8 reasons why every doctoral student should have a Twitter account

There has been much advancement in the scholarship of digital nursing in recent years. Social media was once frowned upon as a waste of time, and potentially dangerous to credibility and reputation. This paper provides a summary of key benefits of social media to nursing early career researchers. We support a targeted approach to social media. Social media has many potential benefits including building a profile, attracting funding, as a data source, as a means of engagement with consumers and NGOs, a strategy to assist research translation into practice, dissemination to academic and non-academic audiences, and a valuable source of knowledge and networking. It is important for all doctoral students to explore the potential and possibilities of social media within the time constraints of PhD studies. With all interventions, it is important to gauge return on investment, and carefully evaluate outcomes.