Social Media Sessions at HIMSS and Other HIMSS Talk

As many of you probably know, I’m a big fan of social media. Certainly it’s been a great way for me to market the content I create on my websites, but it is much more than that for me. Social media (like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc) are a great way for me to connect and interact with other people. I’ve heard so many people tell me they don’t understand Twitter. I like to explain that Twitter is about being able to connect with people related to almost any topic imaginable. It gives you a way to follow them and to communicate with them in a passive and interesting way. It’s incredibly powerful.

Plus, Twitter and other social media is fun. You get the chance to learn a lot from those around you. Not to mention those connections can do some powerful things. I’ve gotten everything from free conference attendance to free graphic design to finding my accountant on Twitter. It’s a beautiful thing if you use it right.

The problem most people have is that they don’t know how to use it and their afraid to get started. Well, I will tell you it does take some commitment of time to make it effective. However, it’s been well worth it for me.

Back on topic, the HIMSS 11 conference in Orlando is going to be a great event to see some of the power of Twitter. You can do it by following what people are saying about HIMSS (and the hashtag #himss11) or check out some of the various HIMSS Twitter lists. You don’t even have to be on Twitter to consume the content. It’s pretty interesting to follow even now.

HIMSS also has created a social media pavillion on the exhibit floor where they’ll be having a bunch of social media center sessions. Here’s a sample of some of the session titles, “Twitter Created the New Radio Star” (so true), “Physicians and Meaningful Use: What We Are Seeing in Social Media” and “Blogging as a Career: Strategies for Clinicians and Health IT Bloggers” (by Dr. Kim) and lots more. Cesar from HIMSS always puts together a lot of interesting social media content at HIMSS.

Of course, I put together the New Media Meetup at HIMSS to also bring together some of the smartest and most interesting people using New Media in healthcare. The event has nearly reached capacity and I’m also happy to say that we’ve added a new sponsor, Ozmosis, who will be giving away an iPad at the event. Pretty sweet if I do say so myself.

If you can’t tell, I have HIMSS on the brain right now. Maybe it’s because I’m inundated by all the PR people asking to meet with me at HIMSS. The good thing is that my schedule is nearly full and so it’s easier for me to say sorry when the schedule is full. Although, there’s always more room to add to my list of possible parties to attend. So, if you know of any I should attend, let me know.

I was also amazed by the list of government officials that will be attending HIMSS. That’s pretty much all of the high level health leadership that exists in the US government. The only person that they could add to top what’s on that list is Obama and/or Biden.

I won’t go over all the other HIMSS sessions that look interesting, including some interesting HIMSS 11 keynote speakers. All in all I think it will be a great event where I’m running all over the place. However, I plan to run quickly between places, but to have slow, valuable conversations with those with whom I do meet. I’d rather have 10 valuable conversations with smart people than 100 shallow conversations with random people.

If you’re attending HIMSS, what gets you excited?

P.S. Here are the links to some of my various social media profiles:
@ehrandhit – Twitter feed of EMR and healthcare IT news
@techguy – EMR stuff, but a little bit of everything else that interests me too
EMR and HIPAA on Facebook – Like the EMR and HIPAA fan page and get the latest EMR news on Facebook. Plus, you’ll make me feel good when I see the number of fans go up.

About the author

John Lynn

John Lynn is the Founder of HealthcareScene.com, a network of leading Healthcare IT resources. The flagship blog, Healthcare IT Today, contains over 13,000 articles with over half of the articles written by John. These EMR and Healthcare IT related articles have been viewed over 20 million times.

John manages Healthcare IT Central, the leading career Health IT job board. He also organizes the first of its kind conference and community focused on healthcare marketing, Healthcare and IT Marketing Conference, and a healthcare IT conference, EXPO.health, focused on practical healthcare IT innovation. John is an advisor to multiple healthcare IT companies. John is highly involved in social media, and in addition to his blogs can be found on Twitter: @techguy.

   

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