social media

I don't mind admitting that if 3 years ago someone would have told me I would be using Twitter and Blogging I would have looked at them as if they were speaking a strange language!
Now I use Twitter every day having over 130 followers and Blog once a week and people do look at my blog.
I often wonder why people follow me or read what I have to write? I can only assume they enjoy my wit, charm and excellent pros. No thought not! I think people follow me for the same reason I follow other social media users, as it provides a source of information sharing in almost real time across a huge audience.
Almost any event of note around the world appears on social media platforms as they happen. This can be both a good thing and a bad thing. Need to get information to people in a hurry? Twitter, Facebook are all used by large organisations and members of the public to warn and inform. The darker side of social media use is cyber bullying and the like.
Do the benefits out weigh the disadvantages? Yes I think they do and whatever happens social media is here to stay in its various formats. This means that going forward all organisations and companies will be likely to have some sort of internet and social media presence.
Social media is increasingly being used to spread safety messages and to inform people what is going on in their local area. The importance of this has not been missed by the health community and more and more health care organisations are using various platforms to keep people up to date with important information.
These social media presences need to be developed to ensure a high level of followers in the day to day posts and  tweets, so that at times when important messages are posted they are seen by a large audience.
So why do I tweet and blog?  I use social media for many of the reasons above, it is a good source of information, it allows me to inform people about my role and what I do, it allows people to understand some of the problems faced by emergency services and voluntary agencies. It is also useful to put across safety messages on a variety of subjects.

Thank you to all of you who follow me and take the time to read my blog.

A thought to leave you with.