535213
research-article2014
HPPXXX10.1177/1524839914535213Health Promotion PracticeRoman / Using Social Media to Enhance Career Opportunities
Career Development
Using Social Media to Enhance Career Development Opportunities for Health Promotion Professionals Leah A. Roman, MPH, MCHES1 For health promotion professionals, social media offers many ways to engage with a broader range of colleagues; participate in professional development events; promote expertise, products, or services; and learn about career-enhancing opportunities such as funding and fellowships. Previous work has recommended “building networking into what you are already doing.” This article provides updated and new social media resources, as well as practical examples and strategies to promote effective use of social media. Social media offers health promotion professionals cost-effective opportunities to enhance their career by building communities of practice, participating in professional development events, and enriching classroom learning. Developing the skills necessary to use social media for networking is important in the public health workforce, especially as social media is increasingly used in academic and practice settings. Keywords: career development/professional preparation; health promotion; technology
experience with social media, and the coeditors hope that you benefit from these strategies and resources and share them with your networks.
Introduction >> With more health promotion professionals being asked to “do more with less,” the field has to start thinking creatively about cost-effective career development and networking strategies. Social media, defined as “forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content” (MerriamWebster, 2013), represent one such strategy. Social media is an umbrella term applied to a group of online and electronic tools that include blogs, social networking sites, and video-sharing sites (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012). Although many tools exist, they share common characteristics, including a focus on user-generated content, engagement, and timely exchange of news and information. These 1
>>
Roman Public Health Consulting LLC, Philadelphia, PA, USA
from the Coeditors
A 2007 article in this column encouraged health promotion professionals to incorporate technology and social media into their networking and provided examples of what at the time were relatively new online resources. This article highlights the importance of using social media to enhance professional development and provides new resources and practical advice that will be useful to health promotion professionals across the career spectrum. The author has extensive Health Promotion Practice July 2014 Vol. 15, No. 4 471–475 DOI: 10.1177/1524839914535213 © 2014 Society for Public Health Education
Author’s Note: Address correspondence to Leah A. Roman, Roman Public Health Consulting LLC, e-mail: leah@romanph consulting.com; phone: 610-649-4245.
Associate Editors, Career Development Department Randall R. Cottrell, DEd, MCHES, is a professor and program coordinator for the Public Health Studies program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Holly Mata, PhD, CHES, is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Hispanic Health Disparities Research Center at The University of Texas at El Paso. Her research interests include cultural influences on health behaviors, mental health and substance use in the U.S.–Mexico border region, and building community capacity to advocate for health equity policy.
471
characteristics make social media an ideal place to engage with a broader range of colleagues; participate in professional development events; promote expertise, products, or services; and learn about career-enhancing opportunities such as funding and fellowships. The idea of integrating electronic resources into networking is supported by Rojas-Guyler, Murnan, and Cottrell (2007) in their article on “Networking for Career-Long Success: A Powerful Strategy for Health Education Professionals.” The authors encouraged the use of technology for networking whenever possible. The 2007 publication included a sample of online networking resources that were just beginning to gain popularity. The current article will update that list of resources (with a focus on social media platforms), highlight recent advances in social media, and provide practical examples of how these applications can enhance career development. How Social Media Has Advanced It has been recommended that health promotion professionals “build networking into what you are already doing” (Rojas-Guyler et al., 2007, p. 232). Data from The Pew Internet & American Life Project support the notion that social media and mobile devices are already heavily integrated into daily activities. According to a 2012 Pew survey, 67% of Internet users use some type of social networking site (Duggan & Brenner, 2013). The following year, Pew conducted a survey focused on internet use and mobile devices. According to that 2013 survey, 57% of American adults use their cell phone to go online. In addition, 21% of the total cell phone owner population says they mostly access the Internet using their phone (Duggan & Smith, 2013). The ubiquity of web-enabled mobile devices has increased the accessibility of social media. In addition to offering web access in almost any location, smart phones also offer applications or “apps” that provide shortcuts to users’ social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. With increased accessibility over the past 6 years, there has also been enhancement and innovation regarding the number and type of social media resources. See Table 1 for a sample listing of these resources. There is also growing recognition that social media is a valuable career development, academic, and practice tool. National public health agencies like CDC have published tool kits to support social media writing and strategy development (CDC, 2011, 2012). Academic institutions such as Tufts University offer concentrated
472 HEALTH PROMOTION PRACTICE / July 2014
coursework on using digital strategies in health communication (http://publichealth.tufts.edu/Academics/ HCOM-Program/Certificate). Writing style authorities like the American Psychological Association have even released guidance regarding how to cite social media communication in an academic paper (Lee, 2013). With this mounting support for social media, health promotion professionals should explore its potential to promote development across all phases of the career spectrum. The practical strategies below are intended to support new and existing users with one or more of the following social media strategies: initiation of use, transition of use from personal to career-focused activities, and the expansion of use to new channels and participation opportunities. How Social Media Can Enhance Career Development Social media offers diverse networking opportunities, all of which can enhance career development. These opportunities are made possible through several unique features of social media. First, its focus on usergenerated content encourages scholarly inquiry and dialog among users. Second, its easy access through the Internet allows users to participate in events around the world. Joining Communities of Practice. Social media channels share a common practice of encouraging users to organize their followers or connections by category. This provides the opportunity for individuals to create and join one or more communities of practice. For example, the social networking site Google+ offers users the opportunity to join an existing community (e.g., Public Health) or create a new one based on their interests. Many channels use “hashtags,” which are an organizational system that originated on Twitter. The system uses the # symbol (called a hashtag) to identify keywords or topics (Twitter, 2013). These hashtags can help users create lists of colleagues with shared interests (e.g., health education), target their communication, and search for conversations or resources tailored to their focus area. The Symplur Healthcare Hashtag Project (http://www.symplur.com/healthcare-hashtags/) has created a database of relevant hashtags to follow and is a valuable resource for both new and existing social media users. Social media also provides users with the opportunity to interact directly with international, national, and local professional organizations of interest. For
Career Development
Table 1 Sampling of Social Media Resources Resource
Platform Type
Facebook
Social networking
Google+
Social networking
LinkedIn
Social networking
Tumblr
Blog
Twitter
Social networking
WordPress
Blog
YouTube
Video sharing
How It Works
Reach
Allows users to create a profile, connect with “friends,” and share updates/ photos/videos Allows users to create a profile, join/ create communities of interest, share updates/photos/videos, and join group video meetings (“hangouts”) Allows users to create a career-focused profile to link with professional connections and interest groups. Allows users to post writing, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos; offers unique one-click option to reblog from other Tumblrs Allows users to share short updates (140-character “tweets”) and “follow” updates from accounts of interest Allows users to customize their own website to share writing, photos, and videos Allows users to search, watch, comment, and share originally created videos
There are 1.11 billion active Facebook users in the world. There are 359 million active Google+ users in the world.
Where to Find It www.facebook. com www.plus.google. com
There are 160 million www.linkedin. active LinkedIn users in com the world. There are 147.1 million www.tumblr.com Tumblr blogs in the world. There are 218 million active Twitter users in the world. There are 72.4 million WordPress sites in the world. There are more than 1 billion unique users to YouTube each month.
www.twitter.com
www.wordpress. com www.youtube. com
NOTE: All the above social media resources are no cost to join. The information in this table was current as of November 15, 2013.
example, the American Public Health Association (APHA; @PublicHealth) and The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE; @SOPHEtweets) have very active Twitter accounts. With their accounts being updated several times per day, social media offers followers an advantage over those just receiving weekly or monthly newsletters. Followers can quickly learn about timely matters such as career opportunities and advocacy issues. In addition, these online relationships often translate into real-life networking opportunities. For instance, the APHA plans an in-person “Social Media Meet Up” during its Annual meeting that is open to all members with an active social media account. These examples demonstrate how social media can offer innovative ways to join multiple professional networks. This can be an asset to any health promotion professional whether a new graduate, seasoned expert, or someone transitioning into a new health career area or practice setting.
Participating in Events. Social media provides users with the opportunity to actively participate in a variety of professional development events, often without ever leaving their desks. These events can include livetweeted conferences or meetings, Twitter chats, Google hangouts, or webcasts. Live-tweeting is the practice of engaging on Twitter for a continuous period of time with a series of focused tweets (Twitter, 2014). Live-tweeters use a specific hashtag in their tweets to provide context for their followers and identify the event with which they are associated. Events such as the SOPHE Health Education Advocacy Summit (#HEAS2013) and the National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media (#hcmmconf) actively promote their hashtags and encourage live-tweeting and participation from users attending both in person and on social media. Participants can follow up with speakers directly on social media regarding slides, resources, or questions raised during meeting presentations. Live-tweeting
Roman / USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENHANCE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES 473
provides an opportunity to extend advocacy efforts and conference content to a much broader audience by capitalizing on the social media connections of meeting attendees. One key benefit of live-tweeting is that it has been shown to increase both the number of user followers and message shares (called “retweets”; Twitter, 2014). Therefore, live-tweeting can help boost a user’s visibility on Twitter. Social media users can also participate in Twitter chats, which are facilitated discussions on a focused topic. As with event live-tweeting, participants use a specific hashtag in their tweets so that fellow participants can see their responses and they can be included in the larger conversation. Health promotion professionals have a wide variety of regular chats to choose from based on their interests. These chats promote networking, as well as the opportunity to initiate conversations on historic or timely topics. For example, in August 2013 SOPHE leaders played a key role in promoting a timely chat of interest to their members. The chat (#ACAminorities) was hosted by the Office of Minority Health and explored the impact of the Affordable Care Act on minority communities. Other chats that may be of interest to health promotion professionals include one hosted by Dr. Richard Besser, Chief Medical Editor for ABC News. Dr. Besser’s chat (#abcDrBchat) runs weekly and addresses a diverse group of clinical and public health topics (e.g., domestic violence). For organizations and individuals just getting started with this strategy, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012) has released A Guide to Hosting a Twitter Chat. Google+ has a “hangout” feature that integrates video and is popular for both small and large professional development events. “Hangouts” are typically used for private video chats with small groups of people (e.g., committee planning meeting). “Hangouts on Air” are publicly viewable and can be recorded to a personal or organizational YouTube channel. The Carter Center (http://www.cartercenter.org) regularly uses hangouts to promote discussion regarding key public health initiatives. For example, in September 2013 they hosted a Google Hangout called “Global Health: How We Can Make a Difference.” Webcasts and webinars that integrate a simultaneous social media component are another example of innovative online events that support career development. For example, in 2013 CDC’s National Prevention Information Network hosted a webcast series called “In the Know: Social Media for Public Health” (http:// www.cdcnpin.org/scripts/features/feature_itk.asp). Participants were encouraged to use Twitter during the event to (a) live-tweet, (b) ask questions to event presenters (which were then read on the air and/or
474 HEALTH PROMOTION PRACTICE / July 2014
answered via Twitter), and (c) chat with fellow participants. Over the course of six webcasts, panelists discussed the application of social media to public health efforts, specifically emphasizing the evaluation of such efforts. The National Prevention Information Network worked with credentialing agencies to offer free Certified Health Education Specialist and Certified Public Health continuing education credits for each of their webcasts. Therefore, events such as these offer health promotion professionals an affordable and convenient option to reach their career development and certification goals. Enriching Classroom Learning. Social media offers a unique career development and networking opportunity for health promotion students, staff, and faculty in academic settings. Applications such as blogs are being used in the public health classroom as a way to increase interactivity between classmates and faculty, while also preparing students for a career in which social media skills are highly valued (Cobus, 2009; Goldman, Cohen, & Sheahan, 2008). Cobus (2009) incorporated blog and wiki (user-generated content websites) writing assignments into a course on urban public health to develop the students’ skills regarding health information retrieval, evaluation, and translation. Social media assignments were also used to broaden the classroom relationship beyond individual students and faculty. Students were encouraged to primarily communicate using the course blog “in the spirit of creating a healthy, online climate of participatory engagement” (p. 27). Similarly, Goldman et al. (2008) integrated seminar blogs into a large graduate-level introductory public health course with the goal of promoting student collaboration and learning. Students posted their assignments on their section blogs and were required to read and comment on those posted by fellow classmates. This strategy enabled students to receive prompt feedback on assignments, not just from instructors but from peers as well. The blogs also facilitated student–faculty interaction. For example, guest speakers could communicate with students directly on their blogs if a question arose after class. When students were surveyed at the end of the course, most reported that the blog format provided more opportunities to learn from classmates and hear their perspectives. As with in-person networking, social media networking has the potential to affect professional identity. With that in mind, health promotion professionals should integrate privacy and ethics considerations into online activities. For example, social media would not be the venue to discuss a workplace conflict. For an in-depth discussion of the dos and don’ts of social
Career Development media for health promotion professionals, see Bernhardt, Alber, and Gold (2014). Although public health associations have not yet published formal social media use guidelines, helpful policies on social media privacy and professionalism can be found in related disciplines such as medicine (American Medical Association, 2010). In summary, social media offers health promotion professionals cost-effective opportunities to enhance their career by building communities of practice, participating in professional development events, and enriching classroom learning. The act of using social media for networking simultaneously builds an individual’s personal skill set in using these communication channels. These skills will become highly desirable as more organizations, like local health departments, integrate social media into their initiatives (Harris, Mueller, & Snider, 2013). References American Medical Association. (2010). Professionalism in the use of social media. Retrieved from http://www.ama-assn.org//ama/ pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code-medical-ethics/ opinion9124.page Bernhardt, J. M., Alber, J., & Gold, R. S. (2014). A social media primer for professionals: Digital dos and don’ts. Health Promotion Practice, 15, 168-172. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). The health communicator’s social media toolkit. Retrieved from http://www.cdc. gov/healthcommunication/ToolsTemplates/SocialMediaToolkit_ BM.pdf Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Guide to writing for social media. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/social media/tools/guidelines/pdf/guidetowritingforsocialmedia.pdf
Cobus, L. (2009). Using blogs and wikis in a graduate public health course. Medical References Services Quarterly, 28(1), 22-32. Duggan, M., & Brenner, J. (2013). The demographics of social media users-2012. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Social-media-users.aspx Duggan, M., & Smith, A. (2013). Cell internet use 2013. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/ Cell-Internet.aspx Goldman, R. H., Cohen, A. P., & Sheahan, F. (2008). Using seminar blogs to enhance student participation and learning in public health. American Journal of Public Health, 98, 1658-1663. Harris, J. K., Mueller, N. L., & Snider, D. (2013). Social media adoption in local health departments nationwide. American Journal of Public Health, 103, 1700-1707. doi:10.2105/ AJPH.2012.301166 Lee, C. (2013, October 18). How to cite social media in APA style (Twitter, Facebook, and Google+) [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2013/10/how-to-cite-socialmedia-in-apa-style.html Merriam-Webster. (2013). Social media. Retrieved from http:// www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media Rojas-Guyler, L., Murnan, J., & Cottrell, R. R. (2007). Networking for career-long success: A powerful strategy for health education professionals. Health Promotion Practice, 8, 229-233. Twitter. (2013). Using hashtags on twitter. Retrieved from https:// support.twitter.com/articles/49309-using-hashtags-on-twitter Twitter. (2014). Tweet in the moment. Retrieved from https:// media.twitter.com/best-practice/tweet-in-the-moment U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2012). Health literacy online supplement: A guide to hosting a twitter chat. Retrieved from http://health.gov/healthliteracyonline/Twitter_ Chat_Guide.pdf
Roman / USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENHANCE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES 475
Copyright of Health Promotion Practice is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
research-article2014
HPPXXX10.1177/1524839914535213Health Promotion PracticeRoman / Using Social Media to Enhance Career Opportunities
Career Development
Using Social Media to Enhance Career Development Opportunities for Health Promotion Professionals Leah A. Roman, MPH, MCHES1 For health promotion professionals, social media offers many ways to engage with a broader range of colleagues; participate in professional development events; promote expertise, products, or services; and learn about career-enhancing opportunities such as funding and fellowships. Previous work has recommended “building networking into what you are already doing.” This article provides updated and new social media resources, as well as practical examples and strategies to promote effective use of social media. Social media offers health promotion professionals cost-effective opportunities to enhance their career by building communities of practice, participating in professional development events, and enriching classroom learning. Developing the skills necessary to use social media for networking is important in the public health workforce, especially as social media is increasingly used in academic and practice settings. Keywords: career development/professional preparation; health promotion; technology
experience with social media, and the coeditors hope that you benefit from these strategies and resources and share them with your networks.
Introduction >> With more health promotion professionals being asked to “do more with less,” the field has to start thinking creatively about cost-effective career development and networking strategies. Social media, defined as “forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content” (MerriamWebster, 2013), represent one such strategy. Social media is an umbrella term applied to a group of online and electronic tools that include blogs, social networking sites, and video-sharing sites (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2012). Although many tools exist, they share common characteristics, including a focus on user-generated content, engagement, and timely exchange of news and information. These 1
>>
Roman Public Health Consulting LLC, Philadelphia, PA, USA
from the Coeditors
A 2007 article in this column encouraged health promotion professionals to incorporate technology and social media into their networking and provided examples of what at the time were relatively new online resources. This article highlights the importance of using social media to enhance professional development and provides new resources and practical advice that will be useful to health promotion professionals across the career spectrum. The author has extensive Health Promotion Practice July 2014 Vol. 15, No. 4 471–475 DOI: 10.1177/1524839914535213 © 2014 Society for Public Health Education
Author’s Note: Address correspondence to Leah A. Roman, Roman Public Health Consulting LLC, e-mail: leah@romanph consulting.com; phone: 610-649-4245.
Associate Editors, Career Development Department Randall R. Cottrell, DEd, MCHES, is a professor and program coordinator for the Public Health Studies program at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. Holly Mata, PhD, CHES, is a postdoctoral research fellow with the Hispanic Health Disparities Research Center at The University of Texas at El Paso. Her research interests include cultural influences on health behaviors, mental health and substance use in the U.S.–Mexico border region, and building community capacity to advocate for health equity policy.
471
characteristics make social media an ideal place to engage with a broader range of colleagues; participate in professional development events; promote expertise, products, or services; and learn about career-enhancing opportunities such as funding and fellowships. The idea of integrating electronic resources into networking is supported by Rojas-Guyler, Murnan, and Cottrell (2007) in their article on “Networking for Career-Long Success: A Powerful Strategy for Health Education Professionals.” The authors encouraged the use of technology for networking whenever possible. The 2007 publication included a sample of online networking resources that were just beginning to gain popularity. The current article will update that list of resources (with a focus on social media platforms), highlight recent advances in social media, and provide practical examples of how these applications can enhance career development. How Social Media Has Advanced It has been recommended that health promotion professionals “build networking into what you are already doing” (Rojas-Guyler et al., 2007, p. 232). Data from The Pew Internet & American Life Project support the notion that social media and mobile devices are already heavily integrated into daily activities. According to a 2012 Pew survey, 67% of Internet users use some type of social networking site (Duggan & Brenner, 2013). The following year, Pew conducted a survey focused on internet use and mobile devices. According to that 2013 survey, 57% of American adults use their cell phone to go online. In addition, 21% of the total cell phone owner population says they mostly access the Internet using their phone (Duggan & Smith, 2013). The ubiquity of web-enabled mobile devices has increased the accessibility of social media. In addition to offering web access in almost any location, smart phones also offer applications or “apps” that provide shortcuts to users’ social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. With increased accessibility over the past 6 years, there has also been enhancement and innovation regarding the number and type of social media resources. See Table 1 for a sample listing of these resources. There is also growing recognition that social media is a valuable career development, academic, and practice tool. National public health agencies like CDC have published tool kits to support social media writing and strategy development (CDC, 2011, 2012). Academic institutions such as Tufts University offer concentrated
472 HEALTH PROMOTION PRACTICE / July 2014
coursework on using digital strategies in health communication (http://publichealth.tufts.edu/Academics/ HCOM-Program/Certificate). Writing style authorities like the American Psychological Association have even released guidance regarding how to cite social media communication in an academic paper (Lee, 2013). With this mounting support for social media, health promotion professionals should explore its potential to promote development across all phases of the career spectrum. The practical strategies below are intended to support new and existing users with one or more of the following social media strategies: initiation of use, transition of use from personal to career-focused activities, and the expansion of use to new channels and participation opportunities. How Social Media Can Enhance Career Development Social media offers diverse networking opportunities, all of which can enhance career development. These opportunities are made possible through several unique features of social media. First, its focus on usergenerated content encourages scholarly inquiry and dialog among users. Second, its easy access through the Internet allows users to participate in events around the world. Joining Communities of Practice. Social media channels share a common practice of encouraging users to organize their followers or connections by category. This provides the opportunity for individuals to create and join one or more communities of practice. For example, the social networking site Google+ offers users the opportunity to join an existing community (e.g., Public Health) or create a new one based on their interests. Many channels use “hashtags,” which are an organizational system that originated on Twitter. The system uses the # symbol (called a hashtag) to identify keywords or topics (Twitter, 2013). These hashtags can help users create lists of colleagues with shared interests (e.g., health education), target their communication, and search for conversations or resources tailored to their focus area. The Symplur Healthcare Hashtag Project (http://www.symplur.com/healthcare-hashtags/) has created a database of relevant hashtags to follow and is a valuable resource for both new and existing social media users. Social media also provides users with the opportunity to interact directly with international, national, and local professional organizations of interest. For
Career Development
Table 1 Sampling of Social Media Resources Resource
Platform Type
Social networking
Google+
Social networking
Social networking
Tumblr
Blog
Social networking
WordPress
Blog
YouTube
Video sharing
How It Works
Reach
Allows users to create a profile, connect with “friends,” and share updates/ photos/videos Allows users to create a profile, join/ create communities of interest, share updates/photos/videos, and join group video meetings (“hangouts”) Allows users to create a career-focused profile to link with professional connections and interest groups. Allows users to post writing, photos, quotes, links, music, and videos; offers unique one-click option to reblog from other Tumblrs Allows users to share short updates (140-character “tweets”) and “follow” updates from accounts of interest Allows users to customize their own website to share writing, photos, and videos Allows users to search, watch, comment, and share originally created videos
There are 1.11 billion active Facebook users in the world. There are 359 million active Google+ users in the world.
Where to Find It www.facebook. com www.plus.google. com
There are 160 million www.linkedin. active LinkedIn users in com the world. There are 147.1 million www.tumblr.com Tumblr blogs in the world. There are 218 million active Twitter users in the world. There are 72.4 million WordPress sites in the world. There are more than 1 billion unique users to YouTube each month.
www.twitter.com
www.wordpress. com www.youtube. com
NOTE: All the above social media resources are no cost to join. The information in this table was current as of November 15, 2013.
example, the American Public Health Association (APHA; @PublicHealth) and The Society for Public Health Education (SOPHE; @SOPHEtweets) have very active Twitter accounts. With their accounts being updated several times per day, social media offers followers an advantage over those just receiving weekly or monthly newsletters. Followers can quickly learn about timely matters such as career opportunities and advocacy issues. In addition, these online relationships often translate into real-life networking opportunities. For instance, the APHA plans an in-person “Social Media Meet Up” during its Annual meeting that is open to all members with an active social media account. These examples demonstrate how social media can offer innovative ways to join multiple professional networks. This can be an asset to any health promotion professional whether a new graduate, seasoned expert, or someone transitioning into a new health career area or practice setting.
Participating in Events. Social media provides users with the opportunity to actively participate in a variety of professional development events, often without ever leaving their desks. These events can include livetweeted conferences or meetings, Twitter chats, Google hangouts, or webcasts. Live-tweeting is the practice of engaging on Twitter for a continuous period of time with a series of focused tweets (Twitter, 2014). Live-tweeters use a specific hashtag in their tweets to provide context for their followers and identify the event with which they are associated. Events such as the SOPHE Health Education Advocacy Summit (#HEAS2013) and the National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media (#hcmmconf) actively promote their hashtags and encourage live-tweeting and participation from users attending both in person and on social media. Participants can follow up with speakers directly on social media regarding slides, resources, or questions raised during meeting presentations. Live-tweeting
Roman / USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENHANCE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES 473
provides an opportunity to extend advocacy efforts and conference content to a much broader audience by capitalizing on the social media connections of meeting attendees. One key benefit of live-tweeting is that it has been shown to increase both the number of user followers and message shares (called “retweets”; Twitter, 2014). Therefore, live-tweeting can help boost a user’s visibility on Twitter. Social media users can also participate in Twitter chats, which are facilitated discussions on a focused topic. As with event live-tweeting, participants use a specific hashtag in their tweets so that fellow participants can see their responses and they can be included in the larger conversation. Health promotion professionals have a wide variety of regular chats to choose from based on their interests. These chats promote networking, as well as the opportunity to initiate conversations on historic or timely topics. For example, in August 2013 SOPHE leaders played a key role in promoting a timely chat of interest to their members. The chat (#ACAminorities) was hosted by the Office of Minority Health and explored the impact of the Affordable Care Act on minority communities. Other chats that may be of interest to health promotion professionals include one hosted by Dr. Richard Besser, Chief Medical Editor for ABC News. Dr. Besser’s chat (#abcDrBchat) runs weekly and addresses a diverse group of clinical and public health topics (e.g., domestic violence). For organizations and individuals just getting started with this strategy, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012) has released A Guide to Hosting a Twitter Chat. Google+ has a “hangout” feature that integrates video and is popular for both small and large professional development events. “Hangouts” are typically used for private video chats with small groups of people (e.g., committee planning meeting). “Hangouts on Air” are publicly viewable and can be recorded to a personal or organizational YouTube channel. The Carter Center (http://www.cartercenter.org) regularly uses hangouts to promote discussion regarding key public health initiatives. For example, in September 2013 they hosted a Google Hangout called “Global Health: How We Can Make a Difference.” Webcasts and webinars that integrate a simultaneous social media component are another example of innovative online events that support career development. For example, in 2013 CDC’s National Prevention Information Network hosted a webcast series called “In the Know: Social Media for Public Health” (http:// www.cdcnpin.org/scripts/features/feature_itk.asp). Participants were encouraged to use Twitter during the event to (a) live-tweet, (b) ask questions to event presenters (which were then read on the air and/or
474 HEALTH PROMOTION PRACTICE / July 2014
answered via Twitter), and (c) chat with fellow participants. Over the course of six webcasts, panelists discussed the application of social media to public health efforts, specifically emphasizing the evaluation of such efforts. The National Prevention Information Network worked with credentialing agencies to offer free Certified Health Education Specialist and Certified Public Health continuing education credits for each of their webcasts. Therefore, events such as these offer health promotion professionals an affordable and convenient option to reach their career development and certification goals. Enriching Classroom Learning. Social media offers a unique career development and networking opportunity for health promotion students, staff, and faculty in academic settings. Applications such as blogs are being used in the public health classroom as a way to increase interactivity between classmates and faculty, while also preparing students for a career in which social media skills are highly valued (Cobus, 2009; Goldman, Cohen, & Sheahan, 2008). Cobus (2009) incorporated blog and wiki (user-generated content websites) writing assignments into a course on urban public health to develop the students’ skills regarding health information retrieval, evaluation, and translation. Social media assignments were also used to broaden the classroom relationship beyond individual students and faculty. Students were encouraged to primarily communicate using the course blog “in the spirit of creating a healthy, online climate of participatory engagement” (p. 27). Similarly, Goldman et al. (2008) integrated seminar blogs into a large graduate-level introductory public health course with the goal of promoting student collaboration and learning. Students posted their assignments on their section blogs and were required to read and comment on those posted by fellow classmates. This strategy enabled students to receive prompt feedback on assignments, not just from instructors but from peers as well. The blogs also facilitated student–faculty interaction. For example, guest speakers could communicate with students directly on their blogs if a question arose after class. When students were surveyed at the end of the course, most reported that the blog format provided more opportunities to learn from classmates and hear their perspectives. As with in-person networking, social media networking has the potential to affect professional identity. With that in mind, health promotion professionals should integrate privacy and ethics considerations into online activities. For example, social media would not be the venue to discuss a workplace conflict. For an in-depth discussion of the dos and don’ts of social
Career Development media for health promotion professionals, see Bernhardt, Alber, and Gold (2014). Although public health associations have not yet published formal social media use guidelines, helpful policies on social media privacy and professionalism can be found in related disciplines such as medicine (American Medical Association, 2010). In summary, social media offers health promotion professionals cost-effective opportunities to enhance their career by building communities of practice, participating in professional development events, and enriching classroom learning. The act of using social media for networking simultaneously builds an individual’s personal skill set in using these communication channels. These skills will become highly desirable as more organizations, like local health departments, integrate social media into their initiatives (Harris, Mueller, & Snider, 2013). References American Medical Association. (2010). Professionalism in the use of social media. Retrieved from http://www.ama-assn.org//ama/ pub/physician-resources/medical-ethics/code-medical-ethics/ opinion9124.page Bernhardt, J. M., Alber, J., & Gold, R. S. (2014). A social media primer for professionals: Digital dos and don’ts. Health Promotion Practice, 15, 168-172. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2011). The health communicator’s social media toolkit. Retrieved from http://www.cdc. gov/healthcommunication/ToolsTemplates/SocialMediaToolkit_ BM.pdf Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2012). Guide to writing for social media. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/social media/tools/guidelines/pdf/guidetowritingforsocialmedia.pdf
Cobus, L. (2009). Using blogs and wikis in a graduate public health course. Medical References Services Quarterly, 28(1), 22-32. Duggan, M., & Brenner, J. (2013). The demographics of social media users-2012. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/Social-media-users.aspx Duggan, M., & Smith, A. (2013). Cell internet use 2013. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved from http://pewinternet.org/Reports/2013/ Cell-Internet.aspx Goldman, R. H., Cohen, A. P., & Sheahan, F. (2008). Using seminar blogs to enhance student participation and learning in public health. American Journal of Public Health, 98, 1658-1663. Harris, J. K., Mueller, N. L., & Snider, D. (2013). Social media adoption in local health departments nationwide. American Journal of Public Health, 103, 1700-1707. doi:10.2105/ AJPH.2012.301166 Lee, C. (2013, October 18). How to cite social media in APA style (Twitter, Facebook, and Google+) [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/2013/10/how-to-cite-socialmedia-in-apa-style.html Merriam-Webster. (2013). Social media. Retrieved from http:// www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/social%20media Rojas-Guyler, L., Murnan, J., & Cottrell, R. R. (2007). Networking for career-long success: A powerful strategy for health education professionals. Health Promotion Practice, 8, 229-233. Twitter. (2013). Using hashtags on twitter. Retrieved from https:// support.twitter.com/articles/49309-using-hashtags-on-twitter Twitter. (2014). Tweet in the moment. Retrieved from https:// media.twitter.com/best-practice/tweet-in-the-moment U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2012). Health literacy online supplement: A guide to hosting a twitter chat. Retrieved from http://health.gov/healthliteracyonline/Twitter_ Chat_Guide.pdf
Roman / USING SOCIAL MEDIA TO ENHANCE CAREER OPPORTUNITIES 475
Copyright of Health Promotion Practice is the property of Sage Publications Inc. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
