By the time you read this, I will have given what has been billed by my Twitter chum @PGTips42 at Bradford District Care Trust as a Social Media Master Class. 

In fact you would have to look hard to find someone who is less of a social media master than me. If they were paying me, the 60 attendees would by now have asked for their money back. Luckily, I am doing it for free. This gives me a chance to explore some recent thoughts with them and to visit the beautiful model village of Saltaire in West Yorkshire. The legacy of Sir Titus Salt could teach us a thing or two about philanthropic investment in social capital and infrastucture for the good of everyone, not just the richest.

Back to social media. One of the promises I made to myself when I retired from the NHS was that I would accept speaking engagements only when they were about something that really interested me, and that I would never again use Powerpoint. I’ve stuck to this for 2 1/2 years and it has served me pretty well. I did think about breaking the second rule for this session, as some screen grabs from Facebook and Twitter would have been nice, especially if they included kittens. But I decided against it.

Instead, I will have meandered through some personal insights, drawn from this blog and the references herein, and even better, found out what the attendees think.

My personal approach to using social media is how I tend to approach most things – I jump in and have a go, ignore wise advice and instead work out the rules as I go along. This isn’t the wrong way, but nor is it the right way. It’s just my way. But however you choose to get started, putting yourself out there via social media is undoubtedly scary. It is important to take care. I do highly recommend this very well constructed article by Annie Cooper and Alison Inglehearn. It will help you stay safe.

Once you have chosen your preferred social media platform – such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc (and this can feel like a Betamax v VHS choice), here are an updated set of rules I shared in a previous blog that might help a social media novice get started.

1. Do it yourself.
2. Listen twice at least twice much as you speak.
3. Don’t rise to the bait or post when angry or under the influence of dis-inhibitors.
4. Share opinions but remember they are only your opinions. Others are allowed to disagree!
5. Where possible, stick to facts and values.
6. As in face-to-face conversation, seek common ground.
7. Don’t believe everything you read.
8. Don’t only talk to people you know you will agree with. Some people describe those who do as living in an echo-chamber.
9. There ARE trolls out there. But not as many as you might be led to believe.
10. Be kind, always – to yourself and to others.

It is possible, and great fun, to crowd-source a seminar, as I have now done a few times. Yes, it takes more time than the usual approach. (And it doesn’t finish on the day. It is important to thank people properly who have made the effort to help you.) The benefits are the potential to engage many times more not only with your direct audience but also with others via social media. And to widen your own learning in ways you could not have imagined. Most of what you see here has been achieved with the help of my social media friends. 

Given my passion about mental health, I must mention the impact of social media, which can either be overlooked or understated, in my experience. I thank my friends for reminding that social media is only a very small part of the world. It can be a source of solace and support, as I have sometimes found.  But it can also cut you off, if you let it. And it can be vicious, self-righteous and damaging. People can hide behind anonymity, so bad behaviour is invariably worse, goes more unchecked and can be more intrusive than in face-to-face interactions. I wrote this blog about Twitter  in 2014 which you might find helpful.

Blogging is not compulsory. If you like sharing thoughts in writing, you will probably enjoy blogging and learn to do it well. Like everything worthwhile, it takes practice. And if you don’t, you won’t. 

I would also mention that, however much you like the blog site you have chosen, unless someone (i.e. you and/or your readers) are paying for it, you and they ARE the product. The same applies to all social media platforms and indeed all publications, such as “free” newspapers. If we want original, independent writing to thrive, we MUST pay for books, journals, newspapers, even blog-sites. Otherwise it won’t be long before the only things available are products sponsored from a commercial or otherwise partisan perspective. And that is a very sinister prospect. 

Some people use social media platforms such as Twitter for swift repartee, and blog about more considered and complex thoughts.  I would argue that blogging can help us to work out what we think. And that we can use Twitter and other chat sites for this too. After all, there is no point getting involved in conversations if we have already made up our minds about something. Here is a bit more about why I write a blog.

Just to show that I have been thinking about social media for a while, here is something I wrote for the HSJ in 2012.

This slide deck on the role of social media in health is the extraordinary Dr Helen Bevan, @HelenBevan on Twitter. Helen is a genius in improvement methodology and practice as well as new ways of working, including using social media. 

And I thank another wonderful friend @AnnieCoops for introducing me to this lovely video poem about the social media imprint we leave behind us. Like all good things on social media, it will make you think really hard. Which is the best sort of thinking. 

Here are some of my new friends at Bradford District Care Trust. They were AMAZING!!!

And given that I mentioned kittens, here is William to wish you all well for 2017.