As part of the PPMI, ASHP has utilized social media to provide information to members and other interested practitioners as soon as possible. The use of social media has allowed ASHP and the ASHP Foundation to provide real-time updates about the initiative.
Twitter – Prior to the Summit, during the Summit, and post Summit; tactics have been initiated to engage followers. Using the hashtag, #PPMI, in all tweets related to the Initiative and Summit allows participants to follow activity and participate. Tweets are sent from with the ASHP (http://twitter.com/ashpofficial) or from the ASHP REF (http://twitter.com/ASHPFoundation) to support the initiative. Staff will send either new postings through Twitter, or they will retweet a post from one of our followers. ASHP has approximately 1100 followers of Twitter, and ASHP REF has approximately 500 followers.
Prior to the Summit, ASHP arranged a “TwitterChat” with one of the Initiative’s sponsor. The Twitterchat was an interesting way to engage ASHP members and other stakeholders prior to the Summit. The initial Twitterchat was scheduled for an hour. Once our followers got involved, we extended the Twitterchat for an additional half hour.
During the Summit, over 50 people tweeted comments, including tweets from Summit attendees and observers. Tweeting during the Summit was helpful to inform the webcast viewers when the schedule was behind, or when there was technical difficulties. We do not know how many people we reached since we can not estimate the number of followers we had., because each Twitter follower has a group of followers.
Facebook – ASHP (http://www.facebook.com/#!/ASHPofficial) and the ASHP Research and Education Foundation (http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/ASHP-Research-and-Education-Foundation/71770917882) have created groups on Facebook. These groups allow for communications to be shared with other Facebook users. These groups differ from twitter since much of the content is posted and maintained by staff. There are discussions by Facebook users on the topics posted. ASHP shares new Blog postings to Facebook as they are posted on the official ASHP Blog (http://ashpblog.squarespace.com/). There are approximately 5,000 users on the ASHP group, and over 400 users on the ASHP REF group.
LinkedIn – There is a main group page for ASHP on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=2426910), and a sub-group page for PPMI (http://www.linkedin.com/groups?mostPopular=&gid=3234431). There are over 1,700 members of the ASHP group and approaching 1,000 members of the PPMI sub-group. One must first be a member of the ASHP group before joining the PPMI group. ASHP Staff add content to the PPMI group to stimulate discussion and share ideas.
Social media strategies that were utilized to further the Initiative will continue to be utilized by ASHP and ASHP REF. Engaging members, corporate sponsors, and other stakeholders with social media applications will continue to evolve. The use of smart phones and quick access to the internet allow for real-time communications for sharing and expressing one’s opinion. ASHP and ASHP REF continue to develop opportunities to share the Initiative with members and stakeholder groups.
#SocialMedia #PPMI