Steps for learning how to use Social Media to solve education challenges

There is a lot of interest in using Social Media (SoMe) for medical education.
One barrier is the need for faculty development. There has hundreds of Social Media tools and finding the right tool for each situation can be a challenge.
My recommendations:

1. Learn at least about
1. Blogs
2. Twitter
3. Google+ (circles and hangouts)
4. RSS feeds (Google Reader)
5. Social Bookmarking (Diigo)
2. Best way to learn is to take the first step - can't learn to swim without getting in the water!
1. Create accounts on Google and Twitter
2. Take baby steps -- see below
3. Create inbound stream (you are only receiving information so mistakes are not public)
1. Diigo and Google Reader are ideal for this
2. Google Reader - 
1. Great introductory article on Google Reader
2. Subscribe to Med Ed Journals (This is a link to a "Bundle" of medical education journals.  Click on the link and click on subscribe button.  This will add 7 top medical education journals to your Google Reader feed)
3. Add more journals of interest to your feeds
4. Share to Google+ or Twitter or FB (Do this after you have used these platforms for a while so you are comfortable with the etiquette and lingo)
1. Google reader >> Settings >> Send to >> choose appropriate boxes>> Save
2. When reading a feed item >> Send to >> FB/Twiiter/Google+
4. On Twitter 
1. Here is a link to a blog post on this topic but the key points are summarized below.
2. Subscribe to lists - medical educator list (you don't even need a Twitter account for this)
3. Learn the culture and the lingo.  Here is a short list.
1. Mention @Username (Also called handle)  It is @Neil_Mehta for example
2. Reply
3. Retweet (RT)
4. Favorite (Star)
5. Direct message (D @username)
4. Create a private account
5. Share with twitter mentor
6. Practice tweeting
7. Change to open account
8. Follow some people from the medical educator list
9. You are OFF!
10. Look into Grouptweets with protected accounts if you are working with learners who do not want to be in the public space.
5. On Google Plus
1. http://plus.google.com 
2. Log in with your Google ID
3. Leave your profile blank
4. Follow Neil Mehta (http://gplus.to/neil) by adding to a circle
5. If I post a public post - you will see it because you have me in a circle
6. If I add you to a circle, you will see all posts I share with that circle and we can have an online discussion about the post.
7. Create your own circles - invite people you know.