Dean Royles: The path to picking our Social Media Pioneers

While we debate the impact of national approaches to IT and data in the NHS, it is grassroots use of technology that is changing the way we work, communicate and network.

Social media has quickly embedded itself within our daily lives at home and, increasingly, at work.

It offers great opportunities for organisations and individuals to listen, engage and have conversations with the people they wish to influence or support on a local, regional and national level.

• Foreword to the HSJ and Nursing Times Social Media Pioneers supplement
• Social Pioneers interactive graphic |
• The mobile friendly list of our Social Media Pioneers
• The growing influence of social media in healthcare
• Now you’ve signed up, the real work begins
• Download a free PDF of the supplement

At NHS Employers we’ve always encouraged the permissive use of social media within the NHS. Our #NHSEngage project helps drive this approach.

‘Social media offers great opportunities for organisations to have conversations with the people they wish to influence or support’

We’re all seeing the benefits of engaging via social media.

Thousands of staff, community groups, politicians, patient groups, charities, trade unions and healthcare organisations are already engaging in, and reaping the benefits of, social networking.

So who should you be following on Twitter, whose blogs should you be reading, who is using Facebook or other social media sites to communicate?

I’m delighted we’ve had the opportunity to work on this HSJ and Nursing Times supplement to answer these questions.

‘Thousands of staff, community groups, politicians, patients, charities, unions and healthcare organisations are already engaging in, and reaping the benefits of, social networking’

One thing that was important to the judging panel when it came to deciding on the final list was not just the profile a nominee had online - the quantity of posts, blogs or tweets - but their impact and influence; how they were challenging traditional communication approaches to reach out to and engage with new audiences.

By listening to who you think are the best tweeters and bloggers in the NHS, we’ve compiled what we feel is the “best of the best”.

Of course, any such list is subjective and we hope it sparks debate, not least on social media.

What are you waiting for? Start following your NHS favourites now.

Dean Royles is chief executive of NHS Employers @NHSE_Dean @NHSEmployers