Presented at the 2011 ACAAI Annual Meeting

1. Tao Le, MD, MHS
Partner, Central Allergy & Asthma
Chief and Clinical Associate Professor
Section of Allergy & Immunology
Department of Medicine
University of Louisville

2. Learning Objective
 To discuss Web 2.0 and social media tools for patient
communications and engagement
 To explain best practices and potential pitfalls of using
social media.

3. Disclosures
 None

4. Slides available at:
www.slideshare.net/taolemd

5. Why Engage Patients Outside the
Office
 To promote your practice
 To build a patient community
 To provide care

6. Why Use Web 2.0 and Social
Media?
 It’s where your patients are
 Facebook = 800+ MM users, 1 trillion hits/month
 Twitter = 200 MM users, 200 MM tweets/day
 Patients < 30 – texting, twittering, friending
 It’s free or almost free
 It’s shows that you have a modern practice – sick, pure
awesomeness, FTW!!!!

7. What is Web 2.0 and Social Media
 Web 2.0 = web applications that facilitate
 Information sharing
 Interoperability
 User -centered design
 Collaboration
 Web 2.0 = Social Media
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0

11. Blogging
 Blog = short for “weblog”
 Basically a web diary or personal journal
 Most recent entries are at the top
 Top blogging platforms
 WordPress --free
 Blogger—free
 Tumblr
 TypePad

12. Anatomy of a blog
1. Advertising
2. Title
3. Date
4. Post title
5. Post text
6. Posting information
7. Comments
8. Previous posts
9. Archives
http://wwww.blogbasics.com

13. What Do I Blog About?
 What’s new about your practice
 New staff and services
 Flu shots
 Practice involvement in the community
 Discussions of common allergy and asthma topics
 Interesting allergy and asthma news
 Obama’s pet allergic kids
 Food allergic kids getting bullied

14. Writing Tips
 Keep posts short and sweet
 Write casually but mind your grammar!
 Personality and humor is good

15. Blog Tips
 Link it to your practice site
 Rotate physicians and staff as bloggers
 Update content frequently – 2-5x week
 Maintain and editorial calendar
 Monitor comments
 For more advice, go to:
 Blogbasics.com
 Bloggingtips.com

16. Facebook
 Biggest social network >> Google+>>Myspace
 Platform for meeting friends and keeping them
updated
 FB Pages (vs. Groups) – like a blog
 Publicly available
 URL: facebook.com/yourpractice
 Members become of a “fan” of your page
 You can add posts, pictures, videos, discussions
 Fans can post, “like” or comment on your posts

17. Facebook Tips
 Link to practice website
 Post same types of topics as in a blog, but briefer!
 EITHER monitor fan comments and posts
 OR turn off ability to do so
 Make frequent updates
 Run promotions to pump up your “like” numbers
 User Involver.com to syndicate blog posts and tweets
to your Facebook page

19. Facebook Vs. Blog
 Facebook  Blog
 Connect with current  Display your expertise
and potential patients  Develop depth of
 Share content that is content to distinguish
both relevant and your practice
interesting  Bring readers up-to-date
 Keep fans in the loop with latest allergy
with upcoming events developments
 Improve search engine
rankings

20. Twitter
 Social network and “microblogging” service
 “Tweets” limited to 140 characters
 Tweets are seen by your “followers”
 You can follow others
 You can “retweet” other tweets to followers

21. Twitter Tips
 Tweet blog posts and links to interesting A/I articles
 Retweet ACAAI/AAAAI, other colleague tweets
 User Futuretweets to schedule tweets
 Use bit.ly, goo.gl, t.co to shorten links

22. YouTube
 Video-sharing website
 3+ billion views/day
 48 hours loaded every minute
 Videos embeddable in other sites

23. YouTube Tips
 Keep the videos short
 Cover common allergy and asthma topics
 Consider off-camera interviewer style
 Consider using a local video production company
 Embed on website, blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc

24. Pitfall of Social Media
Challenge Solution
You can’t take it back Policies to review content before
posting
Privacy issues HIPAA/privacy policy
The professional and the personal blur Separate personal vs. professional
accounts
Patients/family may publicly air Respond immediately; take it offline
grievances
Does not happen overnight Prepare for a long term commitment
? Return on investment Invest incrementally; reassess
frequently

25. Conclusion
 Web 2.0/social media is where are patients are
 An effective means of creating a patient community
 Mostly free or low cost
 Requires a long term commitment and modest
expectations
 Many tutorial/guides that can be Googled

26. Links
 Blogbasics.com
 Bloggingtips.com
 http://www.facebook.com/pages/American-College-
of-Allergy-Asthma-and-
Immunology/105466459483136
 http://www.alertpresence.com/2010/02/08/5-of-the-
best-facebook-medical-practice-fan-pages/
 Twitter.com/wheezemd
 http://www.atlantaallergy.com/
 http://www.allergyasc.com/