Author: Editor

Posted in #HCSM, Twitter

Twitter To Relax 140-Character Limit

Posted on by Editor

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Twitter is making a major shift in how it counts characters in Tweets, allowing tweets to become much expanded and relaxing its defining 140-character limit. Although no official announcement has been forthcoming, it’s been widely reported this week, that the microblogging site will soon stop counting photos and links as part of its limit for messages. Links currently take up to 23 characters of a tweet, reducing the space available to users when sharing online content.

When it launched in 2006, Twitter’s character limit was originally devised as a way of fitting tweets into the SMS character limit. so users could send and receive updates on their phone. Being able to condense thoughts and messages into 140 characters has become one of Twitter’s most defining features. When the suggestion was floated earlier this year that it might expand the limit to 10,000 characters limit, my heart sank. Limiting tweets to 140 characters  is a terrific way to hone your key messages. Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey once described the limit as a “beautiful constraint” that “inspires creativity and brevity”. It also means you can quickly scan through timeline tweets – imagine trying to do that when 10,000 character tweets start flooding in!  However, this new move is a welcome compromise in my opinion.  It allows for more flexibility without compromising the creativity and brevity many of us have come to value.

What do you think of this news? Do you welcome the expanded capacity to tweet more. 

Posted in #HCSM

Social Spotlight: Dr Leslie Robinson

Posted on by Editor

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This week I interview Dr Leslie Robinson, Senior Lecturer in Diagnostic Radiography, at the University of Salford, Manchester, UK, on how she uses social media in her work. Leslie is currently leading the WOMMeN (Word of Mouth Mammogram e Network) project to explore the value of social networks for connecting practitioners with clients of the NHS breast screening programme.

Can you tell us some more about the WOMMeN project?

LR: I’m thrilled to be leading the Word of Mouth Mammogram e Network project. This project aims to improve information about breast screening using social media to link women with health professionals and with each other. Real life experiences are an extremely important source of information and this was what we wanted WoMMeN to focus on

When did you start using social media. What prompted you to get started?

LR: WoMMen started life in 2012. To begin with we viewed it as a project which would include an element of social media as part of the outcome – in other words, we’d produce some sort of information hub with a strong element of social media. However this rapidly turned on its head. WoMMeN became a project for which social media became an essential process tool: for managing the project, recruiting participants, collecting data, and sharing our work with the wider world.

This was a massive learning curve for our WoMMeN team (some more than others!). It was also at this point that I had a light bulb moment. It suddenly clicked how valuable social media is going to be for transforming the patient and practitioner relationship, for breaking down the power hierarchies that control how information is disseminated and even challenging what society has come to accept as valid in terms of knowledge.

Which platform(s) do you enjoy using the most?

LR:  Probably like most people, I have a number of platforms which support different aspects of my life. I talk to my family and friends on Facebook – mainly because that’s where they are. But Facebook can also be used for more professional purposes and I particularly like its group facilities for this. We have used it to great effect on the WoMMeN project where we recruited 100 women into a private research design group to discuss everything related to breast screening and more. We gathered a lot of information from this wonderful group to inform the hub, but I also learned much about developing a caring community where women would feel safe enough to share their experiences.

I tend to use Twitter for networking with professional friends and colleagues and read lots of articles and great blogs through Twitter, so it’s wonderful for CPD.

Another success has been Whatsapp. I run a diet club with family and friends called Whatsapp Porkies where we share pictures of our weekly weight and lots of hints and recipes. We’ve been going a few years now and between us we’ve lost stones!

Oh, and I use WordPress for my blogs and websites as I find it quite user friendly.

Which topics interest you – eg do you take part in any particular twitter chats?

LR:  I’m a radiographer by profession and there’s a lively radiographer journal club called #MedRadJClub set up by my some of the other prolific Tweeting radiographers from the UK, Canada and Australia. We share a paper and a guest editor also blogs about this beforehand. We then meet on-line to discuss the paper and have a general chat about radiography. It’s very successful

What advice would you give someone just starting out on social media?

The WoMMeN team have been working with radiographers to find out what their anxieties are. This WoMMeN off-shoot project has been a real eye-opener and we will be publishing the results shortly. However, many radiographers (and I am guessing this is true for other professionals too) are anxious about being misinterpreted by patients and the medico-legal implications of saying something ‘wrong’. My advice is to remember how wonderfully professional you are in your face-to-face encounters and approach on-line communication in exactly the same way. There really is nothing to be afraid of

Finally, would you like to share a favourite quote with us?

“In vain have you acquired knowledge if you have not imparted it to others” (Deuteronomy, I think?!)

Thanks Leslie for taking the time to share so generously with us your experience of using social media in your work. It’s been illuminating and inspiring. 

Follow  Leslie on Twitter @LeslieRob10

 

 

Posted in #HCSM

How Twitter Can Help Bolster Your Hospital’s Patient Experience Strategy

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With the proliferation of social media sites like Twitter, everyone has become a critic, creating are troves of publicly available, untapped information about hospital performance just waiting to be mined. With that notion in mind, researchers at Boston Children’s Hospital recently set about trying to make sense of tens of thousands of tweets sent to the handles of U.S. hospitals. They found all sorts of useful tidbits about what patients are seeing and hearing during their hospital visits, along with a tangible connection between whether . . .

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.hhnmag.com

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