#HELP! Social Media for the Surgeon: Getting Started, Building a Following, and Building a Community

Summary: Social media plays an increasingly important role in all aspects of personal and professional life, and can have profound impacts both positive and negative. Having a solid basic understanding of the mechanics and “rules of the game” is critical to successfully adopting and using social media. EAST as an organization has embraced social media, and for the 2016 Annual Scientific Assembly made a concerted effort to increase the social media presence of the meeting on Twitter. We were able to sit down with the core group of EAST Twitter users, aka the “EAST Twitterati”, and discuss how to get started on social media, practical tips and advice for optimizing the experience, key potential pitfalls to be aware of, and how the use of social media has impacted their personal lives and careers. Interviewees: Elliott Haut, Joe Sakran, Christian Jones, Paula Ferrada, Rob Winfield, Jason Smith, Brad Dennis, Alex Eastman, Jamie Coleman, and Tareq Kheirbek Supplemental Materials:Twitter 101 tip sheet