PAFP Big 3: Primary Care & Social Media

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PRIMARY CARE& SOCIAL MEDIA

A MEMBER’S GUIDE TO JOINING THE CONVERSATION

“I’m a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they’re interested in.”

“Computers themselves, and software yet to be developed, will revolutionize the way we learn.”

“I signed aboard this ship to practice medicine, not to have my atoms scattered back and forth across space by this gadget.”

- Bill Gates

- Steve Jobs

- Dr. Leonard McCoyStar Trek, Original Series

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface 3What is Social Media? 4Facebook 7Linkedin 15Twitter 25Social Media Workflow 41Community Support 42Congrats 43

This is an open publication written and produced by the PAFP Communications Department.

Originally published by Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians, July 13th, 2012.

Editor in Chief: Michael Zigmund

Managing Editor / Managerof Media and PR: Bryan Peach

Graphic Designer & Social Media Specialist: Tim McKenna

Media Consultant: Dr. Mike Sevillawww.familymedicinerocks.com@drmikesevilla

All of the videos within are solely the opinions of their producers, parents, and affliates and are not endorsed by the PAFP.

PAFP BIG 3, the logo, and other trademarks are trademarks of Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians and Foundation and may not be used without permission.

Visit Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians online at www.pafp.com.

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It seems like 2012 has been the year that social media has taken firm root in our minds. With Facebook going public, the rise of Pinterest, and the importance of smartphones, we are inundated every day with information overload from worthy news sources, friends and family, and even desperate marketers finding any way they can get you to see their product, service, or quackery.

Primary care physicians can utilize social media tools to work to their advantage. The average patient has access to the Internet now more then ever with smartphones, tablets, and traditional computers. With that access comes the opportunity to learn vast amounts of knowledge at the touch of a button and the ability to connect with medical professionals locally and nationally. It also gives patients more control of their health care decisions. This is very exciting, but can also be very daunting.

The goal of this guide is give you - the family physician - the knowledge and information on how to start, manage, and grow your social media efforts in a way that makes meaningful connections with patients, the public and your constituents. This guide also gives you insight into how the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians coordinates and creates content that we share with you on daily basis. We firmly believe that our chapter’s communication efforts make us a well-connected community of physicians, disseminating knowledge, sharing trending stories, and ultimately building toward the Patient-Centered Medical Home model that represents the future of primary care.

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Social media, defined.

Tim’s Answer

Merriam Webster Dictionary Defintion

About.com Defintion

Digital word of mouth.

Forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).

Social media is a type of online media that expedites conversation as opposed to traditional media, which delivers content but doesn’t allow readers/viewers/listeners to participate in the creation or development of the content.

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So ... What is social media?Think of social media as a ballroom at a conference. It’s filled with groups of people talking to one another. Some of them are motioning excitedly, others are sipping drinks, but they’re all conveying something meaningful in a relaxed environment.

A person in one group - let’s call them Frank - may suddenly overhear what someone else in another group is talking about and think “Whoa, that’s cool!” or “Well, I don’t agree with you,” or maybe, “Wow, I have to tell my friends!” Then they saunter back over to their group and tell their pals.

Now, a few things can happen. The separate groups could converge, listen to each other, and share conversation points and information. Maybe Frank simply stands between both groups, actively listening to both conversations and giving input to each when he feels he can provide something to the discourse. Maybe Frank hears something said by a person from yet another group outside of his two social circles ... and the cycle continues.

At the end of the day, each person has met new friends and peers, learned a lot of great information, and participated in some meaningful, fun, opinionated, and expert conversation. Each person involved in the conversation has a had a few people share their thoughts with others, making

them look like a respected expert in their particular topic of conversation.

Thats pretty social, right? Now imagine that ballroom is the Internet. Suddenly, it becomes daunting - but really, it isn’t. Just think of the ballroom at conference and it becomes manageable.

When you talk with people, you get ideas. Invariably, you research those ideas and find out who else might have similair ideas. As humans, we like to share ideas and get recognition for them. In turn, we like to recognize good ideas and say, “Man! That’s a good idea! I’m glad I wasn’t the only one thinking of it!”

Once we have an idea, we usually like it to take a tangible form. We like to create something with it. Our ideas can change habits, practices, viewpoints, production modes, “the system,” and the WORLD!

And it all starts with conversation...

Your basic social media tools represented as conferece analogs:

LinkedIn - Your guest speaker’s bioFacebook - Your conference programTwitter - Your business card

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I have to think of myself as a digital person in a big digital ballroom having digital conversations?

Getting started with social media is tough. It’s a pain to understand, it’s just as hard to manage.

The analogy is apropos. Think of your conversations through social media like you’re a digital person. All the same ettiquete and manners apply, just like in a polite society. And just like any scholarly debate, people don’t take anything as a personal attack.

The point of social media is to connect in a meaningful way with an audience so that you can take something away from the conversation and use it in your daily life, be it a news item, a photo, a fun discussion or a question.

Social media may look tough and daunting at first, but in the next couple of chapters, you’ll get the hang of it.

Soon you will be using services like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter like a pro.

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FACEBOOKThe 800-pound gorilla in the room.

Facebook is an online community of individuals. Simple.

Facebook is like real life: You can be very guarded, or you can share too much!

In your profile, you don’t have to fill out all of the fields. Good things to leave off of your profile include your home address and your personal phone number (unless it’s tied to business and you want people to know it). Anyone who is friends with you will be able to see your information.

Facebook comes with another privacy setting as well:

• Public - Anyone can see and read anything you post and what your friends post to you. Anyone can read your profile.

• Friends - Only your friends can see, read and post to your page. Only your friends can read you profile.

When you have an account with Facebook, you have a basic profile you fill out. You can upload some photos, and one will be your primary photo by which people recognize you. Once you fill out the basic information, you can begin to dive in, connecting with friends and colleagues. Here are a few other things you do can on Facebook.

• “Like” a company or a service.• Connect with friends and view their personal pages.• Post photos and video of stuff you do.• Comment on news articles.• See endless photos of cats.• Spy on your kids.

What is it?

What does it do?

What about privacy?

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FACEBOOK & HEALTH CAREOne of the best ways to connect with patients and peers.All joking aside, Facebook is a great tool to connect with your constituents, your peers, your patients, and with organizations and news outlets that you find valuable. When connected with a large pool of patients, you can share with them tips for healthy summer activities, sports injury hazards, best practices for beating the flu, and any news about your practice you would like to share.

When you connect with someone on Facebook, you can send private messages to an individual (very much like the early days of email), or you can make a post which is public for all your friends to see.

Another reason Facebook is a good starting point for social media is because there are over 800 million users! Chances are, 90 percent of your friends and colleagues have a Facebook account. This is great, because you can immediately start connecting with people you know.

What’s more, many companies and organizations use Facebook to humanize their brands. No more do consumers want a faceless company telling them they should buy their products. Companies and services have business accounts which differ slightly from personal accounts. If you really like a certain company, you can go to their page and hit the “Like” button. Then you’ll start getting periodic updates from that company concerning their products or ventures. If you follow a certain medical organization, (like, say, the PAFP), you can like that organization receive periodic news updates, goings-on, and questions or polls on which we’d like feedback.

Communication is key. You can comment and ask questions, agree or disagree, love and share a post that. This is where the power of Facebook comes into play. Let us know what you think! Others might agree with you and Like your comment!

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Setting up your accountThis video, produced by SiteSell, is an excellent demo of how to setup your account and get rolling on Facebook. Once you set up your basic profile, you’ll be asked to put a “Timeline” on your page. Timeline is a way for Facebook to show you your wall posts in a way that resembles ... well, a timeline. It makes viewing content actually easier to scan. Almost all businesses have a Timeline-based Facebook page, and chances are good that most of your friends will too. You might as well adopt it now, because Facebook will eventually require that everyone’s profile page uses the Timeline feature. Personally, we like it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo0B0mzp6f4&feature=plcp

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What people will see when they come to your page

Sample Facebook page(Actually, our social media specialist’s page. He likes Godzilla).

See the middle blue line? That’s the Timeline. The white boxes off to the right and left are posts that the user has made and new friends the user has connected with.

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This is your profile photo. You can set any of your photos as your profile photo. This user just made a graphic for his.

Timeline lets you have what’s called a “Cover Photo,” kind of like a cover for a magazine. Pick anything you want and you can resize the photo when it’s uploaded.

Easily scan your posts by month and year by clicking on dates. This is a cool Timeline feature.

This is the typical top section of your page. When your friends visit your profile, this is what they’ll see. Below your name you see sections labeled “About,” “Friends,” “Photos,” “Maps,” and “Likes.” The About section is the profile you filled out when you setup your account. Friends are people you are friends with, and photos are any photos you post, and Maps lets people know where you have been if you choose to make that information public. Finally, Likes are companies and organizations you like and follow.

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These are “posts.” They are public to all of the user’s friends. The user can talk about what’s on their mind, share a newsworthy article and have conversations with friends.

This covers the front page! This is what everyone else sees!

The next page we’ll you show you is the back page, or where you go when you log in.

And of course, advertisements go here. Luckily, you can close ads by clicking the “x” button. Since Facebook went public, who knows what the future will bring with ads.

Hooray! Friends! When you are friends with someone, you can check out their list of friends. Maybe you know somone in common. Remember, everyone has different privacy settings, so you may or may not be able to see everyone’s full profile.

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When you log in to Facebook, you will come here first, this is your “backend.” Instead of your Timeline, you will see all your friends’ posts. You can see all the people you’re friends with, companies you like and what they have posted. Everything is timestamped so you can see how old the posts are.

There are the familiar ads on the right hand side, and there’s also a box suggesting people you might know! Pretty easy!

On the lefthand side, it looks a little different. You will see links to events, private messages, your news feed and maybe some groups you have joined

(groups are like business pages, but you have to be invited to join). You can join some applications (apps) and games for free, but in our experience, they tend to junk your profile. Our suggestion? If you want to play video games, break out the Nintendo or Xbox 360 instead of using Facebook.

So what’s the difference?

To see what your friends will see, just click on your name. To see your backend, just click home.

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FACEBOOKThe verdict.Obviously, we feel quite passionate about Facebook. It’s a great tool for communicating and connecting with people.

The operative word there is “people.” You have to be a real person to run Facebook.

Beyond connecting with valued friends and trusted organizations, Facebook can be a great jumping point for news stories.

At PAFP, we use our Facebook page as a resource for you! We constantly post news items and pose questions to get some conversation going.

We want to be a digital network of constituents and keep you informed about the latest things the organization is doing and what our other members are doing as well.

Log on to Facebook and Like us to get a daily news feed of all the issues important in primary care.

The PAFP’s Graphic Design and Social Media Specialist, Tim McKenna, will be more than happy to add you to his friends list and provide further tips on how to make you Facebook experience and workflow even better, so you save valuable time to help patients, or look at cat photos on Google. Whichever comes first. Click here to visit his Facebook profile page!

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LINKEDINI am a professional.

LinkedIn is a professional social networking site meant to mimic traditional business networking. It’s a bit strict, a bit more involved, and it offers a lot of great tools. LinkedIn differs from Facebook and Twitter in myriad ways.

LinkedIn is Facebook with a suit and tie, ready for the job interview. It mirrors Facebook in that you manage your profile, but its much more information-dense, you’re allowed just one photo (a headshot), and you don’t have “friends,” but “connections” with people you know somehow. Reputation is very important on LinkedIn.

It has been called the business version of Facebook, but it is really meant for professionals from within a particular field or across a diverse industry to connect and build practical working relationships. You can find a job on LinkedIn, you can post thoughts like you do on Facebook and Twitter, and you can join like-minded groups for discussions about various topics. LinkedIn is also good to use for professional contact with peers you’d rather not “friend” on Facebook. The power of LinkedIn comes from your profile, which can be lengthy. The more education, the more employers, the more organizations you are a part of, the more easily you’ll become connected to people in your field.

What is it? So it’s for business?

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LINKEDIN & HEALTH

LinkedIn is poised to grow. While Facebook is wide open and allows you to connect with virtually anyone you come in contact with, LinkedIn helps to connect you with people already know professionally.

While Facebook has groups, LinkedIn takes the concept several steps further. There are more than 1,500 medical groups on LinkedIn, on topics like oncology research, primary care, and pediatric nursing. Groups allow for a welcome space to connect with other physicians and health care professionals in a clean environment without the distractions like chat functionality, games, and quizzes that you might find on Facebook. A LinkedIn profile is enhanced by its limitations. It’s moderated for content, so spammers are definitely minimized compared to other social media avenues. Some people feel like keeping their professional and personal lives seperate, and LinkedIn caters to the professional.

LinkedIn features a great news filter that aggregates articles about a particular topic or industry. These news sources include Forbes Magazine, CNN, FierceHealthcare, the New England Journal of Medicine, and many others.

Out of all the current social media platforms, LinkedIn is the network that focuses most on you as a physician professional. It will allow you to find connections with people who work in similiar disciplines, or in tangential fields such as insurance, pharmacuticals, lobbying and research.

Less focused on the patient and more focused on the physician, LinkedIn offers more accurate filtering of potential connections. You can also take advantage of a paid service to see who might be viewing your profile.

Another great bonus? You can tie your Twitter account to your LinkedIn profile and share your tweets with your professional network.

An authoritative way to connect with your peers.

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Setting up your accountThis video by Lynda.com first gives you the difference between the free LinkedIn account versus the paid account.

This step-by-step video is quite easy to follow and will explain how to get your basic profile up and running.

Once you’re established, you can always add more information to your profile, such as your employment and education history, past job descriptions, and areas of expertise.

http://www.lynda.com/home/Player.aspx?lpk4=80363&playChapter=False

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What you will see when you log in

View of a well-connected, active LinkedIn Member

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Your photo appears next to the “Share an update” box. An update is just like a post on Facebook, shared only with your connections. You can post whatever you want here, but typically, people like to share industry news or something job-related.

LinkedIn works for you. Based off of your email address you provide and your profile (education, employers, and current connections) LinkedIn will scour its user base and find people you may or may not know, but have similair connections to. Maybe you went to the same school, had the same employer, or both have a mutual connection. You can click on their name to bring up their profile and find out what you have in common and connect with them.

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Your menu bar at the top of the page is extremely user-friendly. “Home” takes you back to what you see when you first log in. “Profile” will drop down and let you edit your own profile - and you can also view it as how everyone else will see it. “Contacts” is like an address book. If you join a group (which we encourage) you can click on “Groups” to see which you have joined and quickly jump to any of your groups’ pages. “Inbox” is similair to email - this is where private messages come in. “Companies” are like groups, but instead of being an active member, you simply follow their news (similiar to Facebook). The “News” tab aggregates news articles from great sources in different industries. A top news headline also shows up right below your update box. Finally, the “More” button has a drop-down menu containing answers and helpful tips.

This is a relatively standard search bar, but if you click on the “People” button next to it, a drop-down menu will appear that will allow you to narrow your search to several categories. you’ll find yourself using this powerful feature to locate people and groups.

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Below the “Top Headlines,” you will see a lot of headshots. LinkedIn will inform you of when your connections make new connections of their own. This activity will constitute 90 percent of your updates. The reason for this is because LinkedIn assumes you want to make new connections yourself. If a connection of yours makes a connection with someone with whom you have no affiliation, your colleague can introduce you. It’s easy, painless and quick to connect with people outside your normal industry circle.

Any update you write will also show in this area, as will your tweets if you decide to connect your Twitter feed to your LinkedIn account.

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On the right side of your login screen, you will see the “People You May Know” box. These are people that LinkedIn discovered based on your profile, email address, and connections. The box always shows just three people, but you can click on “See more” to access a lengthy list of possible connections. You’ll typically see see how many connections you have in common with each particular individual. Have you ever heard of the party game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”? Yeah, it’s kind of like that.

As always, the advertising machine is alive and well on Linkedin as well.

As a free basic member, you can see the last five people who viewed your profile and how many times you have shown up in a people search. LinkedIn is the only social media platform to offer this significant tool. Anytime you view another person’s profile, they can see that you looked into them. Employers and interviewers will check LinkedIn accounts frequently if you are a canidate for a job.

“Your LinkedIn Network” comprises both your connections and potential connections.

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Last, but not least, “Jobs You May Be Interested In.” LinkedIn is an ideal platform to find a professional career. Based on your position, your education and connections, LinkedIn will scour jobs that companies post on their pages and filter any relevant job openings. The network also offers a job hunting feature that mimics other sites such as monster.com and indeed.com

Groups are where LinkedIn particularly shines. Go to the search bar and choose Groups, then type in a keyword or two. Any group that uses those words in its description will populate the search results. Click on a group that interests you and you will be taken to its page.

Finding groups to join.

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This is the PAFP Group on LinkedIn. Groups allow you to join ongoing discussions or start a new discussion. You can click on each blue article heading to open up the conversation and see how it started and where it’s headed. You can also see who else joined the group and how influential the group is. Groups work best as a constituency conversation platform.

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Connecting with people.

Step 1: Find someone you know and would like to connect with.

Connecting with others requires a few steps, but once connected, you have access to view their profile in its entirety and communicate with them through a variety of ways. You can also browse their connections and have them introduce you to others, or have them recommend friends. Here is how you would connect with someone.

Jack is an acquaintance of Tim, our Graphic Design and Social Media Specialist. Tim looked Jack up in the People search. Apparently, Tim and Jack already have two people that share a connection.Tim simply clicked Jack’s name to view his profile.

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Step 2: View their profile.

Tim instantly knew this is the Jack he’s looking for, but Tim didn’t know that Jack went to Syracuse University. Since Tim already knew him well, he clicked on the “Connect” button to add Jack to his network of industry professionals.

If Tim didn’t know Jack, he would spend some time looking at Jack’s profile and learning where he worked, what he did, perhaps where he went to school.

If Tim wanted to connect with Jack - and Tim shared a connection with one of Jack’s friends - Tim would simply click “Get introduction through a connection” and fill out the appropriate information.

Sending an “InMail” is just like an email, except it only works between profiles. An InMail would go to Jack’s inbox.

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Step 3: Write your message and tell LinkedIn how you know this person.

When Tim clicked the yellow Connect button, a screen appeared asking him to invite Jack to his network.

First, Tim had to tell LinkedIn how he knows Jack. Tim has never worked with Jack - he met Jack as a student - so “Colleague” wouldn’t work, nor did Tim and Jack attend the same

school. They never hired each other to do work, nor can Tim really call Jack a “Friend.”

Tim chose “Other,” and a prompt appeared for Tim to insert Jack’s email address. This is a security feature. You’ll need to know the email address of someone you want to connect with.

If Tim really didn’t know Jack at all and chose the “Other” option, LinkedIn would not let him connect.

Linkedin provides a default message to connect with someone, but you can change it to be much more personal.

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Step 4: Send the connection request.

Tim does have Jack’s email address, or at least Jack’s company’s email address. When Tim sent this connection request, Jack received an email from Linkedin with Tim’s message and asking Jack if he wants to connect with Tim.

Jack may remember Tim and add him to his network of professionals - but what if he didn’t remember? When you don’t receive a connection with someone you sent a request to, it usually means one of two things: Either they haven’t been online in a while and maybe have accidently deleted the email, or they

didn’t connect with you for some reason. Thankfully, this rarely happens. Most people you want to connect with will approve your request because of the professional nature of the LinkedIn service - a social medium built on the idea that more associations are positive in the business world.

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Read news articles based on your interests.

LinkedIn is constantly looking at your profile, using that information to find relevant jobs, groups and news articles that matter to you. It has a pretty nice filtering system. When you click “See all Top Headlines for You” on your home page, you’ll be taken to a page populated

with the latest news articles. You can search for and filter by industry. Maximize the impact of this handy current events resource - get on Twitter and exchange some of this worthwhile content with your peers!

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LINKEDINThe verdict.

LinkedIn has some powerful features that you’ll find on no other network. Its purpose is to connect working professionals together, so many people like to make their Facebook account a personal social media tool while using their LinkedIn account as their public, professional face. Some people use both in a professional capacity, but take advantage of LinkedIn’s discernment and selectiveness when they want to avoid the distractions of many of Facebook’s features and add-ons.

LinkedIn will allow primary care physicians to connect with other constituents - those who may not work in family medicine, but are employed under the wider umbrella of health care. Medical equipment manufacturers, pharmaceutical representatives, and disposal companies are just some of the individuals the business side of family medicine often encounters.

Medical students and job seekers can particularly benefit from LinkedIn. Not only can they join groups and talk with working physicians to ask questions or get advice, but some physicians may have openings in their practices. LinkedIn is a phenomenal tool for those looking for employment, and it allows employers to post jobs and pool from a select group of candidates. A LinkedIn account acts as a living résumé, so students who utilize this platform early on can make great connections with physicians who can be guides and mentors as they start their careers.

For the seasoned physician, LinkedIn provides a community of familiairity between other doctors. Physicians from all across the country can connect and converse with other, sharing ideas and information in the process.

The PAFP’s LinkedIn group is in its infancy, but we have plans for its growth. We want to see more members engaged in healthy dialogue and taking advantage of our polls so we can determine how to best be of service. Even more than that, we want our family physicians to make lasting, meaningful connections with one another. We’re all in this together, and we can make a much bigger impact on the future of health care if we work as a unit!

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TWITTERThe mobile mouthpiece.

Short message conversations going on all at once. Real-time commentary on news, current events, media, including photos and videos, all going on right now!

Twitter was designed to be very mobile. You can easily access Twitter on your smartphone. In fact, many smartphones already have the Twitter application included from the get-go so you can start tweeting automatically.

Twitter lets you share tweets instantly. So think of it as having an in-person conversation with several people - the conversation flows naturally.

The key difference between Twitter and person-to-person communication? The people you’re talking to are literally all over the world, so news and ideas travel at the speed of a button press!

What is it?

What does it do?

So it’s mobile?

Twitter lets you send short messages (only 140 characters long), called “tweets,” to people who “follow” you. You can follow people, companies, news organizations, and even a bunch of fictious people. You can follow and reply to news events and your friends live.

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TWITTER & HEALTHCAREOne of the fastest ways to connect with peersTwitter is a technology that rewards and thrives on instant gratification. In the field of health care and medicine, family physicians are by far the most active Twitter users (or “tweeters”). Family physicians are increasingly using Twitter to discuss news, highlight innovations and struggles, and share helpful information across great distances. The high adoption rate of Twitter by family doctors is creating a base of tech-savvy, well-informed patients and physicians.

Using Twitter to connect with your peers is a great way to maintain professional contact without having to do much at all. Unlike Twitter, conferences and events aren’t happening 24 hours a day and seven days a week from the comfort of your own home or office. Twitter makes it easy for you to jump into and contribute to a conversation, listen to an adjacent conversation, or get to know other people in a way that was absolutely unheard of merely years ago. Letting conversation flow naturally is part of Twitter’s beauty - not all tweets have to be “buttoned-up professional,” and if you’d like to comment on what a beautiful day it is, or how much you dislike leftover pad thai, go for it!

In addition, using Twitter to connect with your patients has a lot of potential - but if you don’t feel comfortable with it, there’s no reason to extend the physician-patient relationship beyond the exam room. Many organizations and practices use Twitter as an outlet for general news and information. Perhaps your staff is participating in a charity relay, or maybe there’s a flu outbreak in your area. These are great ways to use Twitter without disrupting anbody’s comfort level or compromising anyone’s privacy. Twitter gives you that extra avenue of communication that wasn’t around before, but it doesn’t need to be an individual, one-to-one communication tool.

Finally, Twitter can inspire change virally - and unlike that pesky influenza, spreading like a virus can be a great thing. News organizations all maintain Twitter accounts and disseminate news throughout the day. Because of Twitter, you, yourself are a news source! As you gain followers and get to know other influencers, you will become recognized as a leader in your particular area of expertise.

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Setting up your accountThis video by LessonsUnder5 gives a pretty good overview of how to set up your own personal Twitter account and the basics of posting a tweet and following others. (Be sure to turn the volume down, because she speaks very close to the microphone.)

Like Facebook, you will fill out a short profile (shorter then Facebook’s) and be asked to upload a photo. By default, you will have a picture of an egg (to go with its bird theme). We highly recommend a photo that is personalized. At PAFP, we made our logo into the organization’s icon, but individuals generally use headshots. A photo lends more credibility.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcZfWi8jh4A&feature=plcp

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What you’ll see when you log in

PAFP Twitter “newsfeed”

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This box contains your profile info, how many tweets you’ve posted, how many people you are following, and how many people are following you. On Twitter, companies and individuals all have equal ground. You can’t pay for a better Twitter account - all users are gained through quality content.

This is the all-important newsfeed. Tweets are composed of 140 characters (not words). Links are typically shortened to 20 characters so they can fit better within the tweet’s space restriction. Followers can click on your links - you can send them to articles, blogs, videos, or anything else you might find on the Internet!

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Twitter has a little bit of lingo associated with it, but it’s nothing complicated. You’ll pick up on it very quickly, and once you do it will help you have better conversations.

Your Twitter user name begins with the “@” symbol. Your unique user name is typically referred to as your “handle” or “address.”

When people talk about you in a tweet and use your handle, it will show up in blue for everyone to see. Others can click on to view your profile and all your posts. When people talk to or about you on Twitter, it’s called a “mention.” You’ll be alerted to the fact that your name has been mentioned in a tweet on Twitter (by clicking the “@ Connect” button at the top of the screen) or even through email if you choose. A “mention” is more or less free publicity - it means others are talking about you or sharing one of your tweets with all of their followers.

When someone shares your exact tweet, or when you want to share someone else’s tweet to your followers, it’s called “retweeting.” You can tell when something is retweeted because you will always see “RT” (the abbreviation for “retweet”) somewhere in the tweet (typically at the beginning to make a clear indication).

When someone retweets something and changes one or two words in the original message, that’s called a “modified tweet.” Just like retweets (RT), you’ll see a “MT” (short for “modified tweet”) somewhere in the tweet (again, usually at the beginning).

Last, but very important, are “hashtags.” They have the “#” symbol in front of them and they show up blue for people to click on. Hashtags indicate topics that many people may be discussing at once. For example, if someone wants to tweet about the Patient-Centered Medical Home, they could add “#PCMH” in their posts. Twitter grabs every tweet labeled with “#PCMH,” and when you click on the hashtag link, it will pull up every tweet associated with “#PCMH.” This makes it a great way to find out what people are saying about a certain topic. If you are ever unsure what a hastag is referring to, just ask the person who used it so they can tell you.

Jargon (“oh great, more nerd lingo”)

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No worries, here’s a quick reference for you.

Tweet: A short message no bigger then 140 characters.

Handle (or address or user name): Your Twitter name that has the “@” symbol in front

Retweet (RT): Your exact message, shared by one of your followers to their followers.

Modified Tweet (MT): Your message slightly changed by one of your followers to their followers.

Hashtag (begins with a “#”): Topics that are searchable. Usually well-defined. People using a hashtag can tell you what they are, or you can go to tagdef.com and find out what a certain tag means.

If you like, dislike, love, hate, question, or want contribute to a tweet, you “reply.” To reply to a tweet, hover over the tweet and click the “Reply” button. A message box containing the Twitter handle of the person you’re replying to will pop up.

After you reply, your tweet will show up on that person’s newsfeed as a “mention.” All mentions can be found by clicking the “@ Connect” button at the top of the screen. A volley of tweets can go back and forth indefinitely, just like a real conversation!


Great, my brain hurts...

So how does the conversation work?

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The hashtag “#Ohio” refers to any and all news that affects the state of Ohio. It could be used to refer to any topic happening in Ohio - politics, medicine, music ... anything. Another hashtag might be “#Obama,” for all tweets that mention President Obama. If you click on these hashtag links, your newsfeed will populate with every tweet that used that same hashtag.

This short bit of blue text looks like a jumbled mess. What is it? It’s a web address (URL), and if you click it, it will take you a particular site. Twitter uses a service that shortens web addresses so that you can still write your tweet - because let’s face it, some web addresses are long!

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This is a reply. We thanked @BernieMD31 for retweeting our message. It’s nice to be courteous to those who are sharing your message with their followers on Twitter - so don’t be afraid to let them know you appreciate it!

@theDoxNext tweeted about a topic that she discovered from @PAFPandF and @ehrwatch. She also used the #HealthIT hashtag, which is used for topics that have to do with health information technology. Her followers saw this tweet and saw that she, @PAFPandF and @ehrwatch were all talking about the same thing. The effect? If her followers aren’t already following us, they might discover us through this tweet! This is a complicated way of showing what is, in essence, word-of-mouth information. That’s the best kind of marketing there is.

This is a retweet. @HefnerEyecare shared one of our tweets with her followers.

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TWITTERThe verdictThe upside to Twitter is that you can instantly connect with and talk to millions of people, both locally and globally. This rapid form of communication has evolved marketing as we know today (you’ve probably noticed you can’t go anywhere without someone telling you to “follow us on Twitter!”).

There are 600 million active Twitter accounts. More tweets are fired off everyday than there are bacteria living on your epidermis (a disgustingly large amount).

One potential downside to Twitter is that your thoughts are limited to 140 characters - but we think that’s a positive, as it prompts messaging efficiency. Another downside: It does take a commited effort to manage and maintain your account. Many people start off strong, then get disinterested and forget about their accounts.

The best way to combat this is to come up with a plan. Maybe at first you only start with two tweets a day - one in the morning, one in the afternoon. Maybe one of your daily tweets is about primary care, medicine or health, and you reserve the other for a light personal observation. For example, you could tweet about staying safe in the summer sun when you get into the office; later in the evening, you might tweet a goodnight message to your followers.

Having a solid plan of what you want to tweet about, how often, and when you will do so will empower your social media efforts by helping you maintain a manageable, sustainable workflow.

If you want others to follow you on Twitter, make it worth their time. Thank them for retweets, be personable, and above all, be you. Not only will you gain loyal followers (and perhaps build lasting friendships), but you’ll develop your knowledge base and critical thinking skills when you connect to physicians and health care workers around the U.S. and the world.

Join us on Twitter (@PAFPandF) and don’t be afraid to ask us questions on how to do something or learn about a particular subject. Take solace in the fact that you will have the help of many enthuiastic people! The health care and social media (#hcsm) crowd on Twitter is kind, welcoming and energetic!

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SOCIAL MEDIA WORKFLOW

How do I manage all that?

We are well aware that your hectic day-to-day schedule is not always going to be conducive to managing a social media presence and spending a lot of time online.

Like we discussed in the chapter on Twitter, having a solid vision for what what you’d like to tweet, post, and update will save you a lot of time and frustration in the future. We want you to be excited to pursue a social media footprint, because then it won’t feel like a chore.

That said, consistency is key if you want your online activity to have an impact. Stick to your plan, and be mindful of what works for you. Maybe you’ll decide you prefer Facebook to LinkedIn, or perhaps you decide to post all your tweets to both your Facebook and Linkedin accounts so that all your friends, followers and connections are updated at once.

There are some tools to manage all of your social media channels from a single window on your computer. Here is a brief breakdown:

Hootsuite: Lets you see manage your Facebook and Twitter accounts from one space. Lets you schedule posts far in advance. This service costs a small fee.www.hootsuite.com

Tweetdeck: Similar to Hootsuite, but depending on what version you have, you can also manage your Linkedin account too. This service is free. www.tweetdeck.com

Bottlenose: This also combines your social media services. Go to www.bottlenose.com, register your accounts, and view all social media outlets from any computer or device connected to the Internet. this service is free.www.bottlenose.com

These services are so similar that your personal preference and intuition - not each indivudual service’s features - will be the determining factor in which you’ll use. We suggest you become familiar with of the social media outlets we’ve discussed (especially Facebook and Twitter, since Linkedin has built-in social media support tools) before you use a management service. Each website has a video that explains how the service works.

Which service is better?

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COMMUNITY SUPPORTOkay, I’m using all these social media outlets now... What’s next?

Obviously, we would like for you to connect with us!

As a member of the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians, one of the many benefits you’ll recieve is support for your social media efforts. The PAFP’s Graphic Design and Social Media Specialist manages PAFP efforts across Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, and is constantly researching new ways to connect physicians with each other.

We are more then happy to be your personal social media help desk. Please let us know if you have questions or suggestions or need help!

Tim McKennaGraphic Design and Social Media Specialist Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians and Foundation

email: [email protected]: www.facebook.com/tim.mckenna.969twitter: @PAFPandFlinkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/timothy-f-mckenna/21/8a0/a30 (connect with me as a colleague at PAFP)

Our branded social media effort. whenever you see this logo attached to any PAFP material, you can be sure we will be discussing it on those three channels.

So what’s this logo?

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Documents

PAFP Big 3: Primary Care & Social Media