Now that we've talked about the different options for consuming FOAM, we're going to talk about how to get the most of your FOAM: getting engaged. Getting engaged not only maximizes your learning (really), it helps FOAM creators get feedback that pushes them to continue what they're doing. We're going to talk about five easy ways to get involved now.
First Thing First
No matter what way you choose to get engaged, one thing is vitally important: Do Not Hide. This is not about being anonymous, it is about talking to real people in your profession, your future colleagues, and you need to start that conversation on the right foot. Put a picture of yourself out there (or a reasonable avatar). Write some biographical information. Don't lie. Don't embellish. But separate yourself from a spam bot. And for the love of everything good, stay professional!
Twitter
Twitter exists as both as a phone app and website based program, and allows you to compose tweets of 140 characters. The use of Twitter in FOAM is to connect with your favorite content creators personally, as well as congregate as groups of users talking about the same topics.
To accomplish the first, you need to choose to follow people. You can usually find people's Twitter handles on their site or post if they have one. For example, hop over to our About Us page and you'll find a couple of Twitter handles of the clerkship directors: @jstgeorgemd and @cmtedeschi. You can also follow this blog at @EmedBound. This will fill your feed with content and tweets from people you want to talk to so you can start discussions and ask questions!
The other feature of Twitter that can be useful is hashtags to group similar content from people even if they're not all following each other. Great hashtags for FOAM are: #FOAMed, #Medicalstudents, and of course #EMBound. Things like pediatric emergency medicine have their own hashtags: #FOAMped. Events like conferences, news stories, and other time-sensitive material can generate their own hashtags like #Resus16 for the 2016 Resuscitation conference in Las Vegas.
Facebook
Practically everybody has Facebook, but a lot of it is for personal use. Even if content creators have a page, it's likely more so they can stay connected to their families, usually with high privacy settings that may not even allow you to see they have a page.
However, many websites and activities (including conferences) have pages of their own you can follow. They'll pop up in your feed, usually when there's new content created or something they want to share, and you can engage in the comments on that post or follow it to its source directly. You can search Facebook for pages you like, but we'll drop this link here in case you want to check it out.
Comments
And last, but by far not least, is the oft-neglected comments section. If you're following a blog (like this) and have something to say on the topic of a post (like this one) you should absolutely leave a comment (like down below!). Not only will the creator be notified, thus making them more likely to respond, as well as giving them feedback that they are actually reaching an audience, you can also solicit comments by other readers, expanding the circle of who you talk to, and foster discussion on a focused topic.
So....get started below!
First Thing First
No matter what way you choose to get engaged, one thing is vitally important: Do Not Hide. This is not about being anonymous, it is about talking to real people in your profession, your future colleagues, and you need to start that conversation on the right foot. Put a picture of yourself out there (or a reasonable avatar). Write some biographical information. Don't lie. Don't embellish. But separate yourself from a spam bot. And for the love of everything good, stay professional!
Twitter exists as both as a phone app and website based program, and allows you to compose tweets of 140 characters. The use of Twitter in FOAM is to connect with your favorite content creators personally, as well as congregate as groups of users talking about the same topics.
To accomplish the first, you need to choose to follow people. You can usually find people's Twitter handles on their site or post if they have one. For example, hop over to our About Us page and you'll find a couple of Twitter handles of the clerkship directors: @jstgeorgemd and @cmtedeschi. You can also follow this blog at @EmedBound. This will fill your feed with content and tweets from people you want to talk to so you can start discussions and ask questions!
The other feature of Twitter that can be useful is hashtags to group similar content from people even if they're not all following each other. Great hashtags for FOAM are: #FOAMed, #Medicalstudents, and of course #EMBound. Things like pediatric emergency medicine have their own hashtags: #FOAMped. Events like conferences, news stories, and other time-sensitive material can generate their own hashtags like #Resus16 for the 2016 Resuscitation conference in Las Vegas.
Practically everybody has Facebook, but a lot of it is for personal use. Even if content creators have a page, it's likely more so they can stay connected to their families, usually with high privacy settings that may not even allow you to see they have a page.However, many websites and activities (including conferences) have pages of their own you can follow. They'll pop up in your feed, usually when there's new content created or something they want to share, and you can engage in the comments on that post or follow it to its source directly. You can search Facebook for pages you like, but we'll drop this link here in case you want to check it out.
Comments
And last, but by far not least, is the oft-neglected comments section. If you're following a blog (like this) and have something to say on the topic of a post (like this one) you should absolutely leave a comment (like down below!). Not only will the creator be notified, thus making them more likely to respond, as well as giving them feedback that they are actually reaching an audience, you can also solicit comments by other readers, expanding the circle of who you talk to, and foster discussion on a focused topic.
So....get started below!
Written by
Jonathan St.George, MD
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