I invite you to follow me: @APA_CEO

APA was recently ranked 12th among 350 organizations for its ability to use social media to further its goals. Since communicating the value of psychology to society is part of APA's mission, we were particularly pleased with this ranking and our growing success in using social media to communicate with members and the public.

Our social media outreach started with Facebook several years ago: Now we have more than 230,000 followers. We are also using YouTube, LinkedIn and Twitter to communicate with the psychology and allied professional communities, psychology students and the general public.

Last month, I joined Twitter so I can share content especially tailored for psychologists, including updates on APA activities and my insights on leadership events and initiatives within psychological science and mental and behavioral health. I invite you to follow me at @APA_CEO.

While I'm a late adopter of Twitter, I have come to recognize its power to put the unique perspectives of numerous leadership voices within our field into members' hands in real time. My Twitter feed will selectively follow leaders in the federal policy, science and mental and behavioral health arenas. I look forward to adding my perspectives, not only as APA's CEO, but as a health psychologist, to the conversation. My posts, together with the posts of other leaders and policymakers, will give you a unique, one-stop opportunity to take the pulse of emerging news and trends within the discipline and allied professions. In a world that demands cross-disciplinary solutions to vexing problems, such conversations and information sharing are vital.

In addition to using social media to extend and supplement our member communications, APA has also been very successful in using social media to educate the public about psychology. One example is APA's audio podcast series, Speaking of Psychology. These podcasts are interviews with members on topical issues. You can download individual episodes or subscribe to them through iTunes or APA's website. We also promote each episode on our main social media pages on Facebookopens in new window, LinkedInopens in new window, and Twitteropens in new window.

We often use this podcast series to add to the media's reporting on a developing story. For example, in September when news broke about an NFL player's use of severe corporal punishment to discipline his son, we quickly produced a podcast featuring Dr. Alan Kazdin and his research on effective child discipline and the problems associated with corporal punishment. We then extended the podcast's reach by using Facebook ads to put the episode in front of over 650,000 Facebook users. To date, at least 35,000 people have listened to the podcast, which can be found online. 

The Kazdin podcast is also a strong example of the theme of our public education campaign – Psychology: Science in Action. Via the podcast and social media, we provided parents with important and science-based guidance on how to appropriately and effectively discipline their children.

If you haven't visited our social media sites yet, I encourage you to do so. One reason social media has grown so huge so fast is that these sites are places to speak, listen and learn. They are also exciting new vehicles to communicate the breadth, depth and fascination of psychology directly to a vast audience. Please join the conversation.