2. Healthcare Social Media Advisor: Where To Focus Your Efforts
Table Of Contents
Getting Started 2
7 Great Ways to Use Social Networks 3
The Most Prominent Sites 5
Other Valuable Options 8
Develop A Winning Plan 10
Partnership Has Its Benefits 12
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3. Healthcare Social Media Advisor: Where To Focus Your Efforts
GETTING STARTED WITH SOCIAL MEDIA
It doesn’t matter if you’re a sole practitioner, part of a small clinic or managing a large
group practice or hospital, medical and dental professionals and those in related
specialties all need an effective social media presence.
You don’t manage your practice – or, Heaven forbid, provide exactly the same care – as
you did 10 or 20 years ago. You use the very latest tools and techniques to give your
patients the best care possible. It’s exactly the same with marketing – using the latest
tools and techniques can establish you as a leader in your field. And these days
patients expect nothing less.
It’s all about sharing.
Recommendations and referrals from friends, or friends of friends, and reviews from
total strangers can all carry more weight than anything you say about yourself. But
social media – if you use it properly – doesn’t focus on you talking about yourself. It
gives others an opportunity to do the talking, and to share their thoughts with everyone
else.
That’s your goal.
Consumers – your current and future patients – are using social media to search for
information as well as services. They want professional advice from real doctors. Not
surprisingly studies show they trust doctors and dentists far more than drug companies
or others with apparent bias. Nowhere is trust more important than in healthcare. You
need to establish yourself and your practice as trusted resources for accurate
information.
On the other hand, patients are starting to see themselves as equals. They want to play
a greater role in managing their own care. They’re using social networks to help make
that happen, and they expect you to join them.
Marketing is essential to sustain and grow your practice.
With traditional advertising, you put your message out there and hope appropriate
targets see it when they care enough to follow up. Or remember your advertising when
they do care. A dubious proposition at best.
Social networks can help draw people to you, people already interested in what you
have to offer. You can acquire more patients through direct referrals and by attracting
prospects to your website for more information. Using social media:
 Personalizes you and your practice. That’s particularly important in the medical
or dental fields where people are so often leery or feel intimidated, even more so
with complex specialties that involve surgery, reconstruction, etc.
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4. Healthcare Social Media Advisor: Where To Focus Your Efforts
 Appeals to younger patients, important for growing your practice.
 Builds your reputation among patients, in your local community and in the
medical community.
 Is infinitely cheaper than traditional methods, most of which have often been
considered “tacky” by healthcare professionals. Yet it’s far more effective.
It’s important to recognize that using social media isn’t the only answer, it’s part of the
equation, and not every social network is appropriate for healthcare professionals. But
perception is everything. So if you ignore social media, or your efforts are off-target or
unfocused, your practice will surely slip by the wayside.
7 GREAT WAYS TO USE SOCIAL NETWORKS
Each social network is unique, with a different set of users. So each one offers a
different set of potential opportunities to market
your practice. But there is one universal truth:
whatever you post must have value. It must be
informative or interesting enough to resonate with
your audience, so much so that they feel
compelled to respond to you and/or share your
communication with others.
Educate patients -- and their friends.
A recent Pew study notes that 80% of internet
users have searched online for healthcare
information. Since not everything they find is
accurate, it’s doubly important for you to have a
presence, sharing your knowledge with useful information.
You can use social platforms to explain what you do, and how. Answer questions and
allay concerns. Sharing educational materials and other resources establishes you as
the local expert and helps you connect with and engage patients and prospective
patients. Introduce your staff and the work they do. Speak out about healthcare trends
relating to your specialty or pending legislative issues that could affect your practice or
patient care.
Telling stories demonstrates your expertise and personalizes your work. It also helps
reduce the fear factor, something that often keeps dental patients in particular from
making or keeping needed appointments.
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5. Healthcare Social Media Advisor: Where To Focus Your Efforts
Better communication can improve patient compliance and outcomes. It can even
reduce the volume of email and phone questions that take up precious office hours for
you and your staff.
Start a conversation.
Since social networks are based on sharing, it’s easy to truly interact with patients and
help them interact with one another. Encouraging them to share their experiences with
one another helps alleviate concerns and it can share hope for the future when it’s
needed most.
Generate referrals.
Participating in social networks humanizes you, but it also helps people get the
information they want and need about your credentials and experience – facts that will
support their decision to choose you over someone else. Or to refer you to others.
Accumulate online reviews.
If you think online reviews and ratings are only for hotels and plumbers, think again.
Consumers rely on the internet to make decisions about everything these days, and that
includes healthcare providers. There are several websites devoted specifically to
reviewing medical practitioners in various specialties.
So when patients are complimentary about you and your practice, ask them to post
those comments online, too – not just on the review sites but on your social media
pages.
Online reviews provide valuable feedback for you, too.
Improve efficiency.
You can use social media for practical purposes such as setting and managing
appointments, including filling last-minute openings in your schedule.
Promote your practice.
Of course you can use your online networks to make specials offers to patients and
prospects. After all, your goal is to market yourself and grow your business. Just don’t
make that your primary objective or your overtures will quickly become the online
equivalent of junk mail.
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6. Healthcare Social Media Advisor: Where To Focus Your Efforts
Learn more about your patients.
You can capture detailed demographic and sociographic information about your online
friends and fans and use it to better analyze and refine your social media marketing.
Armed with the right data, you can identify new groups of potential patients and better
target your outreach efforts.
Perhaps this goes without saying, but it’s unethical and inappropriate to allude to patient
details or other confidential information in public social network posts. To further
address privacy and liability concerns, the AMA and other professional associations
suggest you separate your personal and professional social media presence. Patients
want to know you’re skilled and trustworthy, they don’t need to see pictures of your
vacation or join your fantasy football game.
For many people, especially busy professionals, the social media scene can feel
daunting. The well-known options are overwhelming enough, and new sites keep
appearing. You’re not alone if you can barely keep up with your Facebook page –
assuming your practice even has a page – let alone all the others.
So let’s examine what’s out there with an eye toward how each of these sites might
work for you.
THE MOST PROMINENT SOCIAL MEDIA SITES
More than half of dentists use Facebook, a third or more use Twitter and LinkedIn, and
17% use YouTube. 36% are using Google+. That’s professionally. Even more use
social media for personal reasons.
Within the confines of the particular platform, your posts can be about anything that
relates to your practice, your specialty or healthcare in general -- any excuse to put
yourself in front of patients and potential patients. You’re giving them regular reminders
that you’re available to help them, with information and with professional services.
Facebook
This is the social networking Big Daddy, and the site is ideal for promoting every aspect
of your practice to patients and prospective patients, so a
presence on Facebook is a must-have.
Visuals are critical here -- you can publish text-only posts,
but they’ll be ignored. So post some comments to
accompany photos of your new receptionist, a new service
you’re offering or other news about your practice. Share
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7. Healthcare Social Media Advisor: Where To Focus Your Efforts
links to your newest video, your blog or information people can download from your
website. Share links to valuable offsite resources. Tie in with local or national news or
events such as National Chiropractic Awareness Month.
Run an occasional promotion or contest. After all, your goal is to market your business,
so it’s OK to overtly do that as long as self-promotion doesn’t dominate your postings.
Require participants to “like” you first, and give them a reward for following through – a
discount or even something as simple as a free toothbrush. Reward them for referrals,
too.
Thanks to their sharing power, your current patients are your strongest Facebook allies
when it spreading the word about your postings and commenting on your services. But
you can also create special promotions to recruit new patients, perhaps with a discount
for their first visit.
Twitter
No pictures here. And with only 140 characters per tweet, this isn’t the platform for
complex posts. On the other hand, Twitter users do like a
two-way conversation, so this is another good place for
contests or promotions aimed at starting a conversation or
recruiting new patients.
Tweeting is a also great way to send quick notifications
about a new blog posting, the latest last-minute appointment
availability, or your initial reaction to proposed healthcare
legislation. Tweet a “tip of the day” that relates to your
practice or specialty – something people should do, a link to
something they should see or read, etc.
LinkedIn
This is the business end of the social equation. Your page can include comprehensive
information about your current endeavors as well as your background – education,
credentials, experience, accolades, all the things that go into
establishing your reputation, in all your “communities.”
Having and using a LinkedIn presence is essential for any
health care professional.
You can join professional groups to discuss issues, trends
and best practices, network with one another and obtain
referrals that go beyond your existing offline professional
relationships.
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8. Healthcare Social Media Advisor: Where To Focus Your Efforts
Originally conceived as a networking site for job hunters, LinkedIn is also an excellent
forum in which to discover or recruit new staff.
LinkedIn has become the best source of leads for B2B companies among social media
networks. Therefore, any specialist who relies on general practitioners or other
specialists for a steady stream of new patients should be active on the site. Connect
with other Drs. on LinkedIn and share updates or, even better, links to your own content
and build up your reputation and referral network.
Google+
This is the hot new network that functions much the
same as Facebook, although in some respects it’s
easier to use. It may seem like a redundant parallel
universe, but Google+ is growing so fast you can’t afford
to ignore it. And since it’s part of the Google family it
interfaces seamlessly with Google search, Maps,
YouTube, etc.
You can use Google+ in all the same ways you use Facebook, plus you can post
location markers – important if you’re a small, local practice but useful even if you’re a
regional medical center or nationally known specialty treatment facility.
The Circles feature enables you to more easily group your contacts and maintain
separation between your online professional presence and your online friends-and-
family. You can share with one person, a circle or everyone.
Google+ ratings are becoming as important as “likes.” Viewers can give your posts a
“+1” and you can share that with others. Put the Google +1 button on your website and
blog, too, so people can share that content with others.
Business pages here link with Google+ Local, formerly known as Google Places. With
so many people searching online for local businesses, including healthcare providers,
it’s important to be listed here. It’s not a social site, it’s more like a business card with
photos, but your free listing will make it much easier for people to find you using Google
search, Maps, etc.
YouTube
Seriously. Virtually all your patients, and certainly the younger ones you need to grow
and sustain your business, grew up with television. Videos may seem intimidating, but
they can do wonders for your social reach. They’re perfect for patient and public
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9. Healthcare Social Media Advisor: Where To Focus Your Efforts
education and staff training. They demonstrate your professional expertise, so you can
attract attention from your peers, too, depending on the topics you choose.
You can create YouTube videos using a camcorder, your digital camera, most cell
phones or that tiny webcam that stares at you from your laptop. Brand your video at the
beginning and end with at least your name and web address, and do that somewhere in
the middle, too. You want to ensure viewers associate you with the content.
Two critical caveats: keep it short and keep it simple.
Set up a monitor in your waiting room where patients can watch your videos. And, of
course, post the link to all your social media contacts whenever you create a new one.
SlideShare
Think PowerPoint, only online for everyone to
see. If video scares you – though it shouldn’t
– you can create similar content in static slide
format. Unlike a conference presentation,
though, your slides can’t just have a few bullet
points because typically there’s no narrator.
You can incorporate pictures or other graphics to illustrate or dress up the text. And you
can actually turn your presentation into a webinar by syncing the slides with MP3 audio.
This is an extremely popular site that offers broad-scale potential for building your
reputation, promoting your practice and attracting new patients. You can share publicly
or privately.
The same best practices apply here as to YouTube – keep it short and keep it simple for
public consumption, and be sure each slide is branded with your name and web
address.
Professional communities
Online professional communities – too specialized and numerous to include here – are
an increasingly popular way to share and learn from your peers. You can consult with
colleagues on individual patient concerns, discuss trends and current issues within your
specialty and the healthcare industry in general, and obtain referrals.
OTHER POTENTIALLY VALUABLE OPTIONS
The list of social media opportunities continues to grow. Clearly you don’t have time –
and it doesn’t even make sense – to pursue all of them. But some of these newer or
more niche sites do have potential to help you market your practice.
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Pinterest
The scrapbooking craze has moved online. This hugely popular site,
primarily with women, can be a valuable additional posting
opportunity for all the photos you post to Facebook, Google+,
etc. You don’t post on Pinterest, you “pin” your photos on
boards.
Pinterest is divided into subject-matter categories, so your
material won’t get lost in an irrelevant world. Perhaps the
best part is that you can let patients do all the work for you,
by inviting them to pin their own pictures -- little Susie’s before-
and-after-braces smile, or an ongoing weight-loss saga. If you’re an
orthopedic or maxillofacial surgeon, you can pin a series of photos showing progress on
a complex case, making sure it’s anonymous of course.
Photos help patients and their families understand what you do and what’s going to
happen during procedures. Of course showing the results is always a positive.
Reddit
This is yet another web-based news site, as in “I reddit online.” Get it? Topics run the
gamut from highly cerebral to entirely insipid, and it’s a popularity contest, with site
visitors voting to determine how prominently each news article is displayed.
Registered users can post to this site and share links, and you can conduct “live chat”
Q&A sessions. Even President Obama hosted one. Overall, though, this site isn’t likely
to become a focal point for promoting healthcare-related businesses.
Quora
And here’s yet another new site designed to help people find answers to whatever they
want to know. Here, your search is organized using
“boards” where you can pose a question then collect
answers you find elsewhere or – and here’s the good part
– write your own.
You can become a contributor by writing something new,
but you could also repost or repurpose content you’ve
created for other platforms, including articles you’ve written
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for professional publications, helping build and reinforce your reputation as a trusted
resource.
Using a variety of social media platforms provides exponentially greater benefits. The
point is to post appropriately for each platform then link them to one another, creating
an aggregate value and far larger audience than any one network can provide,
regardless of its size. It’s the sharing that makes it “social.”
DEVELOP A WINNING PLAN
You have to focus your efforts to be successful and efficient. There’s no way even the
most avid, social-media-focused business person can do all this without a cadre of
dedicated marketing staffers, but even the smallest practice can create a social media
marketing plan that’s scaled to fit and makes sense.
You don’t have to do it all at once. In fact, spreading yourself too thin would just dilute
your efforts anyway. So start small and work your way up – slowly and systematically.
To create your social media marketing plan, you’ll need to follow a familiar series of
steps – the same ones you use every day in your practice:
 Diagnosis. First, review your current situation and clearly define your goals.
Exactly what do you hope to accomplish via social networking? Are you looking
for better communication with patients? To grow your practice by acquiring new
patients? To enhance your professional standing within the medical community
or your visibility where you live and work? Maybe all of the above, but you’ll need
to prioritize.
 Developing an individualized treatment plan. Which social media outlets will
most closely meet your needs depends on the unique attributes of your practice
and also your goals.
 Monitoring and analyzing results. Any medical professional can readily
understand the importance of benchmarks and testing to ensure progress is
being made as desired. If the prescribed treatment isn’t efficacious, it needs to be
modified. Thankfully most social networks offer reasonably detailed tracking. You
can get the data almost instantly, allowing you to alter your plans quickly.
And here’s where social media management diverges from at least some areas of
healthcare management: the process never ends.
Social networking is an ongoing, continuous marketing activity. If you just take a shot at
it and quit, it’s no different than running one print ad in some magazine and expecting it
to support your practice forever. Or expecting a patient to take one pill and be cured.
Best practices in social media are as important as they are in patient treatment.
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12. Healthcare Social Media Advisor: Where To Focus Your Efforts
The rules of engagement and etiquette vary somewhat from platform to platform, but
you’ll need to bear in mind these best practices that apply to all social networks:
 Keep personal pages entirely separate from professional ones. Everything you
post, link, etc. to or from your professional sites should be relevant to your
practice.
 Complete your bio in as much detail as possible and make sure people can see
it. Twitter gives you just 160 characters, Facebook and LinkedIn give you a more
extensive opportunity to tell people about yourself. Do it. Use a photo,
incorporate your most appropriate keywords, include your web address (no
abbreviations, please) and other contact information.
 Customize each site as much as you can. It should look and feel just like your
website to provide a consistent impression of you and your practice.
 Link each site to your website and also to your other social media accounts.
Actively link back and forth among them when you post messages. And advertise
your social presence offline, too, by putting the icons on your business cards or
other marketing materials, correspondence, email signature, etc. It’s called cross-
promotion.
 Always – as in every time – respond to any negative reviews or comments, as
quickly as possible. Say thanks for the compliments, too, as often as you can.
Both are considered essential for establishing the kind of relationships that make
social media valuable for marketing your practice.
 Have some fun. No matter how serious your work, there’s always a lighter side or
random elements of humor that you can share, and your friends and fans will
especially appreciate that. It’s one more way to humanize yourself and your
practice.
 Don’t overdo it, not that you have the time.
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There’s more, but you get the idea. To successfully use social media for business
marketing, you have to learn the basics and understand the nuances of using each site
properly. It can seem as if the minute you get fairly comfortable the site itself changes or
trends in social networking veer in a different direction, so you have to learn all over
again.
And to be truly effective, your social networking must integrate seamlessly with your
other online efforts, especially your website. You need carefully crafted landing pages,
timely and well-targeted keyword research and mobile optimization to capture attention
and response from the increasing number of folks searching for information via mobile
devices.
PARTNERSHIP HAS ITS BENEFITS
You wouldn’t attempt to handle your own legal or
accounting work. You may be a highly educated and
specialized professional, but not in those fields. The same
holds true for social media marketing. It’s time-consuming
to keep up with the constantly evolving landscape, and
even the initial learning curve can be steep. Each of the
sites is continuously offering new features, not to mention
the entirely new sites that keep popping up.
What’s a professional to do? Team up with another pro,
one that’s expert in all aspects of inbound marketing including social media
management. Think of it as a consultation.
Your marketing pro will work hand-in-hand with you every step of the way, to make sure
your social networking is fully on target. They’ll help you outline a course of action that
fits your interests and time constraints. And they’ll ensure your social networking plan
smoothly and strategically augments the rest of your marketing.
Your marketing pro will help you evaluate results so you can easily see which factors
are most important and how you’re doing overall, the same way you discuss treatment
progress with patients. They’ll help you avoid both the common mistakes and the more
subtle missteps that can weaken or nullify your efforts.
They can even help you execute the plan. That’s critical, because focus is important,
but so is consistency. You have to stay active with social media. Because if you aren’t
there patients and prospects will move on without you.
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More Great Resources:
For more great marketing tips be sure to check out the Screwpile Marketing Blog
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