How to set up and use a Twitter account professionally

Rationale and key points

This How to module encourages nurses to use Twitter to engage in professional discussions, share information and raise awareness of alternative views to enhance practice and patient care. Twitter is an online social media service that enables users to send and read 140-character messages called tweets.

• Twitter is free and accessible across multiple platforms and devices, providing immediate contact with professionals, organisations and the public worldwide.
• Many healthcare professionals use Twitter to share ideas and information.
• Responsible use of Twitter creates opportunities to access information, discuss issues and challenge misconceptions to support professional nursing behaviours.

Keywords

communication, online discussion, professional development, social media, Twitter

Learning objectives

After reading this module you should be able to:

• Set up a Twitter account.
• Describe how to tweet and how to respond to tweets.
• Identify commonly used Twitter terms.
• Describe how nurses can use Twitter to connect with healthcare professionals, patient groups and the wider healthcare community.
• Understand the importance of using Twitter or any other social media responsibly.

Preparation

• Download or print and read a copy of the Nursing and Midwifery Council's (NMC) (2015a) guidance on using social media responsibly.
• Read and implement your employer's policies in relation to the use of online technology.
• Before setting up your Twitter account, think about a suitable account name (for example, @something), what will be displayed (for example, Firstname Lastname), and whether you will use a photograph or picture. Consider the option of separate accounts for personal and professional use.
• You can have various degrees of anonymity, but disclosing your identity confirms authenticity. A short biography provides information to encourage people to follow you. It is important to remember that Twitter is a public forum.

Procedure
On a desktop or laptop, access www.twitter.com to set up an account. On a smartphone or tablet, access the app store and download the Twitter app to set up an account. Select ‘sign up’.	Enter your full name and either your email address or telephone number, choose a password and select ‘sign up’.
Twitter will send you a message with a code that you will need to enter in the relevant box provided.	Choose a suitable username, check your personal information and select ‘create my account’. Further information about how to set up a Twitter account is available at: https://support.twitter.com/articles/100990# (Twitter 2016a).
Table 1 Once you have set up a Twitter account, select the magnifying glass symbol to search for people and organisations to follow. Your news feed contains their current tweets. A useful way to find people is to see who others follow. Start with about 30 people for an active news feed (Table 1).	Regularly review who you follow to ensure your news is personalised to your learning needs and interests. Do not expect people you follow to follow you regularly or continuously. Twitter is used to have conversations and people change who they follow as different topics become of interest.
Write clear tweets. This is a skill that develops with practice.	Look at how others tweet to learn to use Twitter. Look at tweets and respond by selecting the ‘like’, ‘reply’, ‘retweet’ or ‘quote’ options (Box 1). Tweets update constantly, so if some are not relevant that does not matter.
Initiate or join conversations. Remember to be professional and check your tweets before posting them.	TweetChats are discussions that occur at a prearranged time and cover a specific subject, thus supporting professional networking by providing a forum for focused discussion and information sharing.
Use hashtags (#) to make your tweets easier to find. By searching for a particular hashtag, for example #WeNurses, you can find other people’s tweets – even those you do not follow – who have joined a particular conversation. During TweetChats you can ‘lurk’ (view the discussion), but you will benefit more by tweeting.	Reflect on your learning to support continuing professional development (CPD) and revalidation. For example, TweetChat organisers may provide downloadable participation certificates and you can write up a TweetChat for an essay or blog that might count towards your annual appraisal or revalidation requirements.
Use Twitter to disseminate information. When browsing the web on mobile devices, select the ‘share’ symbol. You can also add a comment about a particular website.	Although tweets remain available to read for many months, most people only read those posted in the preceding few hours. If you have an important message you can repeat your tweet, perhaps with different wording. Look at time zones, shift patterns and patterns of use of your intended audience. Include pictures or videos to make tweets interesting and engaging.
In the context of healthcare, Twitter provides a forum for patients and carers to share their views and opinions. Follow patient organisations to access these views (Table 1). This will help you to enhance person-centred care.	Educators can link with others to discuss or debate important issues. Students can connect with other learners to share resources and support.
You can use Twitter to promote events to increase engagement both in advance of and during an event, and to access a wider audience, for example by tweeting at conferences.	Support others by posting useful information or answering their queries, and they might do likewise. Twitter is a sharing community. Similar to conversations between colleagues over coffee, Twitter provides an opportunity to socialise as well as to share updates and information.
Although you can reference Twitter, you should always follow links and search for original modules and sources, and check and use those in refining your practice or in academic work. Tweets might not remain available to those checking references so always consider the validity and accessibility of sources.	Twitter is a public forum, therefore your tweets should be considered and professional.

Box 1. Commonly used Twitter terms

• @username: a username is how you are identified on Twitter, and is always preceded immediately by the @ symbol.
• Hashtag: a hashtag is any word or phrase immediately preceded by the # symbol. When you select a hashtag, you will see other tweets containing the same keyword or topic.
• Like: liking a tweet indicates that you appreciate it. You can find all of your likes by selecting the ‘likes’ tab on your profile.
• Notifications: the notifications timeline displays your interactions with other Twitter users, such as mentions, favourites, retweets and who has followed you recently.
• Profile: your profile displays information you choose to share publicly, as well as all of the tweets you have posted. Your profile along with your @username identify you on Twitter.
• Reply: a reply is a response to another person’s tweet by clicking on the reply button.
• Retweet: a retweet is when you share another person’s tweet by clicking on the retweet button.

(Twitter 2016b)