Nutrition is taking centre stage; everybody seems to have an opinion on it. I believe that nutritionists and dietitians need to become more visible on social media platforms, so I decided to put my money where my mouth is and present my views to nutritionists and other healthcare professionals at a seminar in London yesterday.
Check out my slides if you’re hungry for more…
Topics I covered were:
Why should nutritionists engage with social media?
Not only is social media a great way to network, but it’s also our chance to make sure that misinformation is counteracted with sound evidence-based advice. And the icing on the cake is that you can follow popular journals, organisations and conferences so that you keep up with your continuous professional development. Ideal for all healthcare professionals wanting to keep up to date!
What might be ordinary to you is intriguing to others
What you choose for breakfast or what you cook for dinner may be simple everyday activities to a nutritionist, but to many others it’s a source of inspiring tips on how to eat better. I often tweet simple things like ‘I had peanut butter on granary toast for breakfast. Peanut butter has no #cholesterol in it!’ Simple stuff for dietitians, yet an intriguing and informative insight for the public.
The jargon
I suggest you come to grips with twitter language: hashtags and handles for starters! That way you’ll make the most of your conversations with other people and you’re more likely to show up in searches.
#RDUK – twitter forum
I am one of the moderators of #RDUK, a monthly Twitter conversation on the latest headlines, new studies or controversial topics, in collaboration with the British Dietetic Association. An easy way for nutritionists who aren’t familiar with twitter is to open a twitter account and join us for #RDUK. Preliminary figures suggest we reach excess of 40,000 followers through retweeting of #RDUK tweets.
Keep it professional
If you wouldn’t want your post displayed on a billboard outside your work don’t post it!
