2012 Oregon VMA presentation highighting the major social sites and how to efficiently use them.

1. Educate and Interact without
Wasting Time!
Thomas F. Dock, BS, CVJ
Veterinary News Network
Board of Certification, American
Society of Veterinary Journalists

2.  Traditional forms of marketing your
practice are falling by the wayside
 “New” and social media are the preferred
ways for pet owners to find information or
learn about your practice
 Traditional media still has value as a
marketing tool

3.  Identifying which tools will work best for
you
 Identify best practices for each social tool
 Real time button pushing and
experimentation

4.  An inexpensive and easy way to target clients and
potential clients in your area
 A way to create a positive first impression about
you, your hospital – before they even meet you!
 Social Media allows you to earn a reputation as a
caring expert
 An interactive, dynamic and high-tech tool that
enables you to educate and motivate clients

5.  Blogs
 Review sites (Yelp)
 Comments on news stories/articles
 Networking sites
(Facebook, Twitter, Linked In)
 Video sites (YouTube, Vimeo)
 Forums
 Which social tool reaches the audience
that is best for you?

8.  Founded in 2004
 Easy sign up, use and navigation
 Currently the largest social network (>800 M)
 More than ½ log on every day!
 Very informal, social, friendly
 Should have a Personal Profile and a Business
Page!
 Can be used for Marketing, Education
 Relationship building (personal or business)
 Sort of a huge High School Reunion!

9. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iROYzr
m5SBM

10.  Facebook Profiles  Facebook Pages
 Personal  For
use, connect with businesses, non-
friends, family, etc. profits, etc
 Share things you  Educate, interact, en
“like” gage with clients
 “Friends”  “Likes”

13.  Previously,
all business pages needed
to be associated with a current and
valid Facebook profile
• Now, you can create a page without that
requirement. Just need email address and
date of birth – Facebook Business Account
• These “business” accounts are also limiting
 Bewarned…setting up clinic “pets” as
Facebook profiles, etc, can potentially
cause the loss of your profile!

14. What Do I Do With
A Facebook Page?
 Clients “like” your page because they are
interested in you and your hospital
 So say things that would be interesting to your
clients (and potential clients) at a “Mixer” or
social meeting.
 Interesting cases/Photos / Videos
 Your Blog Posts
 What you are doing for the community
 Fun Facts about Pets
 Twitter Feed
 Other interesting Fan Pages
 Make sure your Page is connected to your
website!

15. Important reminders:
A Facebook Page does NOT
replace your website!
• Facebook will always “own” the page and can
remove it at any time, without warning
• Facebook’s platform, although powerful, is
limited.
• Not easy to explain complex issues or
topics.
• Facebook is the party, your website is home.
• Focus on bringing people HOME!

16. Best Practices for
A Facebook Page?
 Many practices get frustrated with lack of
interaction and engagement on their page
 The BIGGEST reasons that Facebook pages don’t
grow or fail to engage are:
 Too many posts daily
 Too much marketing
 Posts are too long or too infrequent
 Lack of interaction from page.
 30 BILLION pieces of content are shared on
Facebook every month!!
 FACEBOOK EDGERANK

17. Understanding
EdgeRank
 Facebook looks at each piece of content as an
“object” and the interactions between that
object and the end user is called an “edge”
 In simple terms, the more interaction between
the end user and our Facebook page, the higher
the Edgerank. Higher Edgeranks lead to a
greater probability of the post being seen by the
end user.
 Types of posts (Video, photo, links) are also
weighed as is the age of the post.

18.  Less is more!
• Posting constantly will cause people to view
you as spam. Consider 2-5 posts weekly or 1-
2 posts per day as a good benchmark for
success.
 Less is still more!
• LONG postings do not get read! Keep your
posts and updates to about 80 characters and
you will increase your interactions.

19.  Varythe types of postings you create.
Don’t just focus on status updates (“We
love taking care of your pets”) or links.
• Try including pictures of interesting cases
• Video
• Sample questions
 When posting links, use the full link, not
the shortened link generated by many
third party apps.

20.  Consider the time you are posting
 According to Buddy Media, pages that
posted after normal business hours
saw a 20% increase in engagement
 Thursdays and Fridays often show a
higher level of engagement compared
to other days, but this could be skewed
by type of industry.
 Take home? Research your own
Insights! (A topic covered later today!)

21.  Finally,
even though third party apps
make life a little easier and more
efficient for us, Facebook does not rank
those posts as high as manual posts.
• So…try to make at least 1-2 of your daily
postings directly on Facebook rather than
using TweetDeck or HootSuite.

22. Important reminders:
Staff involvement should be
encouraged, but monitored
• If staff members “like” the page (and why
wouldn’t they?), encourage interaction but set
ground rules
• Staff personal profiles should be set to
strict privacy settings. (next slide shows
why!)
• Explain and enforce client/doctor
confidentiality
• Get ideas from staff!

23. Is this what you want your clients seeing
when they visit your staff member’s
profile?

24. Important reminders:
Marketing should only be done on
rare occasions.
• As mentioned in the first hour, people don’t
like to be “sold to” in social media.
• Keep marketing efforts to a minimum on
Facebook page (80/20)
• However…there are real life examples of this
working…

26. Important reminders:
Contests and promotions have strict
rules on Facebook.
• Facebook prohibits a page from requiring a
“like” or even interaction in order to be part of
a contest. Pages have been removed for this
violation.
• If you want to run a contest, use a third party
app.
• Coupons and other “gifts” are ok as long as
everyone has the opportunity to receive one.

27. Other Facebook Steps:
Take advantage of the “Post as
Page” feature!
• Instead of posting comments on other Pages
as you, post as your hospital!
• Look for pet related pages in your area, the
local Chamber of Commerce, TV and radio
stations, etc.
• Remember, focus on adding to the
conversation, not necessarily marketing
yourself or your hospital.
• You can change the “default” setting when
posting on your own page.

28. Use Facebook as Page

31.  Began in 2011
 Around 90 million users at start of
2012, estimated to grow to 400 million by end of
year
 Individual profiles and business pages allowed
 “Makes connecting on the web more like
connecting in the real world”
 Easy method of sharing different things with
different people.
 Circles, Hangouts,

37.  Began in 2005
 "YouTube is to video browsing what a Wal-
Mart Supercenter is to shopping: everything is
there, and all you have to do is walk in the door.“
 Second largest search engine
 Jan 2012: 4 billion videos streamed daily
 800 million unique visitors per month

38. Non-Anesthetic Dental
Scaling
 Video is no longer expensive to produce
 Most iPhones, Droids and other smart devices
have very good video capturing abilities
 Find compelling subjects, keep to about 2-3
minutes, brand with your hospital name
 Custom videos created for your hospital by VNN.

39.  Began in 2003
 More than 135 Million Users + 600K new per
week (48 M in US)
 Professional / Executive
 Huge Data Base and Search
 Great Research Tool
 Connecting gives you 3 levels of connections
 Good to connect with highly connected people
 Functionality like Slide Share
 Answers section very helpful

40. Connectivity is the key!
It is the virtualized and interactive version of
a pile of business cards on your desk!
YOUR “ONLINE” RESUME
And your ability to demonstrate your
expertise and learn from others.

41.  "LinkedIn.com, a business-orientated
networking site, can be an ideal way for
professionals to present an online profile
of themselves...Unlike social networking
sites, [with] LinkedIn you're outlining all
your credentials; presenting the
professional rather than the personal you.
Considering the sheer vastness of the
digital space, the potential for building up
a solid base of contacts and fostering new
business relationships is boundless."[

42. LinkedIn is Where the
Influencers ARE!
 Average Age: 42
 Household Income: $122,000
 Male: 64%
 Household Income $100k+ 53.5%
 Own Smartphone/PDA: 34%
 College Grad/Post Grad: 80.1%
 Business Decision Maker: 49%
 EVP/SVP/VP: 6.5%
 24% Have a Portfolio Value of $250k+

45. Good
Professional
Photo
Update Status
Frequently
Connect, Get
Recommended
Add Your Web
Sites
Personalized
Public Profile

46. What Do I Do With A
Linkedin Profile?
 Set up your profile (good photo)
 ROI (risk of inactivity)
 Get something up now and tweek later
 Be very complete – even back to high school
 Do an update about 2X per week
 Think of it as merging your Rolodex contacts
 Build a very professional and complete resume
 Easy to use their formatting
 Begin to invite contacts
 Write and request recommendations
 Send personal notes – not the default template
 Use Advanced Settings to find contacts

47. 10 Ways To Use LinkedIn:
1) Increase Your Visibility
Add connections (upload your contact list)
2) Improve Connectability
Use full executive bio
Use LI link in your signature block
3) Improves your Google Ranking
LinkedIn is indexable
Customize your URL

48. 10 Ways To Use LinkedIn:
4) Promote your Web and Blog
“My Website”, “My Company” customize
Instant search engine findability!
5) Give and Ask for Recommendations
Excellent credibility
Lives there forever
6) Pose Questions and Give Answers
Makes new connections
Establishes your expertise

49. 10 Ways To Use LinkedIn:
7) Find or Create Groups
A great way to network smaller scale
E.g. local, alumni, associations (ASVJ)
8) Applications
BlogLink, Polls, Reading List, Box.net, My
Travel, SlideShare, Events, word press, Tweets
etc.
9) Use “Advance Search”
Amazing ability to narrow a search of all users
Think of this as your Rolodex search tool for 120
Million People!

50. 10 Ways To Use LinkedIn:
10) Connect, Connect, Connect
background check,
investigate a company,
find local experts, servicemen,
gauge health of a company,
participate in specialty groups
Get out of Linkedin what you put IN!
An Amazing Resource for the
Professional!

51. Some Recommended
Veterinary Groups on
Linked In:
o Veterinary News Network
o VHMA
o Marketing in Veterinary Medicine
o Pet Loss Professionals
o Veterinary and Pet Business
o Pets for Patriots

52. DIVE in and Learn…
Google:
 Linkedin Learning Center
 LinkedIntelligence.com
 Get Started with Linkedin (bnet.com)
 Blog.linkedin.com
 33 ways to use Linkedin For Business
 100 Smart ways to use LinkedIn

53. A “Micro” Blog…
A blogging site originally designed (2006)
to answer the question “What are you
doing?”
In 140 characters or less
Now, functions more as a real time search
for trending topics and news as well as a
link sharing platform
Many people don’t “get” Twitter!

54. People are asking …
Is Twitter For Real? – OR a Fad?
 80% of Twitter accounts are inactive
~200 million users
 Most do not know how to use and abandon
 94% of accounts have < 100 followers
 5% of users = 75% of all activity
 The Twitter “core” is very committed.

55.  Traditionalmedia and journalists are
quickly discovering the value of Twitter
• Short tweets “teasing” a breaking story or
upcoming news item can lead to increased web
traffic/viewers
• Remember the plane in the Hudson?
 Twitter users:
• Come to find information, read tweets and
consume content.
• They are also coming to vent, complain
and, occasionally, praise services and companies.

56.  The Good…
• Morton’s Steakhouse

57.  Twitter (and other social media sites) represent
a leveling of the playing field when it comes to
interactions with companies
• Emails and phone calls can be ignored
• Social media gives upset clients a place to vent beyond
normal social interactions.
• Some customers may just search for “XYZ Animal
Hospital fails” and add to the conversation…others will
actively make it a personal mission to embarrass you.
• Mobile devices allow complaints to happen when the
clients are still in your parking lot!
• Don’t forget about the cameras!

63. What Do I Do With A
Twitter Account?
From Business / Practice Perspective
 Twitter is a communications platform
that helps business stay connected with
consumers
 Share within a business, gather real time
intelligence and feedback, build
relationships with clients.

64. To listen in on the conversations happening
right now, search Twitter for the name of
your company, product or brand. If you
have a Twitter account use the search box
on the right side.
The Twitter “stream” is just a conversation
and you contribute, answer, offer
resources AND as always, drive traffic to
your site / blog etc.

65.  Even if you don’t “tweet” regularly, having a
presence on Twitter can help you monitor
what is being said about you or your
hospital.

66. A VNN Member who just did not get the whole Twitter
Thing….dove in and tried it.
A week later he is being followed by his local
NBC TV station AND he scored a weekly gig.

67. Insert another pet picture

68. Insert another pet picture

69. www.MyVNN.com

70. Become A Certified Veterinary Journalist!
American Society of Veterinary Journalists
www.ASVJ.org

71. Contact Information:
Tom Dock, CVJ
TomDock@MyVNN.com
719-495-7065
www.MyVNN.com