To tweet or not to tweet? A primer on social media for pharmacists

Abstract

Social media has evolved considerably since its humble beginnings in the late 1990s. Today, three billion individuals worldwide use social media. While its traditional use has been to connect with family and friends, social media has also been integrated into many other areas of society, including health care. Today, many health care professionals, including pharmacists, use social media for developing their own personal brand, professional networking, professional development, scholarly activity, pharmacy education, and even patient care. Despite the benefits of actively engaging with social media, the available evidence would suggest that pharmacists' engagement with social media for professional use has been limited. This is likely due to several well‐publicized criticisms of social media, including the potential for users to segregate themselves into echo chambers of only like‐minded individuals, inability to confirm the accuracy of shared information, its potential as a distractor from other tasks and responsibilities, and personal and patient privacy concerns. Fortunately, most of these concerns can be minimized if pharmacists develop a strategy for social media engagement that is intentional and consistent with their personal goals. Pharmacists should consider becoming not only passive “lurkers” on social media but also creating original content that shares knowledge and encourages conversations with others. We propose that pharmacists use a design‐based approach to ensure their use of social media is effective and sustainable. The “ABCDE” approach includes analyzing one's goals and audience, brainstorming ideas for how best to use social media, creating content that is relevant, practical, and useful, disseminating content efficiently and effectively, and periodically evaluating how well one's goals are being met and identifying opportunities for improvement.

Long-term Association of Altmetric Attention Scores With Citations in Selected Major Pharmacy Journals

“…In addition to Mendeley, Twitter has become a frequently used platform to share articles online. 15 Although we did not find an association between Twitter promotion and citation counts, two large, randomized studies 16,17 of articles published in cardiology and thoracic surgery journals demonstrated that Twitter promotion was associated with a significant increase in citation counts. However, both studies did not control for authors who may have had a significant online presence and self-promoted their published articles.…”

Maximizing the visual translation of medical information: A narrative review of the role of infographics in clinical pharmacy practice, education, and research

“…In recent years, social media in health care as a means to connect, communicate, and collaborate has grown substantially. When used appropriately, social media serves as an invaluable tool for health care professionals to increase engagement with learners, discuss and challenge emerging research, pursue professional development, expand social networks, engage in digital scholarship, and foster research publicity 60‐62 . The importance of developing a social media presence for pharmacists has been emerging and readers are suggested to review a recent publication by Dixon and colleagues to gain a comprehensive understanding on strategies to create an effective and sustainable social media profile 60 .…”

“…When used appropriately, social media serves as an invaluable tool for health care professionals to increase engagement with learners, discuss and challenge emerging research, pursue professional development, expand social networks, engage in digital scholarship, and foster research publicity 60‐62 . The importance of developing a social media presence for pharmacists has been emerging and readers are suggested to review a recent publication by Dixon and colleagues to gain a comprehensive understanding on strategies to create an effective and sustainable social media profile 60 . With regard to content delivered on social media, there is a symbiotic relationship that exists between high‐quality content and social media; without high‐quality content, social media loses its educational benefits, and without social media, no one will benefit from its content 63 .…”

Healthcare practitioners’ views of social media as an educational resource

“…The Sentinel Watch, a blog by American Sentinel University that offers degrees in nursing and healthcare management, encourages hospital administrators to have a presence on social media [44]. In addition, some healthcare organizations, including the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, have published reports or conducted webinars to provide advice on the importance of and how to build a digital brand through social media [45][46][47]. Social media is a platform that could be utilized to market services of the healthcare system or to provide access for complaints or appraisals in a quick manner [48].…”