I recently attended a joint meeting of SENSE and NII.  The first learning session was all about social media and how we as nutritionists can engage with it in a positive sense.  Azmina Govindji gave an amazing presentation on social media encouraging us to be active in the social media arena to promote good advice and evidence information.  Nutrition and health subjects abound within social media networks and those that shout loudest are often not qualified nutritionists giving anecdotal or, at worst harmful, advice.  I have never been attracted to Twitter but after the session I could see that there could be value in its use.

The BDA have a group @RDUK and on the first Monday each month they choose a hot topic and set 5 questions to discuss via Twitter.  I had heard of the chat but thought how much ‘discussion’ can happen when everyone is limited to 149 characters?  Having heard Azmina I was enlightened, much can be shared and learnt in this way.  The chats are archived and can be found through Azmina’s website (as can her presentation) and via storify.  These chats can be saved and added to a CPD folder.  So 1 hour, at home with a cuppa on the sofa is an easy way to build up a bit of CPD and also make some contacts that you could maybe follow or contact outside the confines of 149 characters via e-mail or Linked In.

These chats are open to all.  The message from the meeting is that if qualified nutritionists are active Tweeters and on Facebook with example meals or little tips on eating well then more people will follow qualified dietitians and nutritionists over the celebs and quacks that abound on the internet and that has to be a good thing.

I am all signed up to Twitter and ready for the next monthly chat.