Marie Ennis O’Connor with contributions from Christopher Snider

Social media is a way to disseminate knowledge and democratize health care conversations.

At Stanford Medicine X we encourage you to use Twitter as a way of interacting with other delegates and to amplify and share the conference experience with those who cannot attend in person. If you don’t already have a Twitter account, it is simple to set one up. Refer to this Twitter guide which takes you through the sign-up process.

Get on Twitter today!

Once you have set up your account, you are ready to tweet. We’ve put together this guide to help you get the most from live-tweeting the Medicine X conference.

  1. Tag your conference related tweets with the hashtag #MedX. It’s a good idea to let your followers know in advance the meaning of the hashtag and why you are tweeting from the conference. Encourage them to listen in online.
  2. Tweet links to websites, studies, or other information which will enhance understanding (but don’t spam).
  3. Avoid tweeting sound-bites that won’t make sense to online listeners. Strive for originality and context; make it relatable to your Twitter followers.
  4. Select key quotes and statistics to share, making sure to attribute quotes to the speaker who made them, by using quotation marks. Whenever you cite a speaker, add their Twitter handle (and affiliation if known).
  5. Highlight new discoveries, research, publications, or collaborations in your tweets. However please don’t do so if the presenter has made it clear they do not want their work tweeted.
  6. It’s ok to be constructively critical, but don’t be needlessly negative in your tweets.
  7. Don’t tweet in a vacuum; engage with fellow live tweeters and contribute to a larger conversation.
  8. Be human.  Don’t keep your head buried in your laptop or tablet. Remember to look up from your device and watch the presenter from time to time. This is not just a courtesy to the speaker, it is also an opportunity for you to practice the art of undivided attention.
  9. Be social. Don’t restrict yourself to tweeting behind a screen; seize the opportunity to network and meet new people face-to-face too. Live-tweeting is a great way to meet like-minded people, so use it to organize “tweetups” at coffee and lunch breaks during the event, or dinner in the evening to further the connection.
  10. Please consider using the hashtag #MedX on other social platforms that you frequent, such as Storify, Instagram, Vine, Periscope, or Facebook. It will extend your audience and make recapping your experiences easier if you have something in common to search for across social media platforms.
  11. Prepare your devices. Smartphone apps such as HootSuite and laptop apps like tchat.io, TweetDeck, Hootsuite will make it easier for you to navigate the #MedX-specific feed, your primary feed, and any replies that may come your way simultaneously.
  12. Pictures help tell an engaging story. It might restrict the number of characters you can use in a specific tweet, sometimes that’s the best way to pain a picture rather than simply dropping a bunch of names in a single tweet.
  13. Learn the lingo. RT – retweet, resharing something. MT – modified tweet, similar to a retweet, but only sharing a portion of someone else’s tweet.
  14. Quote other tweets. A useful and increasing trend is to include a link to a tweet you want to reply to or add commentary. To see an example, click here.
  15. Curate or create! If you are slow to type, don’t be afraid to retweet what someone else says. There’s no shame in crediting someone else for what you ultimately wanted to say.
  16. Have fun!
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