1.
Using Social Media for Influence and Impact
Leigh Kendall
Programme Lead (Social Influence)
NHS Horizons
#ProjectA Improvement Virtual Session, 21 November 2019

2.
• The session will be informal, interactive and fun!
• We’ll be talking about the role Twitter has with
healthcare involvement; superconnectors;
spread and reach; measurement.
• Please join in the chat box with reflections,
comments, questions
• We’ll pause a few times during the session for
feedback
• Please tweet if you’d like – my handle is
@LeighAKendall and the hashtag is #ProjectA
About the session

3.
What is Social Media?

4.
Social media represents a global
shift in how the health and care
system, people, patients,
professionals and students connect

5.
The healthcare industry is changing with incredible
speed, and one of the major contributors to this
change is the dramatic upsurge in healthcare
communication brought on by social media
Symplur

6.
Twitter for healthcare improvement
Whilst multiple social media channels are used
in healthcare improvement, Twitter is the number
one channel for sharing and influencing.

7.
To annotate on a shared screen
1. At the top of your screen, click View Options.
2. Click Annotate.
3. This will open the annotation tools.
4. Choose ‘Stamp’ (5th icon from the left)
4. Close the annotation tools at any time by clicking the X in the annotation tool bar.
Do you have a Twitter account?
Yes No

8.
Quick tour of Twitter
@ - your username (handle)
Other people have
been tagged
Bio
# - hashtag – useful for collating and
finding tweets on the same topic
Add a picture – gets
more attention!
Tagging people in
saves characters for
what you want to say!
(Each tweet has 240 character maximum)

9.
Twitter Turn Ons
• Be polite
• Be kind
• Be relevant
• Be authentic
• Engage
• Find your people
• Share relevant
content
• Say thanks, give
credit where due
• Me, me, me
• Keep saying the
same thing again and
again and again….
• Cliques
• Rudeness
• Broadcasting, no
interaction
• Auto-DMs
Twitter Turn Offs

10.
Social Media Guidelines
 Information about the context and benefits of using social media
 What to be aware of and something about the process to follow in
using social media
 Principles to guide the use of social media tools in your
professional capacity
 Useful links
typically include:
CONSULT BOTH YOUR ORGANISATIONAL
& PROFESSIONAL GUIDELINES

11.
To annotate on a shared screen
1. At the top of your screen, click View Options.
2. Click Annotate.
3. This will open the annotation tools.
4. Choose ‘Stamp’ (5th icon from the left)
4. Close the annotation tools at any time by clicking the X in the annotation tool bar.
What’s your Twitter confidence level?
I don’t
have an account
I’m a whizz! I’ve got an account but
not really sure what I’m
doing

12.
Find the 3%!
Just 3% of people in the
organisation or system typically
influence 85% of the other people
Source: Organisational Network Analysis by Innovisor

13.
The 3% rule also appears true for social media
Source: research by Graham MacKenzie using NodeXL
In health and
healthcare globally,
tweets by 3.3% of
tweeters accounted
for 85% of retweets

14.
Find the 3%: meet Dave Morgan,
North East Ambulance Service
“Dave knows everyone in the ambulance
service, not just in the North East”
“He’s really influential on Twitter and loads
of ambulance staff use Twitter for work
topics”
“Dave wants to help you sort out issues”
“He is respected by senior people and by
frontline.”

15.
What are the biggest opportunities for
healthcare improvers in an era of social
media?
• As curators and sharers of knowledge
• As bridge builders between disconnected groups

16.
Most social media operates
within an Echo Chamber
Source of image: Scriberia

17.
How to break out of the Echo Chamber:
Create a spectrum of allies!

18.
NodeXL graph
from
#OurNHSPeople
tweet chat 8
July 2019

19.
Spread and Reach
• Focus on maximising spread and reach, rather than trying to ‘go
viral’.
• Share good content
• Find your people – communities, social movements, hashtags
• Calls to action

20.
What kind of content has the best
reach and spread?
• Stories with high emotion
– whether happiness or
anger
• The WOW or aaah factor
• Social currency

21.
So What?
• Nature of social media means content is fleeting, even
viral content.
• Millions of people might have seen your content, but
has it had an impact? How do you know?
OR

22.
Maximise your reach, spread,
influence and impact
• Be authentic
• Be generous – be kind, give advice, share interesting
content
• Pump up the volume: use complementary platforms such
as blogs, vlogs, Steller, to give your messages and voice
longevity (this can also help you become a thought leader in
your area of specialism).

23.
Three principles for spreading
change
ACTIONABLE: The idea is designed to make you
do something. It might start with sharing but it’s a
call to action
CONNECTED: The idea promotes a closer
connection with people you care about or share
values with. It makes you feel part of a community
and the network effect creates further spread
EXTENSIBLE: The idea can be easily customised,
remixed, reshaped by people taking part. It’s
structured with a common stem that encourages
communities to alter and extend it
Jeremy Heimens, Henry Timms New Power: How it’s
changing the 21st Century and why you need to know (2018)

24.
Influence and Impact
It IS about
• Engagement: starting conversations
• Communities: like-minded people
collaborating
• Quality, not quantity
• Generosity and support
• Inclusivity: all voices are welcome
• Authenticity, not ‘playing the game’

25.
How to measure influence and impact
Symplur Health hashtags
symplur.com
Free to access!
But you can access data relating only to the
previous 30 days.

26.
Influence
…but numbers are not the whole picture.
What is the story behind the numbers?
What impact have you had?

27.
Check your
personal
engagement

28.
In the chat box:
• Think about your confidence level from earlier in the session.
Has it changed?
• What is one thing you have learned from this session that you
will put in to action?