To Twitter or not to Twitter
If that’s the question, it surely has been Tweeted at least once on Twitter. If you aren’t familiar with the free online service, it’s often referred to as microblogging. You can post an unlimited number of 140 character updates responding to the question “what are you doing now?” (a post is called a Tweet). Of course, it doesn’t have to be just what you are doing. It can be a question or a request for all of your “followers” (it’s not as creepy as it sounds, since following simply means you’ll get the other person’s posts).
Few social media tools generate such a broad range of opinions. There are those who love Twitter and those who really hate it. I know lots of people who love blogs and podcasts, but few who hate them. If you don’t like them, don’t read or listen. But with Twitter, people actually write and talk about how they hate it. Blogger Louis Gray wrote in January of this year that he remains unconvinced. Publishing 2.0 posted a missive in December on why the writer stopped using Twitter. On the other side, Commoncraft posted late last year some excellent reasons why Twitter is worthwhile. And MarketingProfs went so far as to list seven ways marketers can use Twitter.
The same debate rages among the staff at Greystone.Net, with some of us being big fans and others still not quite getting it. So, in the spirit of learning, Greystone.Net is now Tweeting (http://twitter.com/greystone). We’re not the only ones in healthcare doing so. M.D. Anderson is using the tool to update their followers on the latest news (http://twitter.com/MDAnderson_News). Whether you jump on the Twitter bandwagon or join the legions of naysayers, you owe it to yourself to understand it. While you are there, check us out!
I think your decision as a health care institution to use twitter should depend on the goals of your organization. The MD Anderson News twitter was created to be an additional channel in which to distribute news content, and adds link benefit for visibility in search. Twitter also is only one tool in a larger MD Anderson social media strategy.
Also News is not the only thing you can do with Twitter. MD Anderson actually has 3 very different twitter pages. Some other cool uses of twitter in the healthcare space are http://www.twitter.com/aacr and /careflash and /americancancer
Thanks for sharing those. The question that I saw raised recently is whether people are using Twitter just as another channel to push news, and is that appropriate. I’ll be eager to see how that plays out!