Developing my social media style

Since creating this blog I have been flooded with requests and follows from loads of fantastic student midwives and newly qualified midwives about starting social media accounts. Asking for advice on how to develop a professional relationship between social media and midwifery, and how I developed my personal social media style.

I have been an avid tweeter personally but started a student midwife account (@ruth_stmw) at the MAMA conference in 2017 where I was inspired by the twitter power of Sheena Byrom!
I began by tweeting my thoughts and experiences of the speakers and topics at the conference. Tis helped me to connect with a number of other midwives and student midwives in the community.
I quickly decided to develop a blog to share my experiences as a student midwife but also develop an area using infographics to support students learning.

I was then approached by Sheena and Anna Byrom on twitter to collaborate with a few other students on a student persepective for the new The Practising Midwife Journal and I joined the editorial board. I also supported them with two other amazing student midwives (Charlene and Ali) to launch ‘the future midwife blog’ on All 4 Maternity.

Since then the community on twitter has grown,  and encouragingly the number of student midwife blogs has also grown! Social media usage has begun to be promoted and accepted as a form of midwifery learning and discussion. My university has promoted my blog on twitter, retweeted students opinions and now encouraged students to use social media to engage with midwifery community.

I have recently expanded my social media presence onto Instagram to link with this blog and document my journey to becoming a newly qualified midwife. I'm also hoping it will continue to benefit my passion of supporting new student midwives in their training and midwifery journey. By using visual imagery I'm hoping to put a more personal note to my blog posts and promote some visual learning and great midwifery personalities on Instagram.

So follow me at @sagefeminist_

Feel free to continue to send me messages on how to develop social media for student midwives, on developing a social media profile or any advice on using twitter in Midwifery Community.

Look up the following hashtags to join in! Hashtags help community interact and find like minded individuals on twitter / Instagram.

#WeMidwives
#InItTogether
#StudentMidwife
#MidwiferyStudent
#NewlyQualifiedMidwife

My style has continued to be the same level of friendly professionalism I bring into my work, however I love to share personal achievements and opinions hence why my twitter bio includes 'All Opinions Are My Own' an important inclusion in a world where our employers or educators can see what we put out into social media platforms.

If you're inspired - start with twitter and check out my Inspirational Midwives blog post on some midwives as I've included their twitter handles!


Ruth x