It goes without saying that when you are representing yourself as a physician or health professional, you do not want to be argumentative or use profanity.  You also don’t want to get into specifics about any one patient as this is a direct violation of HIPAA regulations.

But who should you NOT follow?

7 Types of People to Avoid

  1. Bad Statistics: While there are major twitter feeds that I like to keep up with like NJM, Mayo Clinic, British Lancet for instance, I will not follow those who do not follow me.  It stands to reason that if a viewer sees that those following you are a mere fraction of the number you follow, it will appear that you are a small fish in a large pond- hardly a guru in your field.
  2. No Website: Check out the URL on the twitter site.  If it is not valid, chances are that the creator of this tweet is a spammer
  3. Fake Moniker: if the twitter handle is just the name of a company or profession (and has nothing to do with the health field) and there is no real name, it is a good idea not to validate them
  4. Monopolizer: If someone is dominating the Twitter stream with irrelevant or insignificant posts, don’t tie up the feed.  Your other viewers will get “fed up” and stop viewing you, missing the messages that you will want to convey
  5. Fan Club: Don’t follow people who are only following you and want you to reciprocate to drive up their numbers.  Often they also advertise that they can get you more followers for a fee or have other products that they would like you to buy.
  6. The Big Yawn: If someone is a total bore and is not informative or entertaining, cut the association.  Reading them will be a chore and nothing more.
  7. Negative Viber: Get rid of those who only want to cut down people, complain about services and bad-mouth the health profession.

Think of those you enjoy reading…those who are entertaining and educational- and your viewers will too!

Need help tweeting on a a regular basis?  That is where a social media expert can help.  Contact me at: Support@CompleteContentPackage.com and we can get you started!