I can honestly say that social media changed my life.
If that seems overarching let me just tell you a quick story.
When the economy tanked in '09, so did my supply of free-lance projects. As I was looking around for additional work, I kept reading about these great unknowns. One was Twitter. The other was something called "social media."
Immediately I felt intimidated, as though it was something for cool people to do with other cool people. I've never been a cool person. And I was already in my 50's (potentially very uncool even though I'm fond of it). I knew that if I didn't go catch the bus and go to school on both I was going to have a long walk home.
Here we are today, Friday, July 1, and the introduction of #BCSM, Breast Cancer Social Media, a Twitter chat starting Monday, July 4 at 9 p.m., eastern/8 p.m., central. Initially Alicia Staley (@stales) and I will moderate, but a conversation doesn't not "belong" to either one of us.
It's ours.
And our example comes from watching and participating in three different Twitter chats, the original #HCSM moderated by the incomparable @danamlewis, #hcsmca moderated by the also incomparable @colleen_young, and #HPM, yet another fantastic discussion on hospice/palliative medicine started by @ctsinclair.
So we'll blend their example with the breast cancer community's needs.
It's our premise that the breast cancer community needs to redefine pink. That's a premise. The purpose of the chat is to find out what YOU think, from prevention, to treatment, and defining what life is for you now, today, as a woman with breast cancer. There's so much to talk about in fact that we'll never be at a loss for things to say. Far from it.
The challenge will be in saying all that's essential in each weekly, 60-minute chat. We hope that by starting up the conversation we can truly change the tide.
So please join us Monday nights, beginning at 9 pm ET/8 pm CT for #BCSM on Twitter. All you have to do is type in #bcsm in your search feature and anything related to this hashtag will appear.
The only "rules" in regard to a tweetchat are to refrain from shameless self promotion and focus, instead on exchanging the best of what we know to help each other. That's what we do every day anyway. Now we'll do so in one place, at one time.
I can't wait!
If that seems overarching let me just tell you a quick story.
When the economy tanked in '09, so did my supply of free-lance projects. As I was looking around for additional work, I kept reading about these great unknowns. One was Twitter. The other was something called "social media."
Immediately I felt intimidated, as though it was something for cool people to do with other cool people. I've never been a cool person. And I was already in my 50's (potentially very uncool even though I'm fond of it). I knew that if I didn't go catch the bus and go to school on both I was going to have a long walk home.
Here we are today, Friday, July 1, and the introduction of #BCSM, Breast Cancer Social Media, a Twitter chat starting Monday, July 4 at 9 p.m., eastern/8 p.m., central. Initially Alicia Staley (@stales) and I will moderate, but a conversation doesn't not "belong" to either one of us.
It's ours.
And our example comes from watching and participating in three different Twitter chats, the original #HCSM moderated by the incomparable @danamlewis, #hcsmca moderated by the also incomparable @colleen_young, and #HPM, yet another fantastic discussion on hospice/palliative medicine started by @ctsinclair.
So we'll blend their example with the breast cancer community's needs.
It's our premise that the breast cancer community needs to redefine pink. That's a premise. The purpose of the chat is to find out what YOU think, from prevention, to treatment, and defining what life is for you now, today, as a woman with breast cancer. There's so much to talk about in fact that we'll never be at a loss for things to say. Far from it.
The challenge will be in saying all that's essential in each weekly, 60-minute chat. We hope that by starting up the conversation we can truly change the tide.
So please join us Monday nights, beginning at 9 pm ET/8 pm CT for #BCSM on Twitter. All you have to do is type in #bcsm in your search feature and anything related to this hashtag will appear.
The only "rules" in regard to a tweetchat are to refrain from shameless self promotion and focus, instead on exchanging the best of what we know to help each other. That's what we do every day anyway. Now we'll do so in one place, at one time.
I can't wait!
