Which is your favourite social media platform?

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Arlo Guthrie — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 08:32:29 GMT

[quote userid="28687" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246947#246947"]Currently running a 3000 member vet and nurse CPD group on Facebook which got a bit out of hand from its original concept but people are finding it useful so I’m keeping it going. I don’t think something like that would have worked on forums simply because of the scale of it. [/quote]

Olivia Cook I've been using other social media more often recently, mainly to post content and enter into discussions to keep vetsurgeon.org / vetnurse.co.uk in front of people.

The thing that strikes me most is that discussion on other social media is much harder to follow, because of the way discussions are threaded. It is also limited / limiting... in terms of the space you have to express yourself.

I don't think forums cannot handle the scale, both because that can always be managed and also because even on other platforms, it is a relatively small percentage of the total audience that engages.

[quote userid="28687" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246947#246947"] And I rather avoid LinkedIn as all I seem to get from it are wretched recruiters[/quote]

I haven't had that problem (which is not altogether surprising, given I am a middle aged, slight deaf, slightly bald, slight overweight has-been from Mells!)

But it does go to the earlier point about the lack of accountability / provenance on FB. One has no idea whether one is talking to someone who knows what they are talking about or not. On LI, you can see their professional quals. I like that.

[quote userid="9515" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246951#246951"]If you use other platforms, you are handing control over to them. Don't be fooled - they control the strings. The algorithm changes (and happens several times a year in a minor way and major change every few years) and bam.... you've lost all the traction and followers you had. Social media is a fools game....[/quote]

Sarah Keir - I'm under no illusions about any of that. Or indeed the fact that social media platforms are subject to the vagaries of fashion.

I was talking to some young (early 20s) over the weekend and they said that their peer group would, to a person, have preferred it if social media had never been invented, but they now find it difficult to be without because of FOMO (fear of missing out). It doesnt bode well for the future of social media if the only reason people use it is because they feel hostage to it.

My thoughts are simply to use it better to engage with more people, and also to highlight that (I believe), the standard of discussion is better here.

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Sarah Keir — Sat, 29 Mar 2025 19:53:05 GMT

If you use other platforms, you are handing control over to them. Don't be fooled - they control the strings. The algorithm changes (and happens several times a year in a minor way and major change every few years) and bam.... you've lost all the traction and followers you had. Social media is a fools game....

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Olivia Cook — Fri, 28 Mar 2025 11:53:52 GMT

Currently running a 3000 member vet and nurse CPD group on Facebook which got a bit out of hand from its original concept but people are finding it useful so I’m keeping it going. I don’t think something like that would have worked on forums simply because of the scale of it. And I rather avoid LinkedIn as all I seem to get from it are wretched recruiters spamming me with “opportunities” I didnt ask for, don’t want, and wouldn’t be any good at if I did apply for them…:)

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 13:36:50 GMT

[quote userid="8958" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246915#246915"]

It depends what you are trying to achieve?

1) clinic discussion ?

[/quote]

I think primarily, yes, because I have always felt sharing of ideas and info adds most value (it was the original rationale for VS and VN)

I also think there are lots of way that clinical discussion could be improved, not least by removing the nastiness that leads to anonymous posting, but also by improving accountability and demanding high standards of scientific debate (for example, qualifying opinions and substantiating statements with references).

Trying to sell something? That has always been advertising, or more precisely, trying to find ways of communicating info to an audience, which is a much broader thing than just banner advertising, for example.

[quote userid="8991" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246916#246916"]Are you going to allow Danny Chambers in?[/quote]

He's far too busy MPing these days, I would suspect. But if he wasn't, sure. I don't bear Danny any ill will.

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

David Mills — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 11:55:48 GMT

Are you going to allow Danny Chambers in?

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Neil Wheadon — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 11:03:36 GMT

It depends what you are trying to achieve?

1) clinic discussion ?

I follow vet ecc. It gets nasty/honest on occasion, so much so that the majority of questions are annonymous

There is Vet Voices, I’m not a member as it’s just another way to fritter away your life and Sarah gives me the highlights.

Both require moderation and time, which leads to

2) Trying to sell something, be this job adverts/ YouTube streams etc

We do this for the Tandem Club, spending quite a bit of time promoting tandems and the club. We have stats from why people join. I person in the last 6 months, we think. In short it’s not half as good as people think

Good Luck

Neil

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 25 Mar 2025 08:50:56 GMT

[quote userid="8958" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246875#246875"]Why would you want to? Serious question.[/quote]

Neil Wheadon Simply put: “If the mountain won't come to Muhammad, then Muhammad must go to the mountain.

Yes, I find it frustrating because I think this is a far superior format for scientific discussion, and like Dinu Catilina, I dislike the lack of accountability on FB, the inaccuracy, the effect on children etc. And I also dislike lining Zuckerberg’s wallet. But it is wot it is.

Evelyn Barbour-Hill I’m not thinking of closing or moving these forums, just opening supplementary communities, which will either act as feeders, or help sustain the community here financially.

Personally, I prefer Linkedin, because it is a more professional format with greater accountability. But I suspect FB is probably a bit more popular. I dislike both formats for discussion, because they are much harder to follow than a forum discussion.

First I have to think what a new VetSurgeon group could offer members on FB or Linkedin.

To join the group, members will need to be members of VS. Could link to VS professional profiles.
Groups will be open to all in the professions (inc industry, who can often add useful stuff), offering a more diverse range of opinion than is available in some groups.
Manners required!
Accountability

So then I am thinking what the overarching theme of a new group might be; what it could become known for

clinical accuracy/accountability
Video content - see other discussions. I have a lot of other video content ideas.
Clinical disciplines (suspect they have all been done now)
Educating public about vets / profession (continuing theme of some existing films)

Just a few thoughts …

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Elizabeth — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 23:48:45 GMT

I use Facebook mainly, unlike the other here, I like it. I like seeing the names of old friends pop up at random. Only thing I would say is, make sure there is an optional anonymous poster option for the shyer people to post

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Arlo Guthrie — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 09:11:32 GMT

[quote userid="9239" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246873#246873"]Decent rant that [/quote]

Dinu Catilina Very!

Really interesting too.

I agree with wot you say, but view it from a slightly different perspective:

Intrusiveness - can see how it would be that way for anyone who has lots of friends on these platforms, but I don’t (not active ones, anyway). None of my family uses FB. A couple use insta from time to time, and that’s about it. Easiest way to remove intrusiveness is to have less friends or switch off notifications and use it on your own terms.
Addiction. See above, I must confess to enjoying the little hit of endorphins when someone says they enjoyed one of my YT films, but that’s the extent of it. I don’t otherwise find scrolling through yards of inane content particularly addictive!
Children. Totally agree. 150%. I fear there is no putting the genie back in the bottle, but I am hopeful that even young people will tire of it.
Accountability. 300% agree. I think accuracy / truth is social media’s biggest failing.
Unrealistic portrayal of life. Yeah, agree to a degree, although my use of social media socially is so limited that it hasnt really been an issue for me. I have on occasion been tempted to start a channel portraying life as it actually is, but I fear noone would subscribe.
Difficult to live without FB? Really? I find there is literally nothing for me on FB, but then I don't do dog shows or motorbike meets. I use whatsapp to organise ebike meets.

Of those, I think the two things I could hope to address are accountability and possibly intrusiveness.

[quote userid="8958" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246875#246875"]Why would you want to? Serious question.[/quote]

Will come back to this. Just finished my cup of coffee in the Talbot and heading back to the office!

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Francisco Gomez — Mon, 24 Mar 2025 09:06:03 GMT

[quote userid="3169" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246907#246907"]Flying to Malaga for a few days in about a month. Small world[/quote]

More than happy to recommend places and things to do if you want to DM me ;-)

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Michael Woodhouse — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 23:25:06 GMT

[quote userid="11493" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246905#246905"]I now live 5 min teain ride from Málaga Airport)[/quote]

Flying to Malaga for a few days in about a month. Small world

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 23:04:49 GMT

[quote userid="11493" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246905#246905"]Many practices don't even have a website.[/quote]

I don't have a website.

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Francisco Gomez — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 22:25:34 GMT

[quote userid="2131" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246904#246904"]I like this forum. Ditch it, you've lost me.[/quote]

I'm doing ophthalmology in Spain. Many practices don't even have a website. They use social media.

Then I also locum in the UK (I now live 5 min teain ride from Málaga Airport). I find work in social media too.

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 22:17:45 GMT

[quote userid="11493" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246900#246900"]I use Facebook mostly for work but I must admit it messes with my head. I hate Instagram equally but I'm there because I work too.[/quote]

Why on earth do you have to be on these horrible things for work?

I like this forum. Ditch it, you've lost me.

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Francisco Gomez — Sun, 23 Mar 2025 19:59:46 GMT

Think this carefully.

There's no control over these. YouTubers are known (you know that as you're one!) to have lost a lot of money because of simple changes of algorithms and ads policies. And when you try to talk to them, absolutely nobody will be listening.

I use Facebook mostly for work but I must admit it messes with my head. I hate Instagram equally but I'm there because I work too.

And linked is massively expensive.

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Beats — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 16:13:32 GMT

I think I'm also the wrong demographic as I still like the forum format.

I'm not on facebook or linkedin (and probably not going to start either at this point in life) and reddit seems to be filtered out by my cleanbrowsing filter...

I ddin't know that could use facebook to advertise for a vet - I wouldn't even know where to start with this.

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Dinu Catilina — Sat, 22 Mar 2025 15:29:29 GMT

[quote userid="3169" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246878#246878"]Not my demographic, but as social media goes I like Tiktok.[/quote]

Can't wait to see you dancing on it.

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Michael Woodhouse — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 22:47:38 GMT

[quote userid="2100" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform"]Do you have a personal preference?[/quote]

Not my demographic, but as social media goes I like Tiktok. Facebook all over the place, then it refreshes and I lose things.

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Neil Wheadon — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 21:17:15 GMT

Why would you want to? Serious question.

I admin 2 pages. The Tandem Club has 4500 members, it’s a carrot to get people to join the club, yet statistics show that very few new members come this way. The other is CyclecampingUK . It’s deliberately informational, a little like this place where I am attempting to find and highlight campsites under £17/ night that are good for cyclists. It’s very popular with 6000 people in 10 months. I’m able to email campsites and find out if they are prepared to help and many will.

in both cases they are done for the love of it, not to make money.

As I approve new members for both, a small part of me thinks that I’m a sucker. Here I am doing all the work, keeping out the trolls, deleting and dealing with accounts from AI bots (both groups are now private) whilst Mark Zuckerberg and his ilk take all the profits and respond to what’s happening in the USA by changing the values of these media to a place that is foreign to me.

so do it, if you wish, but examine the reasons why you are doing it and the loss of control that will come. Facebook is the only place I haunt, you won’t see me dead on LinkedIn or any others. If it wasn’t for groups, I’d ditch Facebook, it’s like mobiles for teenagers, but having watched Adolescence and admired the Australian ban, perhaps a reset is in order and maybe Vetsurgeon should remain where it is

Neil

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Dinu Catilina — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 20:09:51 GMT

Decent rant that

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Dinu Catilina — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 20:09:15 GMT

1.Intrusiveness - it's everywhere and all the time, there is no escape. It knows where you are, what you want and I am confident that it listens to us (tinfoil hat on as we speak)

2. Addiction - not just the screen itself but how information is presented is addictive. The reels and the dopamine given by doom scrolling is the new alcohol, almost everyone I know does it in the evening at home. The algorithms are very good at increasing the addiction by giving you what you want.

3. Mental health effects on young people - documented and a serious problem. This is the biggest social experiment with no ethical committee supervising it. The future of our children in the hands of a billionaire.

4. Lack of accountability - anyone can say anything, no credentials or proof of knowledge required. Look at the facebook vet groups, some of the clinical advice given is bonkers. Ask a simple question and you get 20 different answers. Sometimes you can only skin the cat in one way.

5. Creates unobtainable life and work standards - everybody lives a dream online, cars, holidays, amazing photos, etc. and reality, as beautiful as it is, starts to look a bit grey by comparison.

6. The fact that as much as I hate it it becomes difficult to live without it. From normal life to hobbies, everything is on facebook. Dog shows, motorcycle meets, job offers, whatever, you name it, it's on facebook.

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Arlo Guthrie — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 19:55:14 GMT

[quote userid="9239" url="~/f/non-clinical-questions/31157/which-is-your-favourite-social-media-platform/246870#246870"]I hate them all equally. [/quote]

Laughed out loud.

what do you hate (serious question)

RE: Which is your favourite social media platform?

Dinu Catilina — Fri, 21 Mar 2025 19:29:49 GMT

I hate them all equally.