What is Twitter?
Twitter is an online social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to post and read short messages (‘tweets’) up to 280 characters long. In a tweet, a person can share an idea, opinion, promotion, photo or video. You can also ‘follow’ particular organisations or people, which means their tweets are visible in your feed, and people can follow you back, meaning your tweets will be visible in your followers’ feeds. Anyone can read content posted on Twitter, but only registered users can post tweets. It can be a useful social media tool in general practice as it provides a way to stay in touch with colleagues and follow people and organisations that interest you.
Advantages of using Twitter
- Twitter allows you to share information about your practice, be part of conversations, provide useful information and start to build a community.
- You can provide your followers with health tips and information on your practice.
- You can follow anyone who has a Twitter account, from friends to celebrities and politicians, who might usually be hard to reach.
- You can follow people or organisations who could influence your business or be a valuable source of information (eg the Australian Government, the RACGP).
- You can follow and participate in conversations at conferences using hashtags (eg #gp18conference).
Tips for using Twitter
If you are setting up a Twitter account, you should consider the following.
- Decide whether the account is for yourself or the practice (or one for each).
- Design your page to reflect the brand of your practice.
- Tweet regularly. To increase the popularity of your Twitter account, you should tweet on a regular basis to make it worthwhile for your followers.
- Mix it up: your tweets can include links to other web content (eg a blog post, website, PDF document, photos or videos).
- Use Twitter to direct traffic to your own website or blog.
- Ensure you maintain professionalism and appropriate boundaries when using Twitter. It is recommended that you do not seek out patients and follow them on Twitter; however, they may follow your Twitter account for health-related posts. Apply your professional judgement if these situations arise and consider what is appropriate in a doctor–patient relationship.
Do not retweet testimonials made by others (regarding you as a GP, your general practice or health service). For more information, refer to AHPRA’s ‘Social media policy’ and other relevant guidelines.
Using Twitter at conferences
Twitter is becoming more popular at conferences, allowing delegates to make comments and suggestions over live Twitter feeds that are often displayed on a big screen visible to all delegates. Twitter can also be used at conferences to ask questions in major plenaries. Be mindful of what you write on these types of Twitter posts, as they are publicly broadcast at events and on the internet.
Public tweets versus direct messages
Direct messages are private and can only be seen by the sender and receiver. However, anything you publicly tweet is not private and can be accessed by anyone, including those without Twitter accounts.
Keep this in mind when tweeting or responding to tweets to ensure that you are professional and respectful in your online behaviour.
Using hashtags
A ‘hashtag’ is a key word or phrase preceded by the hash sign (#). Hashtags are used on most social media platforms to categorise content so users can find, follow and share content about a specific topic. They are a useful way to find content you are interested in (eg #womeninmedicine, #digitalhealth), and adding hashtags to your own posts can help engage people with your content.
The Healthcare Hashtag Project is a good place to learn more about hashtags related to health.
Case study: Dr Timothy Senior
Based in Sydney, Dr Timothy Senior has been active on Twitter since January 2011. With over 5000 followers, Dr Senior’s Twitter reach includes a varied audience of doctors, other health professionals, academics, students, journalists, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and interested members of the public. While the majority of his followers are based in Australia, he has a number of international followers in the medical field.
Dr Senior chooses to follow people who start interesting discussions, and he links to thoughtprovoking sources of evidence or expertise including academics, journalists or politicians. His tweets explore topics such as public health and social determinants of health, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, general practice, medical education, politics and classical music. His Twitter account is for personal use. It acknowledges his profession as a GP, but he does not post on behalf of a practice or his employers.
Dr Senior has found Twitter to be a useful tool in enhancing his career as a GP. He has been able to link directly with a thoughtful and informed group of GPs across Australia and the world. Twitter links him to research and ideas of academics and patients, which has broadened his perspective on health and health systems. It has expanded his opportunities, mainly for writing and occasionally for public speaking.
Dr Senior has easy access to his Twitter account via his smart phone and tablet, which keeps him up to date and allows for regular tweets. He finds tweeting at conferences a useful way to stay informed and engage with other participants, fostering an entertaining and engaging sense of community at conferences.
He posts a tweet most days and more frequently when involved in Twitter conversation. He tries not to tweet unless he has something interesting to add, and often stops to rethink his tweets before posting them, deleting those that he deems too sarcastic or cynical.
Dr Senior’s rule is never to be dull in his tweets, and he often deliberately tries to question or challenge prevailing wisdom. He often tweets about policy changes that impact healthcare, and challenges some of the cultural values of other medical professionals, especially regarding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. He regularly bases opinions on evidence, uses humour and questions, and steers clear of abusive arguments.
Dr Senior’s use of Twitter has resulted in new opportunities. Through Twitter, he successfully crowdfunded a regular column for Croakey, discussing the health impacts of various government policy proposals. He has been asked to talk at conferences about using social media as a GP, and now has a reputation as a doctor who tweets, despite this being only a small part of how he views himself.