For anyone who's ever attended HIMSS - be it as an exhibitor or visitor - it's easy to feel overwhelmed. I imagine it's the same year in and year out - so many vendors to see, products to demo, speakers to hear, giveaways to pocket, drinks to imbibe ... so little time.  For a first-timer like myself (with the added bonus of being new to the healthcare IT industry), it's downright intimidating.

But social networking made it a little less so - a sentiment that seems to be echoed in almost every blog, tweet or email I've come across on the topic. HIMSS did a great job of reaching out to attendees before, during and after the show via their LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook accounts, not to mention their website. I felt like nine out of every 10 ten tweets I've read in the past month have included the #HIMSS10 hash tag - a great way of connecting the thousands of people interested in the show, even if they weren't able to get to Atlanta.


I used the relationships I built on our social networking sites to reach out to people before the show, and then stopped by their booths for a face-to-face follow-up - the Holy Grail of social networking goals.

I even engaged in what fellow attendee Shane Danaher of Divurgent has coined the "backwards tweetup" - meeting people (in person!) at the show, and then connecting with them online. Who knew social networking could do that?

HIMSS' social media seminar offerings were apparently much larger than in previous years - a direct reflection of its members' use of the platform. I found the sessions I attended on LinkedIn and Facebook very helpful. The bloggers' roundtable discussion on Monday was very informative (and downright hilarious), and very informative.

All in all, I came away from HIMSS feeling that it was extremely obvious that everyone impacted by the healthcare IT industry - doctors, hospitals, vendors and, most importantly, patients - not only uses social media, but is they're learning to embrace it.

How have you or your company decided to use it? Any thoughts or advice is welcome and encouraged. Let me know via the conversation going on right now at the Billian's HealthDATA & Porter Research: Healthcare Intelligence Hub group on LinkedIn.

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