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The health worker's guide to Twitter-Part2

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Monday, 6 December 2010 by Administrator

 

Michelle Blanchard, Senior Research Officer, Inspire Foundation and PhD Candidate, Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne
Last month, I shared with you some of my favourite individuals and organisations to follow on Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a popular social networking site used by individuals and organisations to post updates in the form of a 140 character message.
Now that you're following some interesting people, I bet you're wondering how you can interact with them in a more meaningful way.  Twitter have published a great guide to using their site which you can access here:  http://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics.  A few of the key terms are summarised below.
You can reply to a tweet by another person by simply tweeting a response beginning with their @username.  For example to reply to a tweet by ReachOut.com you'd type "@ReachOut_AUS great idea team"
You can mention another twitter user by including their @username in your tweet.  For example to mention the ReachOut.com site you'd type "I came across @ReachOut_AUS which is a great resource for young people"
To forward another twitter users update to your followers (eg if you think they've posted a useful resource or comment) you can do so by clicking the 'retweet' button to the right of their tweet.
Direct Messages (or DMs) are a way to send a direct message to someone on twitter.  You do this by placing a 'D' before the message.  This message can only be viewed by you and the person you are contacting.  Eg to send a direct message to the crew at ReachOut.com you'd type "D @ReachOut_AUS Love the site guys.  What a great resource for young people. "
The # symbol (otherwise known as a hashtag) is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet.  Often if you attend a conference or major event there will be a hashtag that people are encouraged to use if they are tweeting about the event, so that others can 'listen' to the conversations occurring.  Some hashtags related to young people, technology and wellbeing that you might like to follow are:
#mhsm - mental health and social media chat.  This online discussion happens weekly on Twitter on Tuesday evenings (US) at 9pm CST/10pm EST.
#hcsm - health care and social media chat.  This is a weekly chat (Sun @ 8pm CT) on Twitter focusing on healthcare communications & social media
Got any twitter tips to share?

Michelle Blanchard, Senior Research Officer, Inspire Foundation and PhD Candidate, Orygen Youth Health Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of Melbourne

Last month, I shared with you some of my favourite individuals and organisations to follow on Twitter (www.twitter.com) is a popular social networking site used by individuals and organisations to post updates in the form of a 140 character message.

Now that you're following some interesting people, I bet you're wondering how you can interact with them in a more meaningful way.  Twitter have published a great guide to using their site which you can access here:  http://support.twitter.com/groups/31-twitter-basics.  A few of the key terms are summarised below.

You can reply to a tweet by another person by simply tweeting a response beginning with their @username.  For example to reply to a tweet by ReachOut.com you'd type "@ReachOut_AUS great idea team"

You can mention another twitter user by including their @username in your tweet.  For example to mention the ReachOut.com site you'd type "I came across @ReachOut_AUS which is a great resource for young people"

To forward another twitter users update to your followers (eg if you think they've posted a useful resource or comment) you can do so by clicking the 'retweet' button to the right of their tweet.

Direct Messages (or DMs) are a way to send a direct message to someone on twitter.  You do this by placing a 'D' before the message.  This message can only be viewed by you and the person you are contacting.  Eg to send a direct message to the crew at ReachOut.com you'd type "D @ReachOut_AUS Love the site guys.  What a great resource for young people. "

The # symbol (otherwise known as a hashtag) is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet.  Often if you attend a conference or major event there will be a hashtag that people are encouraged to use if they are tweeting about the event, so that others can 'listen' to the conversations occurring.  Some hashtags related to young people, technology and wellbeing that you might like to follow are:

#mhsm - mental health and social media chat.  This online discussion happens weekly on Twitter on Tuesday evenings (US) at 9pm CST/10pm EST.

#hcsm - health care and social media chat.  This is a weekly chat (Sun @ 8pm CT) on Twitter focusing on healthcare communications & social media

Got any twitter tips to share?