Monday at the Australian College of Mental Health Nurses (ACMHN) 39th International Mental Health Nursing Conference, we conducted a workshop on Engaging with Social Media. There were three workshop facilitators: Clare Butterfield from Canberra, Communications & Publications Officer (see @ACMHN on Twitter), Paul McNamara (me), Clinical Nurse Consultant from Cairns (see @meta4RN on Twitter) and, our special guest co-facilitator Emily Mignacca (see @emilymignacca on Twitter) graduating student nurse who commences as a RN specialising in mental health early in 2014.

Rather than use a PowerPoint or other traditional presentation method, I wrote the core content of the workshop as a series of Tweets. In real time as the hands-on part of the workshop was in action, we sent the Tweets out from the @ACMHN Twitter account. The Twitter feed on this page twubs.com/ACMHN2013 was projected onto a screen so workshop participants could see the @ACMHN tweets, their own tweets using the conference hashtag and, perhaps most importantly, the comments and interaction from other Twitter users who used #ACMHN2013. It was a successful strategy – I’ll certainly use it again for future workshops on using Twitter.

You are welcome to use all or part of A Twitter Workshop in Tweets below provided you abide by the Creative Commons Licence below. This licence lets others distribute, remix and build upon the work, but only if it is for non-commercial purposes, they credit the original creator and source – Paul McNamara (2013) A Twitter Workshop in Tweets http://meta4RN/tweets – and they license their derivative works under the same terms. You are also welcome to contact me to facilitate/co-facilitate your health care social media workshop.  My email is meta4RN [at symbol] gmail.com

1. Pre-workshop info/publicity

Engaging with Social Media – Clare Butterfield and Paul McNamara Monday 21st October 2013 12:30-2:30pm

Social media allows Collaboration and Partnerships in Mental Health Nursing to transcend time and place: time through collaborative, asynchronous communication; place by being connected to the world’s online clinical communities. This hands-on workshop aims to act as a launching-pad for those who want to turbo-charge the conference theme.

The workshop will be in two parts: The first, briefest part, will introduce four examples of professional use of social media, using Twitter as the primary example. This part of the workshop intends to show participants the value of engaging with social media.

The emphasis will be the second part of the workshop. This will be a hands-on session that will assist participants gain confidence in using Twitter. This part of the workshop intends to equip participants with skills in engaging with social media in a professional capacity. Wifi will be available. Participants are asked to bring:

• a mobile internet device (eg: smartphone, tablet or laptop computer);
• knowledge (ie: the relevant passwords) on how to download apps onto your mobile device;
• for those who already have an established Twitter account, the knowledge (ie: the relevant passwords) on how to access it;
• a spirit of curiosity and fun!

To reinforce the learning acquired in the workshop, follow-up “skill checks” will be scheduled during conference breaks on Tuesday and Wednesday. Please come along – the workshop facilitators expect it to be a dynamic, fun, enlightening masterclass in engaging with social media.

Emily Mignacca was invited to join in co-facilitating the workshop just a couple of weeks before the workshop. Although Emily missed-out on being named in the pre-conference publicity, her participation on the day was vital. Emily worked hard and did a good job supporting people who were more than twice her age pick-up some of the skills and enthusiasm she has in using social media professionally. You could do worse than follow @emilymignacca on Twitter.

Below is a list of my pre-composed, pre-ordered tweets for the workshop. There were minor adjustments, inclusions and exclusion made as we went along, but mostly we just sent them out verbatim.

2. #ACMHN2013 Twitter Workshop in Tweets

A Twitter Workshop in Tweets by Paul McNamara is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://meta4RN/tweets.

Before

Please RT to show Twitter’s potential/reach to participants in today’s #ACMHN2013 Engaging with Social Media Workshop

Starting soon: #ACMHN2013 Engaging with Social Media Workshop. Info: http://acmhnconferences.acmhn.org/speakers/ (near bottom: scroll down) #HCSMANZ

No PowerPoint slides at the Engaging with Social Media Workshop. We’re Tweeting the content using this hashtag #ACMHN2013

Warning: HEAPS of #ACMHN2013 Social Media Workshop tweets next 2 hours
To join: http://twubs.com/ACMHN2013
To mute: http://roniweiss.com/2011/05/03/muting-hashtags/

Start

#ACMHN2013 Facilitator 1 of 3: Clare Butterfield @ACMHN Communications and Publications Officer with – Face of ACMHN’s Twitter

#ACMHN2013 Facilitator 2 of 3: Emily Mignacca @emilymignacca GenY/Millennial, Almost-Mental Health Nurse – Future of @ACMHN

#ACMHN2013 Facilitator 3 of 3: Paul McNamara @meta4RN clinical nurse consultant + educator – Fellow of @ACMHN

First-up, a hard-sell on some professional uses of Twitter. For those playing-along at home see http://meta4RN.com/poster #ACMHN2013

What is Twitter’s potential/reach? Here’s a demonstration we prepared earlier https://twitter.com/meta4rn/status/392021423943716866 #ACMHN2013

Here are the results: http://www.symplur.com/healthcare-hashtags/acmhn2013/analytics/?hashtag=acmhn2013&fdate=10%2F17%2F2013&shour=9&smin=0&tdate=10%2F21%2F2013&thour=9&tmin=0&ssec=00&tsec=00&img=1 #ACMHN2013

Enough chin-wagging. Let’s start doing! Go to https://twitter.com/signup to start an account #ACMHN2013

Make a choice now: is this an official, personal or professional twitter account? Mental health nurses know about boundaries, right? #ACMHN2013

Need clarification on official, personal + professional? This Qld Gov site is clear + succinct: http://www.qld.gov.au/web/social-media/policy-guidelines/guidelines/official-use.html#ACMHN2013

On your professional twitter account you’re not representing an organisation, but are primarily talking about work-related stuff #ACMHN2013

Choose a short name (aka “handle”) eg: instead of @BartholomewBonython maybe @BartB #ACMHN2013

Bad news for people without exotic names: @JohnSmith @JSmith + @SmithJ are all taken ;-/ #ACMHN2013

Short names and concise tweets are good. Twitter = Brevity Central #ACMHN2013

Struggling deciding on a name? Get creative! Example: a nerdy mental health nurse might be @MHnerse #ACMHN2013

Or… a graduating student nurse might be @SN2RN #ACMHN2013

Don’t use your workplace name/initials unless you’re 100% sure you’re representing your employer rather than your professional self #ACMHN2013

That’s why I’m @meta4RN rather than @QueenslandHealthRN – there’s a BIG difference in implications/expectations #ACMHN2013

Think about how you’ll describe yourself in your Twitter bio. Do you need to name your employer? It might be easier if you don’t. #ACMHN2013

Twitter bios accommodate a bit of personality along with a description of you/your interests #ACMHN2013

Re bio: maybe better not to say “lost virginity to a rockstar”, but “enthusiastically supporting musicians” would be OK 🙂 #ACMHN2013

Professional doesn’t have to be boring #ACMHN2013

Still nervous re the name/bio thing? You’ll get away with being anonymous, but why? On the run? Witness protection program? #ACMHN2013

And a pic. You’ll need a pic. Eggs repel followers. #truefact #ACMHN2013

Your pic doesn’t have to be a photo. There are avatars available online PRN. eg: http://www.twittergallery.com/?p=1985 #ACMHN2013

DON’T BE AN EGG! #ACMHN2013

Right. When you’re ready, announce your arrival to the Twitterverse. No pressure: channel Neil Armstrong. #ACMHN2013

Oh, and use the conference hashtag so we can see your tweet on the #ACMHN2013 screen

Next up you’ll want to start following some people, otherwise your Twitter feed will be bare, and you will get sad, lonely and bored 😦 #ACMHN2013

Who to follow? We can start with each other – a learn as we go thing #ACMHN2013

Twitter is not like Facebook. It is perfectly acceptable, not at all stalker-ish, to follow a complete stranger. #ACMHN2013

#ACMHN2013 Also, if you want to see who else is active in health care social media in Aus/NZ sus-out this hashtag: #HCSMANZ

#ACMHN2013 @nurse_w_glasses is a rockstar amongst social-media-mental-health-nurses: well worth following.

While we’re looking at who to follow, sus out the #WeNurses + #OzNurses hashtags – anyone/anything of interest? #ACMHN2013

If so, you may want to follow that person and/or retweet (ie: share) their tweet. #ACMHN2013

RT = ReTweet
MT = Modified Tweet
HT = HatTip/HeardThrough
More about Twitterisms here http://meta4RN.com/FF #ACMHN2013

Now, about hashtags… don’t be intimidated. You can use Twitter happily with never using one in your whole life #ACMHN2013 BUT…

Hashtags pull disparate conversations and people together. Like at this mental health nursing conference, for instance #ACMHN2013

Eg: even if you had the most incisive political tweet ever created, QandA viewers wouldn’t know about it without the #QandA hashtag #ACMHN2013

The hashtag thing can be fiddly at first. For the #ACMHN2013 conference this site makes it REALLY easy: http://twubs.com/ACMHN2013

Create your own hashtags, BUT learn from the Susan Boyle album launch hashtag: #susanalbumparty can be read 2 ways 🙂 #ACMHN2013

So, what to Tweet about? Anything that you think is relevant to people who may share all or some of your interests #ACMHN2013

Remember: the conventions of professional communication are long-established: letters, email etc. Why change it on Twitter? #ACMHN2013

Now, let’s pause and have a look at the @acn_tweet / RCNA (2011) Social Media Guidelines for Nurses http://www.rcna.org.au/WCM/Images/RCNA_website/Files%20for%20upload%20and%20link/rcna_social_media_guidelines_for_nurses.pdf #ACMHN2013

While we’re at it, let’s have a look at the @NurMidBoardAust guidelines too http://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/documents/default.aspx?record=WD10%2F3224&dbid=AP&chksum=qhog9%2FUCgKdssFmA0XnBlA%3D%3D #ACMHN2013

Any surprises or comments about the social media guidelines? #ACMHN2013

#ACMHN2013 The guidelines are pretty common-sense stuff. Maybe this flowchart is all we need

On a mobile device? Install an app, eg: Twitter https://about.twitter.com/download #ACMHN2013

On a mobile device? Install an app, eg: HootSuite https://hootsuite.com/features/mobile-apps #ACMHN2013

On a mobile device? Install an app, eg: Tapbot http://tapbots.com/software/tweetbot/ #ACMHN2013

Probably the easiest way to learn Twitter is to follow people who have already learned Twitter. Stick with it – it’ll click in. #ACMHN2013

Do unto others. #TwitterTips #ACMHN2013

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 Be careful mixing personal and professional. Boundaries are important.

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 You already know about confidentiality; if you’re doing confidentiality wrong online it will definitely get spotted.

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 Naturally, you would NEVER give individual or detailed clinical advice on Twitter.

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 Generalised info is fine, eg: Getting great feedback from consumers about the @mindhealthc site http://www.mindhealthconnect.org.au

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 Try not to act like a dickhead. Also, don’t use words like “dickhead” – it’s unprofessional. #TwitterTips #ACMHN2013

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 Apologise if you do/say something stupid. BTW sorry for saying “dickhead” before.

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 Twitter spam is especially good at playing on the insecurities of newbies, so be vigilant + don’t click dodgy links.

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 Spam example 1:
This person is saying horrible things about you www.dodgylink.com DON’T CLICK!

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 Spam example 2:
This photo of you! LOL www.dodgylink.com DON’T CLICK!

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 Mostly you won’t Tweet from/about your workplace… you’ll have your work to do.

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 There may be an occasional exception to the workplace rule, eg: Gammin Hospital Christmas decorations are fabulous!

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 Would your patients or boss be offended by that photo? Yes = Delete. No = Tweet.

Finish

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 RT @charleneli: Twitter is not a technology. It’s a conversation. And it’s happening with or without you.

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 No need to worry about forgetting today’s workshop, it’s all here: http://meta4RN/tweets

#TwitterTips #ACMHN2013 Connect. Be generous. Have fun.

A Twitter Workshop in Tweets by Paul McNamara is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://meta4RN/tweets.

As always, your comments and feedback is welcome. Please use the comment facility below.

Paul McNamara, 23rd October 2013