Web 2.0, Social Media and Physiotherapy.

Over the last few months we’ve had a little look at the Web 2.0 applications and the social media tools that are available to us in the physiotherapy community. We have realised that they present us with ways to gather and share knowledge, as well as collaborate and network remotely and also more effectively and efficiently.

• From an educational perspective blogging is ideal for reflective practice and wikis for collaboration,
• in business blogging, Facebook, twitter and instant messaging allows us to quickly develop digital strategies to market to and communicate with our clients on-line,
• in research we can networking with our research groups, search for articles in social bookmarking sites, collaboratively edit documents and collect data from participants on-line,
• and for each individual practitioner there are multiple opportunities for networking, collaboration and autonomous learning.

Having covered all of this NOW is the time to start to have a play on the web. Here are some ideas for you to get started:

1. Start a blog and post one entry (or more if you get into it!!) each week
2. Follow at least five blogs (including this blog, Physiopedia and  Physiospot) and comment on them regularly
3. Sign up to Twitter, start tweeting and connecting with like minded individuals
4. Find and follow 5 or more physiotherapists on Twitter
5. Create an account at Physiopedia, create your profile and edit or add content
6. Connect with me on Twitter or LinkedIn

However, a word of warning…….

Don’t get overwhelmed by the information available.  Once you start exploring the Web and what is out there it is easy fall victim of information overload.  This can lead to a reluctance to become involved which is a wasted opportunity.  I’ll be dealing with how to avoid this in a future post.  

As a health care professional it is very important to be professional at all times when we engage in on-line activities.  The Web, and especially social media, is a public platform so it’s worth remembering that your use of it may become part of your ‘permanent record’.  Again this will be the topic of a future post.

Related posts:

1. What about Social Media?
2. Physiotherapy Websites, Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media Strategy
3. Microblogging for physiotherapy
4. Social Media Strategy for Physiotherapists
5. Let’s start with Web 2.0