#physiotalk pre-chat info: making social media work for you in 2014

How are you planning to use social media in 2014? To learn and share with others, for networking, engaging with patients, or for promoting your profession, service or business?

Do you know Twitter from Tumblr, TweetDeck from Hootlet or Hootsuite, or Dropbox from Google Drive or Evernote?! Have you got a LinkedIn profile?

There are so many different social media websites out there it can be difficult to make sense of what to use for what, and how to keep it simple so that it works for you. Our second #physiotalk tweet chat on Monday 6th January 8-9pm will build on our first chat in December to share ideas on how you can make social media work for you professionally in 2014.

As a starting point here are some of the ways physiotherapists, physiotherapy associates and physiotherapy students can use social media over the next year:

• Sharing information with other physiotherapists and healthcare professionals , for example through Twitter and SlideShare
• Networking with other healthcare professionals through Twitter and LinkedIn, and turning online contacts into ‘real world’ meetings and collaboration
• Getting involved in social movements to improve care for patients, such as NHS Change Day 3^rd March 3013
• Holding online discussions on clinical and educational topics with a range of professionals – through Twitter, LinkedIn  and other formats
• Listening to and engaging with patients and the general public to make improvements in services
• Using blogs and Twitter to promote your service or business to patients, the public and to other services
• Using Twitter to find out about the work and priorities of decision makers, for example local Clinical Commissioning Groups, and to engage with them to highlight to contribution of physiotherapy

Areas of discussion will include:

• Ways you plan to use social media in 2014
• What you’d like to do differently and any help you need to make social media work for you – and what help people can offer
• How to measure and demonstrate the impact of using social media

Pre-chat reading and preparation

• If you haven’t tried it already we’d really recommend trying TweetDeck for the #physiotalk discussions, it’s quick and free to register and much easier to keep track of discussions
• 10 things every healthcare professional should know about social media
• Recruiting talent for the NHS – use of LinkedIn for recruitment in the NHS
• Need a Digital Detox? 5 Free Apps to Simplify Your Life in 2014
• The Biggest Changes Coming to Social Media in 2014

This is a new project and comments, suggestions and offers of help are very welcome.