http://www.rpharms.com/support-pdfs/top-social-media-tips-for-pharmacists.pdf

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Top Social Media Best Practice Tips for Pharmacists
So you’re a pharmacist and you love social media. Great! How do you ensure you are developing your
social media presence so that it benefits your career and your profession? There are standards you can
adhere to and tips you can follow to ensure social media is a constructive element in your career and for
your profession, and not just a time-waster. We’ve spoken to some top-tweeting, blogging and LinkedIn
using pharmacists to discover their best practice advice on using social media to benefit your career and
compiled them into a top tip list for you. Have any more tips to share? Get in touch. This list will evolve
with social media technology and trends, and your feedback.
Top Tip #1: Take the opportunity to interact and engage
Think of your social media interaction as a conversation. In an offline, face-to-face conversation, would
you blurt out your thoughts without listening to what’s being said first? Would you state your opinion on
something and walk away without hearing or responding to any responses? You can use social media to
announce your ideas and work, but you will be missing out on one of the key benefits of social media:
interactivity. You might also find that your networks don’t grow as much as they might if you engaged
and interacted with them. Remember that social media is a forum for conversation and the same
principles apply to online conversation as they do to face-to-face conversations. They key is to listen
first. Search hashtags to see what is being said about #pharmacy or #RPSFrancis or whatever topic
you’re interested in. Check what key Twitter personalities and bloggers are saying. See if any
stakeholder organisations have released statements. Then, share your thoughts. Weigh in on the
discussion. Start one if you wish, but be sure to engage with your readers – don’t simply post a thought
and log out. This applies especially to self-promotion. If you are promoting your good work, do it in a
discursive way. Stick around for any discussion that might ensue after your post.
Are you a blogger? Some bloggers choose to switch off the comments section of their blog. Consider
leaving them open and inviting comments. Yes, it will involve a little extra work in seeding out the spam,
but the extra effort might be worth it to achieve the engagement and interaction, and to access the
insights and learning that often occurs in the comment section.
“I’ve been blogging for 10 years and at times the comments became a real labour of love- they
attract utter cranks sometimes. On the other hand, much of the conversation aspect seems to
have moved onto Twitter…” - Anthony Cox
“Feedback on your social media performance – the blog comments, the retweets, the likes - is
just as important as feedback on your work performance. It helps you to develop your online
persona and adapt your strategy to meet your needs.” - Julia Scott

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Top Tip #2: Share useful information
You are a highly trained professional and you should not underestimate the value of the information you
contain. Think of social media as another vehicle to share your learning and knowledge. If you think
of/read/learn something useful – share it! You never know who could benefit from the information you
share, or how. Every little bit of credible, sound information shared by a medical professional counters
the vast amounts of medical misinformation that confuses patients who seek information online.
Follow credible sources of medical information. Share anything they tweet that might be of interest to
your followers. If you can tweet about something that could be useful to someone, tweet it at them or
their relevant patient group. For example, if you have specialist knowledge in mental health medicines,
why not follow @rcpsych and patient groups such as @mindcharity, read their blogs and comment on
their posts - join in their conversations, adding your expertise as you go?
The thing about sharing pharmacy information is that it can sometimes be difficult to express in
accessible, easy-to-understand language. Its important to keep this mind when you are sharing with a
general audience. When you are sharing with your fellow pharmacy colleagues, feel free to revel in
acronyms and specialist terms. When you are aiming for a more general audience, try to translate your
information into accessible language. At the RPS, we use the blog as an outlet to translate complex
medical information into more accessible, conversational posts. We keep the blog posts as short as
possible, and as plainly written as possible. Blogs are a great way to share your expertise and to show
the world that as a pharmacist, you are an expert in medicine. Before starting your blog, consider the
audience of your blog. Unless it has a highly specialised audience, try to ensure your language,
terminology and content is accessible and relevant to a wide audience. In short, if the content of your
blog contains something that can benefit the general public, keep the language simple. This is also
relevant across other social media activity, such as tweeting. If you are interested in blogging for our
website, www.rpharms.com – get in touch!
NB. Whether you are tweeting, blogging or commenting, remember to link to and properly credit any
ideas or quotes from other’s– not only for etiquette’s sake, but also to establish and build your network.
Top Tip #3: Share wins
Pharmacy needs you! Social media is your opportunity to be an ambassador for your profession, as it
faces the challenge of a rapidly changing environment. Champion your profession by highlighting and
sharing positive news about pharmacy and your pharmacist colleagues. At the RPS, we use blogs,
Twitter and LinkedIn to communicate the value of pharmacy and pharmacists. Share your wins with us
so we can share them with our ever-increasing network. Follow our updates and share the news we post
about with your followers. Let’s work together to advance the profession and to build its profile.

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Top Tip #4: Be careful giving medicines advice online
NB – this could and should and will be an entirely separate and more detailed document. It is a
very contentious issue, and difficult terrain to provide concrete guidance on. As technologies
and trends change, and patients become more accustomed to finding medical information
online, pharmacists will have to have an effective approach to offering medicines advice online.
Please get in touch with your thoughts and ideas on this matter, and watch this space.
In the meantime, here are some thoughts on giving medicines advice online:
As the amount of ‘Google-diagnoses’ increase among patients who seek health information online
increases, the value of your social media presence increases. Consider taking the time where possible
to counter medicines misinformation with your expert knowledge – but note that this requires
consistency and commitment, and you will have to adhere to the same standards of patient care as you
would offline, as much as possible. Offering medicines advice online is tricky business. Some prefer to
avoid it altogether. If you choose to provide advice online, always encourage the patient to speak to a
pharmacist or doctor face to face. Never reveal confidential information. If a patient enters into a
discussion about medicines with you, don’t end the discussion until the patient is ready. Offer to take the
conversation offline. Share any interesting advice and findings from the conversation with the patient’s
consent, without revealing confidential patient information. For now, the choice is yours. This is an ever-changing
playing field and you should be very careful when entering onto it.
“I think the correct response is not to get involved and strongly advise the patient to contact their
GP or local pharmacist. General points about medicines fine, getting into complex discussions
about individualised care? Mad. You wouldn’t have a full medical record and may well be
opening yourself up to litigation. Alternatively you may be undermining other professionals who
have the full facts or answering questions about someone else’s care which is being presented
as theirs. Besides, who provides liability insurance for this activity?” - Anthony Cox
“There is so much misinformation about medicines out there on the internet – you could take the
opportunity to point a patient in the direction of online information sources that you know to be
respected and validated, such as NHS Choices.” - Julia Scott
Top Tip #5: Think carefully before deciding whether or not to be
anonymous
The GMC has said that GPs should not have anonymous profiles on social media. This has been met
with equal praise and criticism. Some pharmacists choose to have anonymous profiles. Here are some
things to think about before you decide whether to be anonymous or open.
a) You may feel liberated enough to say things you might not say if your name was associated with
the comment. Often there are very good reasons why you filter what comes out of your mouth.
b) Anonymity is an illusion. A number of anonymous Twitter users and bloggers have been outed
over the years. Do you want to have to be worrying about this?

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c) What is wrong with being yourself? Part of building up a reputation is based on trust. It is hard to
put trust in people who hide their identity. Being a real person makes you more credible.
d) Anonymity is not sustainable. The way of the future is online openness. Anonymous profiles are
likely to become a thing of the past. Google is already merging all its products, such as Gmail,
YouTube.
“Many people I know separate the personal and professional into different platforms.
So, Facebook for friends and family, Twitter for work. There will of course be some
overlap, but it can be helpful to compartmentalise your SoMe activity.” - Julia Scott
Top Tip #6: Don’t feed the troll
It’s easy to get drawn into unconstructively negative conversations. This is not just a rookie error. Even
seasoned Twitter users can be swept up by currents of vitriol, which sometimes appear in waves in
reaction to certain issues, or can be an unfortunate permanent characteristic of some Twitter
communities. If your Twitter community is particularly negative, it can influence your personal norms and
provoke you into communicating more negatively than you ordinarily would, and committing yourself to
positions on issues that you might want to consider further before posting about. Consider your social
media output as a whole. How many of your tweets are negative in nature? In the same way you would
avoid toxically negative people – avoid such discussions online. If you can turn a negative conversation
into something constructive and positive – that’s great. In most cases though, trolls are best ignored and
association with them best avoided. Evidence suggests ignoring abusive trolls is the most effective way
of dealing with them, and provides the best outcome for your own sanity.
There are different views about how to deal with trolls:
“There are times when you shouldn’t respond, or even can’t professionally. I’ve had arguments
with people who are only interested in trolling – some of them are better ignored if you don’t
want to waste time or get depressed by the thought of using social media” - Anthony Cox
“If someone is continuously problematic or overly critical it would be worth inviting them to
contact you via private message or email. As long as you don’t simply ignore them as this can
make trolls even more angry and hungry.” - Ryan Hamilton
“Don’t feed the troll.” - Julia Scott
Happy tweets get the most followers: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23211-happy-snappy-tweets-
gain-the-most-Twitter-followers.html
Don’t feed the troll: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jun/12/how-to-deal-with-trolls

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Top Tip #7: Social media is the real world
Social media does not exist in an alternative consequence-free universe where you can do as you
please. A number of libel cases and even arrests have been made over recent years associated with
Twitter. You are still subject to the same professional standards. For example, think carefully before you
post anything about patients. To publish a case report in a journal you’d need consent of the patient. An
off-hand tweet about a patient you saw that day, might be identifiable to the patient or another person if
they know the timing and your location.
“Even if you think that what you’ve posted is anonymous, consider: could that patient recognise
themselves from the description of the situation that you’ve posted (they may be one of your
followers)? If the answer is yes, think again before you post.” - Julia Scott
 PJ article on social media and the law:
http://www.pjonline.com/news/think_you_can_just_let_loose_with_your_thoughts_on_so
cial_media_think_again?utm_source=feedly
 Twitter Users: Know the Law
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23211-happy-snappy-tweets-gain-the-most-
Twitter-followers.html
Top Tip #8: Have a strategy
Know what you want to achieve with social media and it can be a great learning tool, and can even
contribute to your CPD.
It’s easy (and fun!) to lose time posting about lunch, football and non-pharmacy related things, and its
important to show your unique personality and your human side, so don’t stop tweeting about non-work-related
topics. But if you have decided to use social media to benefit your career, consider setting
yourself a goal: 50% of what you put out on social media must serve your career and the pharmacy
profession. This helps to ensure you don’t waste/lose time to social media, and ensures you leave a
legacy of useful information online.
Audit your following list. Are you following useful sources of information? Are you engaging with the right
people? Every few months, take an objective look at your social media output and activity and decide if
you’re heading in the right direction, benefiting and not just wasting time, and consider what you can do
to get more out of social media. Talk to your peers and find out what they’re doing right. Identify a social
media mentor and try and take on some of their approaches to social media.
 Read our guidance on: Social Media and CPD, Twitter Chats and CPD

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Top Tip #9: Cast your net beyond pharmacy
Pharmacy impacts on the work of many other healthcare professionals, so having access to the Twitter
feed and blogs of doctors, nurses, midwives, paramedics etc can be an invaluable source of information
and discussion. The medical and nursing communities on Twitter are lively, and are both ahead of
pharmacy in terms of embracing the use of social media for professional purposes – but we can catch
up!
So, if you specialize in a particular area, try to track down some doctors who work in the same field.
They will probably already have a network of colleagues in the same specialism, and they may be
involved in Twitter journal clubs or chats relating to that area. For example, #teamhaem is a medical
education resource focusing on haematology, which runs regular discussions of patient case-studies.
In addition to clinical colleagues, hunt out and follow healthcare managers for insights into the
healthcare systems in which we work. There are several NHS CEOs on Twitter (@DGFoord curates
lists of tweeting CEOs, boards, CCGs etc), and one of the major benefits of this form of social media is
that the hierarchy is entirely flattened. A student nurse can direct a question to the Chief Nursing Officer,
and get an immediate answer.
“Much of my day-to-day work is around safe and secure use of medicines in hospital, so I work
closely with nurses. I follow lots of nurses on Twitter and join in with their discussions, which
helps give me deeper insight into nursing processes. I also follow a lot of anaesthetists – their
use of medicines is often innovative, and snippets of information on Twitter give me a peek
behind the doors of the operating theatre. I lurked on a @WeParamedics discussion about the
use of tranexamic acid in trauma, and learned that they give far more medicines via the
intraosseous route – something I know very little about – than I realised, which prompted some
CPD for me.” - Julia Scott
Top Tip #10: Share your Social Media knowledge
The bigger the pharmacist community on social media platforms, the more we can all get out of it. Use
your knowledge of it to encourage others to join the party.
If you have a colleague whom you know could write a wonderful blog, suggest it to them. Offer
encouragement and help; if they’re not tech-savvy, maybe you can advise on the available platforms
and how to get the blog started, then help them to promote it via your existing contacts. Get them to
record their knowledge, experience and insights for posterity, in a place where everyone can benefit
from them.
Perhaps you could teach your colleagues about the use of Twitter for professional purposes. Give a
short presentation at your next team meeting highlighting the basics of how Twitter is used and, more

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importantly, how you have benefited professionally. You already know the advantages of social media;
now it’s time for you to share those advantages with others.
“As part of a coursework presentation for my MSc, I snuck in a couple of slides about my use of
Twitter. I particularly wanted to highlight that I’d been able to develop a network of people with
experience and expertise in quality improvement, which will be an incredible resource for my
own work. And, of course, I hoped to get more of my fellow students tweeting too. ” - Julia Scott