Social media

Community Pharmacy England’s social media guides explain the benefits of using social media and offer practical advice to help you get started.

The main guide covers:

• The benefits of using social media;
• How to create a clear, practical social media policy for your pharmacy team.

There are three supporting appendices with platform-specific advice:
one. How to use X (formerly Twitter) to share messages quickly with a wide audience;
two. How to use Facebook to communicate with your followers in a more informal, social way; and
three. How to use LinkedIn to share updates with professional networks (particularly useful for LPCs).

You can download the main guide and appendices from the Community Pharmacy England Briefing webpage.

Further support from us:

• Communications, PR and media guidance, including more social media resources;
• Digital communications and public relations guidance documents.

We previously ran a webinar on using social media in community pharmacy. A recording is available to watch on demand.

In the webinar, social media experts Ben Stockman and David Angell share practical advice on:

• Choosing the right platforms;
• Getting the most from social media in a busy pharmacy.

They are joined by Community Pharmacy England’s Head of Communications and Public Affairs, Zoe Smeaton, and LPC Chief Officer Nick Hunter, who share their top tips for fitting social media into everyday pharmacy work.

Please note: you will need to register (or use your registered email address) to view the recording.

Some IT system suppliers use social media to share updates about service issues or outages.

You may find it useful to check these accounts for real-time updates. See also: IT service status checkers.

As well as our own guides, you may find the following external resources helpful.

Additional guidance

• Focus on social media (GPhC);
• Maximise your pharmacy’s social media efforts (Digital Pharmacist).

Case studies and journal articles

• Pharmacists as Social Media Influencers (Pharmacy Times USA)
• Social media use by pharmacy to enhance patient outcomes (Dovepress)
• Use of social media in pharmacy practice and education

Further research journals

• International Pharmacy Practice;
• International Journal of Clinical Pharmacy.