During a conversation this week – face to face – with an Everyday EMS Tip reader asked me about what he should be tweeting about. Like many EMS professionals he has established a personal social media presence and is also considering a social media strategy for an organization that he coordinates. As a regular Twitter user (@gfriese, @everydayemstips, @emseducast, @piosmtraining are the accounts that I tweet from) I find myself writing tweets in these general areas.
1. Questions – use Twitter to crowd source answers to your questions about EMS equipment, patient care protocols, software problems, and more.
2. Availability of resources – website links, social communities, etc. specific to a topic.
3. Announcements about upcoming events – conference presentations, training sessions, live podcast broadcasts, community injury prevention programs.
4. Blog posts and news articles I have read and want to share. I use HootSuite to automate tweets from my blog RSS feeds. I also tweet about posts I read on other blogs I enjoy.
//
5. Personal information, tidbits, and interests – I generally follow an 80-20 ratio. About 80% of my tweets are professional related. The other 20% are a mixture of family activities, my highs and lows as a Green Bay Packers’ fan, and various recreation interests.
6. Events responding to – I follow many EMS Twitter users that post about going in to service to specific incidents. I am not sure how and when they do this. I will occasionally post about a pre-planned/scheduled event, like “getting ready for scheduled long-distance transfer.”
7. Events responded to – speaking in generalities I will occasionally post after an incident. Something like “dear 911 caller please put out your cigarette before I arrive when you have called for shortness of breath.”
8. Successes and acquisitions – Twitter is a great place to share news about accomplishments as a student or professional, new equipment or hires, and other noteworthy accomplishments. Celebrating success is OK. Its not likely anyone (other than maybe your mom) has a marching band cued up for your next success so why not shout it out the world and then enjoy the accolades of people that are interested in you.
What do you Tweet about or write in your Facebook and LinkedIn status area?
