Social Media: Dialling into the Digital Age Part VI
Highlights of this article have been drawn from the Dietitians Association of Australia’s, ‘Dialling into the digital age: Guidance on social media for DAA members’ resource (2011). Authored by Emma Stirling, and DAA Reference Group members Catherine Saxelby, Zoe Nicholson, Tara Diversi, Sally Johnston, Lisa Simpson, Maree Garside, and Frances Gilham.
In this issue of PEN eNews 2(6), we share the final highlights of this resource to help you dial into the digital age with confidence and professional integrity. We share hypothetical examples of how dietitians may find success with social media, as well as the potential for risky business of which dietitians must be aware when engaging in social media. Around the world, the regulatory frameworks for dietitians vary. Dietitians are encouraged to check with their own regulatory body for specific guidance about social media.
PEN Social Media Tip #6: Be aware of the possibility for Social Success and Risky Business.
Social Success:
A dietitian posted on the Facebook page for her community centre about an upcoming healthy cooking class. The principal of the local school read the update and added a comment, offering “student volunteers from the senior school”. A member of the local farmer’s market, shared the post to his fellow stall holders and in a matter of days they had pledged support of complementary produce.
A journalist at the local paper picked up on all the comments and contacted the dietitian for an interview, which drove up enrolments. A media studies student approached the dietitian to fi lm the day and create a video demonstrating the recipes, for a TAFE assignment. The dietitian then obtained permission from the student and the community centre and uploaded the video to YouTube with links back to the website for the recipe sheets. After the event she referred interested patients to the recipe video and they then shared it on their own Facebook pages. Colleagues shared the YouTube link on their own Facebook pages too. Within the first six weeks the healthy recipe video received more than 3,000 hits. This helped better position the dietitian as the ‘go to’ person for accurate and practical nutrition information in the local community.
Risky Business:
A student dietitian on a rural placement was feeling isolated, lonely and overwhelmed. Late at night she had a rant on Twitter about a day full of low lifes with no hope of change.
An orderly at the hospital had become friendly with the student and decided to search for her on Twitter. Even though he wasn’t following her, he could still read her public tweet. His mother had attended an outpatient clinic with the student dietitian that same day. He retweeted her tweet to many of his nursing colleagues and added his “dismay at the attitude of students these days”. The following day many staff at the small regional hospital had read the tweet and were gossiping about the student’s poor attitude. One of the staff made a formal complaint to the placement supervisor.
Social Success:
A nutritionist involved in clinical research was struggling to get subjects to enroll in the university’s research project. She was after a particular subset of new mothers that had gestational diabetes during their first pregnancy. An advertisement in a major paper, and even in a parenting newspaper, had failed to recruit enough suitable subjects.
During her time on Twitter she had been interested in the views of new mums and created a Twitter list of people with popular parenting or “Mummy” blogs. She had formed a great rapport with one of these women, who had a blog called Hungry Bub. The nutritionist had begun to post comments on the blog. She approached this blogger by email and explained about the research project.
Risky Business:
A dietitian was thrilled with the growth in her private practice and the results she was having with her weight management patients. She decided to have an information night for local GPs to attract new clients. She created a PDF flyer invite and sent it out to her private group of medical centre administration staff, created on LinkedIn.
On the flyer she included a successful before and after image of an ex-weight loss client, cropped to remove the person’s head. The ex-client had given prior written consent to use the images in a case study presentation to students. Unbeknown to the dietitian, the ex-client’s niece worked at a medical centre and easily recognised her aunt by her clothing and body shape. The ex-client made a complaint to DAA about breach of privacy and confidentiality. The news made its way around the local health professionals, including the GPs, who lost confidence in the dietitian’s professional integrity. The dietitian was forced to write a public apology to all members of her LinkedIn group and the ex-client.
Social Success:
A dietitian participated in a public Twitter chat on whole grains with more than one hundred dietitians in the USA. During the chat she found out about trending, ancient grains like freekeh and wheat berries, plus the latest whole grain recommendations in the US Dietary Guidelines.
One of the dietitians tweeted about a new fad diet. The book, This is finally the answer diet, had been handed to her by a client. Suddenly more dietitians participating in the chat piped in and talked about their knowledge of the new book. The author’s credentials were questionable and the book promoted rapid weight loss and cut out major food groups.
Even though the book had not made its way to Australian shores yet, the dietitian wrote a blog post about fad diet failures. She included mention of the new book and approached one of the US dietitians for a quote. Three months later an Australian TV journalist contacted the dietitian for an interview, as the book was launching in Sydney. A Google search by the journalist had revealed her post and the widespread concerns by other dietitians in the comments section. The Australian news story questioned the credibility of the book and instead promoted healthy weight management tips provided by the dietitian.
Risky Business:
A dietitian was on her way to work early one morning and popped into her local newsagent at the mall. While waiting she took a “happy snap” on her iPhone of the queue of people at a nearby fast-food counter. She posted the picture to her Facebook profile with the message “It’s not even 8am and look at the huge number of people eating fried food.”
The photo looked fuzzy on her phone, but when enlarged on a computer screen you could actually identify the faces. A Facebook friend of the dietitian recognised her neighbour in the queue and tagged the photo with the person’s full name, Jane Smith. Jane, who happened to be a local lawyer was not amused when she found out. She was only in line to order a coffee and took great pride in her personal health and fitness. She wrote a stern letter to the dietitian threatening a defamation case.
Social Success:
Jill was a young, sport-loving receptionist at the Gold Dietetic Sports Nutrition Clinic and she enjoyed making friends and connections with the clients at the practice.
The Gold Dietetic Sports Nutrition clinic had a social media policy that Jill had read, and was reminded of at regular meetings. One part of the policy highlighted that if staff add clients or customers to their social networking profiles, their profiles must meet certain standards set out within the workplace’s social media policy. Another section of the policy identified that it is the employee’s choice as to who to connect with through personal social media, however it is up to the client to initiate contact. Part of Jill’s role was to promote the clinic’s social media platforms such as their blog, Twitter profile, Facebook page and e-newsletter. Many clients loved Jill’s bubbly manner and requested her to be a friend on Facebook. Jill was able to connect with whom she liked and also cross promote the clinic’s social media platforms and business.
Risky Business:
Dietitian Lucy Smith had just employed a new administration assistant, Gemma, to help her with writing doctor’s reports and re-booking patients. One day when typing a doctor’s report, Gemma was delighted to see that one of her friends, Carissa was seeing her dietitian employer, Lucy.
Gemma was aware she was only able to use Facebook in her breaks, so during her lunch she took the opportunity to reach out to Carissa, as she hadn’t seen her for a while. Gemma wrote on Carissa’s wall “Hey Ris, just saw your name pop up in a letter I was writing at my new job with Lucy Smith the dietitian. Let’s plan for a coffee catch up soon.” Gemma’s comment meant no harm, but Carissa didn’t want her friends and family to know she was seeing a dietitian. Carissa didn’t see the post until the next day, and only found out because she was quizzed by her mother on the details of her appointment. Carissa lost some trust in her dietitian Lucy because Lucy should have advised Gemma that confidentiality extends to social media platforms.
This concludes this series Social Media: Dialling into the Digital Age, republished with permission, from the Dietitians Association of Australia. How did this series impact your dietetic practice? Contact us at: enews@pennutrition.com