March 22, 2015 marked my one year Bloggerversary (its a real word, sort of). This has been an amazing experience. Starting this blog has led to some incredible connections and most importantly professional development. I enjoy the positive feedback I get from my blog posts and engaging with others. If learned a lot from others and there are almost too many to name. I thought about making a top ten list or something like it, but this is an impossible task. I am grateful for my ability to not only write on this blog but also be an occasional contributor to Social Work Helper.
Probably the best decision I made was linking this blog to twitter and starting to explore the “Twitterverse”. I was very hesitant to do this but awesome things began to happen. First, I started meeting like-minded individuals. These people have shared their blogs and many other resources. It has been a source for professional development. However the REALLY important side is I “met” many others that have challenged my thinking as a social worker and a mental health practitioner. Again to single people out would be nearly impossible. In addition I will give a shout out to the twitter communities that I frequent (with wordpress blogs).
#SPSM Suicide Prevention and Social Media
#HCLDR – Heath Care Leadership
#Macrosw- Macro-Social Workers (don’t let the LCSW fool you, I am becoming getting back to my macro social work roots)
#MedPsych (The integration of physical health and mental health. Chat on hiatus but the Hashtag is still alive and well)
Twitter is a great way to network with like minded people but always include a diverse variety of people. They offer multi-disciplinary perspectives that have forced me to think differently about my social work and mental health practice. I also am grateful for connections made on Google plus namely the Social Work and Technology Group . In the last month I have gotten started with LinkedIn as well. I am brainstorming ideas about how I can use my social media “voice” to continue to improve professional development for social work and mental health. In the meantime, continuing to use these tools to learn and grow. I hope that you find value in my blog and feel like you are learning from me. Thanks all,
Sean 🙂
