Twitter has been described as a social media cocktail party. You can drift in and out of conversations, get news that matters to you, and raise your glass (and your voice) to those who inspire (or incense) you. For those who want to let policy makers (and others) know about the importance of diabetes policy advocacy, Twitter is a powerful tool for amplifying our voices.
Want to use Twitter as a Powerful Advocacy Tool?
Let's walk (or fly) you through it.
- If you don't have one, get a Twitter account. (It's not hard, but it does take a little time to set up. Twitter has a great step-by-step process to get you started. Once you've gotten your account set up (congrats!), you'll want to learn a little more about getting the most out of this great social media tool.
- Follow @DiabetesPAC. (We'll give you the latest diabetes policy advocacy right on your Twitter feed.)
- Once you've followed a few interesting Twitter accounts (beyond @DiabetesPAC, of course), it's time to tweet and retweet and connect with others about diabetes advocacy. How?
- Start by sending this tweet:
[bctt tweet="Hey @diabetespac, I want to help change #diabetes policy. I'm a DPAC Insider! " username="DiabetesPAC"]and then you can send this tweet:[bctt tweet="I advocate for people with #diabetes. @CMSGov needs to #suspendbidding for their testing supplies now. http://bit.ly/1TIs9qs" username="DiabetesPAC"]
The Pound Sign (Or "Hashtag" in Social Media!)
This sign: # is important. It can help you find tweets about a topic and connect you to like-minded individuals who are as passionate about that topic. If you search for #diabetes in the Twitter search box, you'll get all sorts of good (and not so good) Tweets about diabetes. It's important to focus on the good Tweets. You'll save time trying to right wrongs on the Internet this way!Here are some suggestions for diabetes focused events that can help you dip your toe into engaging on Twitter: #dsma and #dcde - these are weekly Twitter chats that happen on Wednesday and Tuesday nights respectively. Each week, a topic is given and questions are asked - and anyone can answer and get involved.For diabetes policy advocacy, you'll look for #suspendbidding and #vote4diabetes to get your feet wet. You'll see what has been going on and what will be happening in the future.
The DPAC Scorecard
Now that you've gotten your Twitter account up and running, hop on over to the DPAC Scorecard and start your Twitter diabetes policy advocacy. (Once you do this, you'll understand how easy diabetes policy advocacy is with DPAC.)
- Find your state.
- Find your representatives.
- Across the top of the grid, you'll see the bills that are important for the diabetes community - and next to your representatives' names will be a "Thanks" or a "Please" - clicking those "Thanks" and "Please" will send a tweet to your representative's Twitter handle and let them know that diabetes matters to you - a voting constituent.
- Tweet a few pre-populated messages to your representatives right now.
Quick, wasn't it? You just advocated for people with diabetes from your computer.Another great feature of the DPAC Scorecard: When you click on your representatives' names, you'll also be able to tweet an important statistic - how many people with diabetes are in their district and how important it is to listen to them.
Tweet-Ins
As a diabetes policy advocate, you know that more voices speaking in unison = powerful messages. That's why we believe in Tweet-Ins = a concentrated Twitter campaign that focuses on a particular issue at a particular time. (Why is it called a Tweet-In? Because it's like a "sit-in" but we're not leaving our computers or phone - but we are making a powerful statement in 140 characters or less.)Imagine one tweeted message being sent to a Congressperson's office. Now imagine 100 tweeted messages being sent on one day (or even a few hours)! That Congressperson is going to know how important this diabetes issue is for our community. That's the point of a DPAC Tweet-In.DPAC will be holding a Tweet-In on May 12th for the #SuspendBidding and #DiabetesAccessMatters campaigns and we hope you'll join us with your Twitter account and your passion for diabetes policy advocacy.We'll be sending out information and what you'll need to do with your Twitter handle - but know that it will be easy, because that's what DPAC is all about - making diabetes policy advocacy easy for everyone.But for right now, you can help by tweeting this:[bctt tweet="Want to get the latest news on #diabetes advocacy? Follow @diabetespac and be a DPAC Insider!" username="DiabetesPAC"]