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Month: November 2014

Questions people are asking about social media

Published 2014-11-11

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Social media has been a popular topic for HC Link webinars, consultations and workshops this year in both English and French and we’re seeing some interesting trends.

There are starting to be three levels of questions about social media, now that it’s been around for some years.

First, there are the how-to and what-is-it questions. How do I set up a Facebook or Twitter account? How do I post? What’s Instagram/Pinterest/Vine? What is an app and how do I get one? What new things are out there?

Second, there are questions about how to use social media tools effectively. Which tool is best for my purposes? How often should I tweet? What does the research say: is social media a good tool for making a difference? Who should run our Facebook page? Should I use my real name for my work posts?

Finally, there are some more overarching questions. What’s the best way to realize the advantages of technology without being constantly attached to it? What are the best times to use social media with parents so that you’ll reach them but won’t distract them from their children at times they are likely to be parenting? Given the 24/7 nature of social media, how can we be effective online without worsening people’s work/life balance? How much sense does it make to redeploy staff time into social media at, perhaps, some cost to face-to-face services?

As health promoters, it’s important to pay attention to all three kinds of questions. It’s no use to know about all the technologies that are out there but remain oblivious to the larger questions around their healthy use. It’s also no help to ignore technology on the pretext of concerns about its use. There are no clear answers to the big-picture questions yet, but health promoters need to be part of the discussion.

For social media resources, you can check out:

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