to the question you may already be asking: Twitter: What’s in it for nurses and midwives?
What’s in it for nurses and midwives on Twitter?
“Twitter is not a technological advancement. It’s a discussion. And it’s occurring whether you’re there or not.”
Charlene Li, who may be found on Twitter, is credited with this remark. Is it necessary for nurses and midwives to engage in dialogues about what we do, what we value, and who we are with one other, other health professionals, and/or the general public? To paraphrase Jane Caro (who may also be found on Twitter), social media gives nurses and midwives unrestricted access to public conversations for the first time in history. Empowering stuff.
Twitter connects you to over 270 million individuals who use it on a monthly basis. Every day, more than 500 million tweets are sent. There are a lot of discussions going on right now. Obviously, you won’t read every tweet or follow everyone, but within all of this noise, you’ll undoubtedly find people who share your interest in nursing, education, or research.
An Information Democracy
On Twitter, there aren’t many levels of hierarchy. You may be answering a query from a student nurse in Perth one minute and exchanging information with a nursing professor in London the next. The tone of Twitter is similar to that of nurse station banter: it’s work-related, yet courteous and generally amicable.
I guarantee you will learn four things in five minutes by reading this example:
1. How does obesity operate? 2. How does Twitter work during a healthcare conference?
3. How aggregation technologies may improve the value of Twitter material
4. How nurses can be professional, giving, sharp, and humorous at the same time.
If you have an educational session that you want to extend outside the walls of the workshop, Twitter can help you do so. I once ran a workshop with four people in attendance, but the workshop resources (mainly web links) were shared with tens of thousands of people via Twitter.
Twitter costs nothing yet it was able to make the information traditionally only available to my immediate audience available to thousands.
Engage in a Scheduled Twitter Discussion
“Twitter Chats” are scheduled Twitter chats that take place at a specific time and on a specific topic. The conversations are a fast-paced, entertaining way to learn about and participate in debates on topics of interest. To see what’s coming up in the next few days, check out this list of healthcare Tweet Chats. Over the following several weeks, return to the page a few times to see how the list grows.
Twitter is a microblogging site where each Tweet is limited to 140 characters or fewer. This implies that looking at each Tweet is similar to looking at a grid of dots. As a result, it’s a fun and rapid method to acquire and exchange knowledge. Perfect for the time-crunched (which is pretty much everyone, isn’t it?).
Nurses you should be following:
Debra Jackson | Lynore Geia | Tara Nipe | Sarah Stewart
Tweet about relevant things – use the platform for good, respect professional standards, and make Twitter into the resource many people could rely on.
The approachability and accessibility of social media mean people are more likely to search for support and advice from social media, as opposed to things like 111. You could save someone a scary phone call, or potentially a life.