Social Media for Healthcare Professionals

This assignment analyzes the use of social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook by healthcare professionals. It highlights how these platforms facilitate networking, knowledge sharing, and staying updated on industry trends. The student discusses the American Nurses Association's effective social media strategy and provides examples of valuable resources shared on these platforms.

1
Running Head: SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING
Social Media for Professional Networking
Student’s Name
Institution

2
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING
Social Media for Professional Networking
Social media platforms are vital tools for engagement and communication in my healthcare
profession. The main social media sites I use include LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. These
sites have many social features that allow me to engage with others effectively. I mainly use
LinkedIn and Twitter to communicate with professionals. LinkedIn is a professional-oriented and
is an excellent platform for building a professional network. I use this site to engage with
healthcare professionals in my network. I follow their posts to identify emerging trends in the
healthcare industry and contact them to find more information about specific things.
Additionally, I use LinkedIn to discover and connect with other professionals to expand my
professional network.
Twitter is an essential microblogging platform that enables me to gain insight from other
professionals. By following healthcare leaders, I can read their informative tweets and learn
more about best health care practices. While Twitter limits the size of tweets, users can post links
and embed images to reinforce their messages (Kwak, 2010). Often, most of the healthcare
professionals I follow post links to interesting blogging material. Such links enable me to
identify unique healthcare blogs that provide information relevant to my profession. I also use
Twitter to engage with other professionals by contributing to discussions. There are various
health care-related trends on twitter that I contribute to by posting relevant tweets. Such trends
give me visibility to the community of healthcare professionals on twitter and keep me updated
about changes in the healthcare industry.
Facebook is another crucial platform that I regularly use in my profession. It has more social
features than both Twitter and LinkedIn which makes it an asset in engaging others (Smith,
2012). I have joined several local and international healthcare-oriented Facebook groups.

3
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING
Members of these groups are healthcare professionals who have expertise in their fields. These
groups give me a chance to follow insightful posts and engage with other members hence
enabling me to learn as well as keeping me updated on emerging healthcare trends. Additionally,
I have liked several pages owned by healthcare organizations. Following these pages allows me
to continuously learn from experts who create informative posts focusing on various healthcare
issues.
American Nurses Association (ANA) is a nursing professional organization that is active on
different social media platforms. It emphasizes on protecting the nursing profession, preventing
illness, advocating care, and alleviating suffering (American Nurses Association, 2010). Its
mission is considered in its social media strategy as it regularly posts links on its social media
accounts that align with its organizational goals. The following are some of the links the
organization has posted on its Twitter account:
https://learn.ana-nursingknowledge.org/products/Nursing-Professional-Development-
Certification-PracticeIQ
https://www.nurse.com/blog/2017/09/01/theres-a-lesson-or-two-in-utah-nurses-shocking-arrest/
These links provide resources that may be beneficial to many nursing professionals. The first
link provides nurses with a short course in which they can learn new skills and enhance their
nursing career. Such a resource can enable nurses to grow their careers and improve their
performance and productivity (Ammentorp, 2007). The second link provides nurses with lessons
gained from a recent event that affected the nursing community. Nurses can draw insight from
this resource and apply it in their workplace.

4
SOCIAL MEDIA FOR PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING
References
Ammentorp, J., Sabroe, S., Kofoed, P. E., & Mainz, J. (2007). The effect of training in
communication skills on medical doctors’ and nurses’ self-efficacy: A randomized
controlled trial. Patient education and counseling, 66(3), 270-277.
American Nurses Association. (2010). Nursing's social policy statement: The essence of the
profession. Nursesbooks. org.
Kwak, H., Lee, C., Park, H., & Moon, S. (2010, April). What is Twitter, a social network or a
news media?. In Proceedings of the 19th international conference on World wide
web (pp. 591-600). ACM.
Smith, A. N., Fischer, E., & Yongjian, C. (2012). How does brand-related user-generated content
differ across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter?. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 26(2),
102-113.