Some Tips for Making Your #HIMSS15 Tweets Memorable & Retweetable

Here are some ideas and tips about making the information you share on Twitter more easily identified, consumed and shared with others.

Share Well – It’s Going to Be Around Forever

1. Twitter is Forever

It’s ok to call out the value of what you share, add an opinion and/or point out possible contradictions – don’t be shy! Just remember that what you post on Twitter does not go away - even if you delete it.

Tag 'Em Danno!

2. Integrate hash tags into your tweet – if it makes sense

By integrating hash tag(s) into your tweet sentence on a contextualized basis, it may read better and you will also save space; therefore you can include more info.

Ex. “Vendor ABC is offering free ICD-10 upgrades to current EHR licensees” #EHR #ICD10

Could be...

     “Vendor ABC is offering free #ICD10 upgrades to current #EHR licensees”

3. Use hash tag(s) to help categorize your tweet and make it easy to find

Hash tags are also used by certain web services to summarize and index tweets – making your content more likely to be read. But don’t use too many hash tags!

Example: "#Top10 #Digitalhealth #Apps for #healthcare #providers at #HIMSS15”

4. Don’t use punctuation or a special characters in a hash tag

Unless it’s at the end where it’ll be ignored. Using “#ICD-10” results in a hash tag of “#ICD”

And the following are all equivalent to #EHR: #EHR’s #EHR? #EHR!

5. Use Official and/or Unofficial Hashtags

The HIMSS organization has published an Official Hash Tag Guide for the 2015 HIMSS Conference in Chicago. And I have also published an albeit Totally Unofficial List of HIMSS Hashtags. Consider using some of the tags in these guides.

Tidy Up Your Tweet Before You Share It

6. Cover your tracks!

You may want to remove tracking tags and keys from the URL’s you share – especially if any personal information like your email address is embedded in the URL.

7. Leave room for others to RT and share your information

Keep your tweets to about 115-120 characters so it can be RT’d by others without their having to edit your tweet. Be concise. Remove unnecessary words like “the” “a” “is” “are” – and use a “link shortener” if the tool you are using doesn’t automatically dos this for you.

8. Validate links before posting them

At a bare minimum, click on links you intend to share and make sure they lead to something – even if it’s not the content you think it is! There’s nothing worse than a “404 – Page Not Found” error! :)

Point People in the Right Direction

9.  Inform others of the need to login to access content you are sharing

If a link leads to a site that controls access to the content, add “[Login Reqd]” to the Tweet.

10. Identify special digital media formats at the end of the tweet

– Is it video? A huge document? A Podcast?

11.  Point out a specific locations in a large media you are sharing

When sharing a large document, video, or podcast containing a specific piece that you want to call out, add a pointer like (See pg 18-22) or (Starts at 1:35)

Happy Tweeting!

By incorporating some or all of the above tips and approaches into your Twitter shares, you’ll make it easy on your readers and improve the value of the information shared. And make my life curating your tweet much easier! :)

For more info, Follow me on Twitter.