I’m often asked by physicians why they should be on Twitter.
I don’t answer directly at first. Instead I respond with this question: What is your “why”?
To me this is the essential question to ask when contemplating Twitter, social media, or any other form of technology. Sadly, most physicians don’t really ask this question of themselves, and then when they do dive into social media they tend to struggle and find it a distraction and a waste of time.
To clarify this, let me give you a practical example of the importance of the What”s your “why” question.
Let’s say I’m speaking with a 58-year-old female family practice physician who shifting down to part-time clinically, but it’s contemplating a run to be a state representative.
Throughout her career, she’s become deeply interested in women’s issues and the disparities of access to healthcare for women minorities. Although she’s been very good at addressing these medically and one-on-one in the office, as she has gotten older, she has become more interested in the politics associated with these problems and she wants to problem solve at scale.
Moving a step further in this conversation, I realize that her specific interest in Twitter is based upon her observation that most state representatives have a Twitter account: Her real interest in Twitter stems from her desire to use it to help her get elected so she can help change healthcare policies.
Bingo. I now have her “why”.
Now I am able to directly answer her question – why should she be on Twitter – and just as importantly, how she should be on Twitter.
She is correct in her assumption that Twitter is a good place to start in social media for political candidate. In fact, Twitter along, with the simple campaign website (which states her views clearly and accepts donations) maybe all she needs.
Now that I have her purpose then the actual Twitter account becomes easy to design and manage.
For example, her headshot may need to be slightly less professional or intimidating than a typical physician’s headshot would normally be on their healthcare organizations website – and it certainly shouldn’t involve a white coat! it would need to be friendly and approachable.
Her background banner would also be relatively easy to create. Perhaps a background shot of the state capital, or her sitting with a group of citizens would be a great Twitter look; it certainly would be more appropriate than a background shot of her assisting in the surgery.
Written profile information would also be a slam dunk. Her written profile statement would go something like this: “State Senate candidate. Passionate about women in politics and healthcare. Physician.” + a link to her campaign page.
A Twitter account of a physician-citizen running for office would also need to contain types of content that would be different from a physician whose “why” is focused on preventive disease.
More specifically, it would the appropriate (and actually necessary) to take strong political positions in her tweets. Although usually I recommend against most physicians, most of the time, not tweeting about politics, this would clearly be an exception.
I would go a step further in advising her regarding her Twitter account as a budding politician and her concurrent position as a part-time physician: I would strongly recommend she have a discussion with her senior administration at work taking a hard look reviewing for organizations social media policies. (Most healthcare organizations would love one of their part-time physicians being a state senator, and would likely be accommodating – provided they are not surprised. In her particular case, I would suspect most healthcare organizations would be supportive, but would ask her not to link to the healthcare organizations page and not to discuss any specific healthcare organizational issues on her Twitter stream. Professionalism and politeness are a given).
Finally, clearly knowing her “why” would also be a great starting point to discuss her list strategy, retweet strategy, enter overall digital platform connection strategy.
Here’s the key point.
If the “why” had been equivocal, such as “I want to tweet about healthcare prevention and I’m thinking about writing a book and I may run for the state Senate one day” then the reality is twitter may not be the best place for her. Her ‘why” is to diffuse and lacks clarity and it’s likely her Twitter account will reflect this.
(Let me make a sidebar qualification here that I fell strongly about: If a doctor doesn’t yet have a clearly defined “why” but wants to use play as a form of understanding social media, then I would clearly support them diving into Twitter. Play, especially serious play, is greatly undervalued in healthcare, and healthcare social media is no exception.)
Bottom line: When a physician is contemplating diving into social media, they should do some hard thinking about their “why” first. They will find their Twitter strategy (and other social media and digital platform strategies ) fall in place much more easily.
Tweet on my friend.