Twitter is a form of social media that is widely used by individuals and organizations to promote their work. For our work to be visible in the world today, it is essential to have a presence on social media. Twitter has a reach far beyond that of any single professional journal or conference presentation. This is why the IFNA Communications Committee encourages all family nurses and family health scholars to use Twitter to achieve our mission and vision of making family nursing visible and promoting connections between @IFNAorg members.
If you are new to Twitter, and want to learn the basics of tweeting, these resources will help you to get started:
- Twitterversity
- Simple guides to social media and strategies from Simon Stones
If you already know how to tweet, and want to use Twitter to disseminate your family nursing knowledge, scholarly work, and resources, try these 4 C’s adapted from Cattaneo and colleagues.
- Curate– Find things on Twitter that inspire you, make you think, or might be useful to colleagues or students. Tie these to your scholarship and to family health and family nursing.
- Connect– Engage in conversation and dialogue with folks you follow or who follow you. Participate in a Twitter chat on a topic related to your scholarship. See this page for a listing of Twitter chats on health care topics. Connect with your colleagues on Twitter by following them. You can find a listing of currently active family nursing and family health colleagues on Janice Bell’s (@janicembell) website here.
- Collaborate– Use Twitter to highlight your collaborations in teaching, writing, presentations, and service. Be sure to tag your colleagues.
- Create– Generate new content with your tweets related to your scholarship. Tweet about a new paper you’ve published or a conference you’re attending. Or share a bit about yourself, create and tweet an infographic, or post a photo that illustrates your key ideas.
Still not convinced? Read Wendy Looman’s (@looma003) editorial in the Journal of Family Nursing about why she increased her use of Twitter.
Convinced of Twitter’s value but afraid you’ll get sucked down a time sink? Use the Pomodoro Technique to manage your time on social media. Set a timer for 25 minutes and when it goes off, put the social media away. Find out more about the Pomodoro Technique here.
Include the IFNA Twitter handle (@IFNAorg) when referring to the IFNA organization in your tweets. And don’t forget to add these IFNA-related hashtags: #familynursing, #familyhealth, and #familyhealing.
Wilma Schroeder is a family therapist, retired nurse, and co-chair of the IFNA Communications Committee. She has a special interest in family mental health. You can follow her on Twitter at @wschroederMMFTor read her blog.
Joel G. Anderson, PhD, CHTP, is an Associate Professor at the University of Tennessee College of Nursing and a member of the IFNA Communications Committee.. His research focuses on support of family caregivers and persons with dementia. He uses social media as one way of examining the family caregiving experience. You can follow him on Twitter at @JoelAndersonPhD or read his blog.
