It’s good to experiment. The idea of #ScotPublicHealth and a #PublicHealthHour emerged out of discussions during December 2015.

Our first #PublicHealthHour on social media has been scheduled for the first full working day of 2016 (6.1.16). Information has been circulated on Twitter, and in the real world through Public Health teams. Some of the information shared is shown at the end of this post.

It remains to be seen whether colleagues will be able to access Twitter at work, and how many will engage. What is clear, however, is that social media is increasingly important for professionals, patients and the public. Eric Levi, ENT surgeon, puts it well in two blog posts – one on a “social media epidemic” among patients, the other on a medical college slow to respond to a wave of criticism over the festive period. During 2016 we’ll use #ScotPublicHealth to work out how best to engage with all audiences using social media. If you can’t take part in the Twitter hour then you can complete a survey instead.

The first #ScotPublicHealth #PublicHealthHour has four main objectives:

1. To help the Public Health community network more effectively (by and across topic, discipline and geography)
2. To identify topics for ongoing discussion (as a community and in a series of blogs)
3. To establish the best ways to use social media (eg Twitter vs Facebook), and current level of skills within the community
4. To identify other events and outputs beyond social media (eg a WebEx on using Twitter, a session at the next Public Health conference, an email list)

Our questions are structured around these objectives. They’re listed below as tweets scheduled for noon, 5.1.16 (a day ahead of Twitter hour). I have provided abbreviated examples within the first few tweets. Participants will have more characters to play with, as don’t need to repeat question.

Make sure that your Twitter profile says what you do (eg academic or service public health, statutory or voluntary sector etc). Put #ScotPublicHealth in your profile too and you will turn up in Twitter searches using the hashtag. Read responses to the questions and interact with colleagues with shared interests by responding, following, retweeting and/or liking their posts. See more in slides at end of this blog.

Networking

Q1A Where do you work? Use #scotpublichealth & #WhereIWork eg #scotpublichealth #WhereIWork Edinburgh Scotland Add

Q1B What are your main work topics? Use #scotpublichealth & #WhatIDo eg #scotpublichealth #WhatIDo Childhood vaccination(list more)

Q1C What are your priorities for 2016? Use #scotpublichealth & #todo2016 eg #scotpublichealth #todo2016 Work w/teams on quality improvement

Topics for ongoing discussion

Q2A What topics do you want to discuss on #socmed in 2016? Use #ScotPublicHealth & #Topics eg #scotpublichealth #topics childhood obesity

Q2B We’re looking for guest contributions to scotpublichealth.com blog. Volunteers? Tweet ideas using #scotpublichealth & #blog

How to use social media for #ScotPublicHealth

Q3A This will be a Twitter poll – eg

Q3B Beyond Twitter, how should we be using social media? Tweet using #scotpublichealth #socmed eg how could we use facebook.com/scotpublichealth?

Beyond Twitter hour

Q4A Would you be interested in a Twitter & #socmed WebEx where we share tips and support each other? (Twitter poll)

Q4B Sign up for scotpublichealth.com blog (takes 2 mins) How else should we stay in touch regularly? Use #scotpublichealth & #stayintouch

Q4C What other outputs should we produce? #scotpublichealth #outputs eg #scotpublichealth #outputs: monthly Storify 

Please post other questions that you’d like to see included, or revisions to the questions above, by midnight on 4.1.2016. If you can’t take part in the Twitter hour then you can still take part. I’ve put the questions above into a Survey Monkey: click here.

Thank you very much, and look forward to the conversation throughout 2016.

Graham Mackenzie 4.1.16 

 

Here’s how I shared information about the Twitter Hour on social media, from a series of tweets on 22 December 2015 (slide 5 is adapted following feedback from Mark Outhwaite).