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:
- To help the Public Health community network more effectively (by and across topic, discipline and geography)
- To identify topics for ongoing discussion (as a community and in a series of blogs)
- To establish the best ways to use social media (eg Twitter vs Facebook), and current level of skills within the community
- 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.
