I am the chair of the HAPS Communication Committee (affectionately known as the HAPS ComCom). Our committee’s task is to promote HAPS via social media. This is a really interesting task. HAPS currently has active accounts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+. We are exploring Instagram as well.

But when I think about all the possible social media outlets, it is easy to become overwhelmed. How can we increase our audience? And how many HAPSters participate in social media anyway? It actually became a rather amusing quest for me at the annual conference in May to find HAPSters who tweet…let me just say tweeting HAPSters were few and far between. Thankfully, we did find Sarah Balizan, (also known as the HAPS Twitter Queen), who’s doing an inspirational job of keeping the HAPS Twitter account active.
Right now, and for the next couple of weeks, we will be engaged in a bit of a social media experiment with the Anatomia Italiana crew while they are on their exciting Italian field trip starting this week. Team leader Kevin Petti has generously agreed to provide us with lots of social media fodder to share. He will be writing posts for this blog, as well as doing daily updates via Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Our Communications Committee is mobilized to re-tweet, favorite, and otherwise share his Italian updates. I’m excited to see if our team can generate some increased interest in our social media presence.
So I’m curious. How do HAPSters use social media? Are you interested in following Anatomia Italiana around Italy? Do you tweet? Do you use Facebook? Have you explored Google+ or LinkedIn?
So weigh in on this poll and follow the hype for the next couple of weeks. Then let us know what you think. In the meantime, happy communicating!