I have decided to put my money where my mouth is this year and use Twitter and Facebook to promote the 24 Hour Virtual International Day of the Midwife event on May 5. It will be interesting to see how much conversation and collaboration comes to fruition via these two social media platforms.
The information about our Twitter account can be found on this page:
http://twitter.com/IDM2010
To talk to us you need to use @IDM2010. Any time you talk about us, use the hash tag (label) #IDM2010. This allows everyone to follow the conversation about the 2010Virtual IDM here.
Pam Harnden has kindly agreed to help me moderate this account - Pam is known as @SmilingPamela. And I am @SarahStewart on Twitter.
For more information about how to join and use Twitter, go to The Twitter Guidebook. And here are a few of my thoughts about how to use Twitter for teaching and learning, as well as how to know who to follow on Twitter.
The Virtual IDM Facebook page is here:
The Virtual International Day of the Midwife May 5 2010
Feel free to become a fan, leave messages or add any videos or pictures. Once the program for the day has been finalized we will post it on the Facebook page.
Why use all these tools?
To people who are unused to social media, having so many different pages and forums may feel confusing and may even appear to be information overload. But to reach as many people as possible, I feel it is important to use varied online communication channels. It is then up to you to use whichever communication forum you feel most comfortable with to receive information about the Virtual IDM and communicate with the organizers.
Communication and collaboration
My other reason for using these various channels is it allows me to communicate and collaborate with a broad spectrum of people in the planning and facilitation of this event. Already I have used Twitter, Flickr and this blog to develop the event logo - I could never designed and developed the logo by myself.
Research project
Finally, the permanent record left in these places will allow me to track the development and facilitation of this event so I can turn my experiences into a case study for publication. Hopefully, this case study will act as a framework for other midwives and educators who are organizing events and conferences.
Have you used social media to organise events? What do you feel are the advantages and disadvantages?
Research project
Finally, the permanent record left in these places will allow me to track the development and facilitation of this event so I can turn my experiences into a case study for publication. Hopefully, this case study will act as a framework for other midwives and educators who are organizing events and conferences.
Have you used social media to organise events? What do you feel are the advantages and disadvantages?
4 comments:
it looks great Sarah and it is early enough to get lots of speakers.... will be watching... if you need anything just ask.. good luck.
Can I put you down for a slot? You were a fantastic support last year...hope to twist your arm again this year..thanks a lot :)
Absolutely impressed with how you are using social media for this event. I'm almost wishing I was a midwife to take part - seeing all the facebook and twitter posts.
Very best wishes for the 5th.
Thanks, Peta...you don't have to be a midwife to come along :)
Using social media has certainly resulted a much, much higher level of engagement this year. Facebook has been amazing because it's about the only technology that midwives use on a big scale...so as the saying goes...if you can't beat them, join them...
What will be really interesting to see is how many people actually turn up.
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