Twitter tips for social workers…
10th October 2011
Increasing numbers of social work and social care professionals are using social networking tools such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help them communicate.
At Liquid, one of our favourites is Twitter, and last week, a great collaborative topic was started, called “Twitter Tips for Social Workers“, or “#twittertips4sw“.
Various social work and social care contributors offered up tips, ranging from helpful hints and how to get the most out of Twitter, to serious points about professionalism, identity, and safety. Here are some of our favourites:
@Ermintrude2, (who started the topic):
- “Engage, discuss, chat. The strength of Twitter is in 2 way flows. Don’t wait to be invited to comment”
- “Don’t become enamoured by follower count. Quality and discussion counts more than numeric mass of followers”
- “The fastest growing subject of conduct referrals (to the Scottish Social Services Council) is online behaviour. Be aware of what you’re tweeting!”
- “Be generous with sharing your knowledge, wisdom & thoughts. Help people make connections by linking to good resources”
- “Don’t suppress yr beliefs and value systems but don’t court controversy ‘just for the sake of it’. Be constructive”
- “Be real n share personal tweets, (intelligently!) but know the difference between personal tweets and private information”
- “Search for specific topics/hashtags – such as #adoption - to help find new people to follow who sare your interests”
- “Think about whether you want a level of anonymity before you begin tweeting, and always tweet responsibly…”
- “Be sure to retweet good tweets! It supports quality resources & directly introduces yourself to the original tweeter.”
- “Authenticity & real voices trump broadcasting & press releases”
- “Be proud of excellent work and celebrate successes”
Well done to all involved for coming up with some great ideas. If you want to catch up on all of the tips that were offered, click on the topic link: ”#twittertips4sw“
