Flexibility remains one of the most rewarding features of a career as an audiologist or speech-language pathologist. Working with various ages and populations as well as in diverse settings allows audiologists and SLPs to explore all areas of their profession and work around the world. However, along with excitement, changing specialties or even just jobs might bring uncertainty and questions.

This is my favorite season of the year.  Changing colors, school is in full swing, apples, hoodies, festivals, and so much more!  So, on this first day of Autumn, I would like to launch a fun social media adventure!  It’s a pretty easy adventure and will lead to a very fun reward for many of you!

Here are the details:

1. Head to the social media sites below to find each of the 5 hidden acorns needed.
2. Write down the letters located on the acorns – you will need these to enter.
3. While you’re at each social media site, follow Sublime Speech… this will gain you EXTRA ENTRIES!
4. Head back here to enter to win a free material from my TpT store!
5. Spread the word on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook (as per instructions on each) for additional entries!

It’s that easy… 5 acorns for an entry to win free speech/language goodies!  Click each acorn below to be taken to the page where you can find the acorn clue for the contest:

Check the most recent images for the phrase letters!

Check the most recent freebie for these phrase letters!

Check the newsfeed for this image of the phrase letters here!

Check recent tweets for these phrase letters!

        And here is your first acorn!  Follow Sublime Speech on Bloglovin’ by clicking the heart icon acorn below.  This will help make sure you never miss a post from Sublime Speech and other bloggers!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Have you seen the new esurance commercial where a man working in an office is taking a “selfie” by copying his face on the copier and then says “Hashbrown Selfie” to which the co-worker replies, “That’s not how it works”.  I laugh each time I hear Hashbrown Selfie because it reminds me so much of some conversations that I’ve had with others about the Hashtag developments in the past few years.

I know that Hashtags may be confusing and somewhat overwhelming for some but I wanted to do a quick post about how using #Hashtags can be helpful to you as a Speech-Language-Pathologist or parent.

Twitter:

Twitter is really not as scary as it may seem at first.  Hashtags (any word/phrase that starts with a # symbol) is a way to “label” or “tag” posts.  Some common tags for SLPs are: #SLPeeps (general SLP tag) #SLP2b (For new SLPs/graduate students) #SLPbloggers (when commenting about SLP blogs/bloggers) and #medSLP (medical site SLPs).  Within a tweet, these hashtags will act like hyperlinks and allow you to click on them and be connected to all other tweets with the same hashtag.  You can also perform a search on Twitter for hashtags.  This is an incredible way to find out interesting information about SLP, follow conversations, and see what’s new in the Twitter world for SLPs.

An example of the results from searching by hashtag on Twitter.

Instagram:

On Instagram, hashtags act very similarly to twitter hashtags.  (However, this does not work by accessing on a computer – only the mobile app)  You can utilize these hashtags to label your photos on Instagram.  These are clickable and will link you to similar posts that used the same hashtag.  Common Instagram hashtags are: #SLPeeps, #SLP2b, #ASHAigers (ASHA Instagramers), and #InstaSLP.  Utilize these hashtags to explore what other SLPs on Instagram are sharing!

An example of results from searching #SLPeeps on Instagram.

Facebook:

Facebook allows users to utilize hashtags but they do not serve as much of a purpose yet.  While you can utilize hashtags and click on them, most individuals do not use hashtags on Facebook and there is not much to explore when you click or search by hashtags.

Overall, hashtags are a great way to discover and explore the social networks.  They also allow you to label/tag your posts in those networks for others to find and interact with.  Social media continues to be an excellent way for SLPs to network and hashtags make it a bit easier to do so.  Now… go celebrate your knowledge by taking a HASHBROWN SELFIE!