Social Media For The Healthcare Professional-A Beginner's Guide

GETTING STARTED:

Social Media for the Healthcare Professional-

A Beginner’s Guide

Written by Chris Boardman
Dec 2011

email: chris@chrisboardmanmedia.com http://bit.ly/rM7LYa 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PREFACE page 3

PART 1
Social Media Overview page 5

PART 2
Social Media Distribution page 11

PART 3
The Power of Search and identifying your Brand page 12

PART 4
The Art of Digital Curation page 16

PART 5
An Overview of The Basics of Branding page 19

PART 6
Editorial Calendar page 22

PART 7
Content Aggregation and Distribution page 26

PART 8
Composing A Blog page 29

PART 9
Things you can do to help you succeed with your
Social media campaign page 31


Getting Started-Preface “The Future Belongs To The
Credible”
We are living in a time of great transition. The healthcare
industry, no different than any other industry, has been
affected by disruptive technology. As a result most
everything you have been conditioned to believe about how
to maintain and grow your practice has been challenged.

Fully understanding the impact of the social web on the
healthcare industry requires understanding Social Media;
what it is and why it is important. We are here to help you
create and maintain your online presence and integrate
social media into your daily routine and marketing plans as
securely and efficiently as possible.

Where and how do your patients look for medical services?
• Patients use search to find healthcare services.
• If they can’t find you online, they will continue their search and move on.
• If you do not provide enough evidence to qualify you as a credible
provider, they will move on. Remember: It only takes a second to close a
window.
• Patients will ask people they trust when looking for a referral.

What is a Social Network and why should
I bother?

Social Media Marketing is the practice of
using Social Networks to reach your
customer where they look for information. In
a very short period of time Social Networks
have become a dominant informational
source for consumers and provide the
means for a large segment of the population
to connect with one another.

“If you want to reach someone, there is a good chance that you will find
them on a social networking site”.


Integrating Social Media Marketing into your overall marketing plan will help you
shape your message and give your patients the ability to share accurate
information about you with their peers, improving your online persona,
professional rankings and personal reputation.


Social Media-Getting Started Guide Part 1.

SOCIAL MEDIA OVERVIEW- “The NEW word of mouth”
Whether you are actively involved or just
beginning, social media can be
intimidating. Volumes of websites,
programs, blogs, platforms, and the
ways that they are related to one another
can be overwhelming. We will walk you
through the process with short, simple
and direct steps that will not take more of
your valuable personal time than
necessary.

What is Social Media?

“Social media is any form of online publication or presence that allows end users
to engage in multi-directional conversations in or around the content on the
website.”
(http://www.onlinematters.com/glossary.htm)

What does that mean?

We are experiencing a paradigm shift in the way we perceive and use media and
obtain information. In the 20th century we passively consumed media by
watching television, going to the movies, listening to records, or reading what the
newspaper found fit to print. Today we control and personalize our media
experience. We interact with information of our
choosing by “likes”, “comments” and sharing
links online, watching video on-demand either
over the Internet or cable. Never before have we
had this ability. This shift in usage and culture
has paved the way for the individual to
“socialize” their media experience by sharing
content with their peers.

“Social interaction is the glue that holds
communities together”


Why do I need to use social media for my practice?

“Our attention has become our most valued resource”

Billions of online pages have caused an exponential increase in demand for
consumers’ time and energy and changed the way we interact with information.
Information and media have become integral parts of the online social
experience. If you want to reach your patients you have to go to where they are.
Today that means Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube and more.

Social networking and media tools have become an effective way to reach your
patients, giving you the opportunity to support your branded online presence with
information that you control. Without being engaged and aware of your patients/
consumers online experience your brand and business survival is at the mercy of
what others say about you.

How do I find and acquire more patients?

Patients increasingly use search and social media to find healthcare services.
Your patients will find you based upon what they are specifically looking for,
not what you are trying to sell them. In addition, peer referral and
recommendation has increased in importance to the individual when looking for
healthcare services.

How do I get the attention of my patients?

First, your online presence must be
consistent with your reputation and
portray you as the provider of services
relevant to the needs of the patient.
Think about how you personally find
information online and what your online
habits are. Invariably, if you want to find
something, you search for it. If the page
you find is relevant, you will stay. If the
page is not what you looked for, you will
keep searching. Your patients are no
different!

The crux of a successful social media and online strategy is to give your patients
specific, consistently high quality information that is relevant to their needs. This
will establish you as a trusted source of referral.


How do I keep my patients coming back?

The relationship between provider and patient has changed. Fully expect your
patients to be better informed about their health issues and engaged in their
healthcare treatment.

You must treat your patient with respect and accommodate their new found
access to information by steering them to relevant and accurate information
regarding their condition. If you think about it, this is most likely consistent with
your current approach to patient satisfaction. The biggest difference is that a
significant portion of these communications will take place online and not in an
exam room.

Here are a couple of basics to think about:

Social media is a tool that enables online conversations between people. These
conversations will have a significant impact on the success or failure of your
practice. Be it helpful or detrimental these conversations about you will take
place and are happening online.

Because you have no control over these conversations it is best to shape your
online presence by posting information preferably written by you than rely on the
judgment of an anonymous third party. Once you post your blog, status update,
link, tweet, you can only react and respond to the ensuing conversation in a way
that shapes and supports you and your practice. Engaging in these
conversations will create trust between you and the individual further helping you
affect the readers perception.

The Age of the Empowered Consumer

We now live in the age of the “empowered consumer.”
People have changed from a passive media society to one that demands
individual control of, and access to, media based on personal choices.

To utilize the power of social media for your practices you must engage in a
dialog with your patients rather than “push” an advertising message or opinion in
hopes of garnering their attention.

It IS possible to shape your online message.

Where do I begin? I have no idea where to start.

Most of us are impatient. We don’t want to take the time to get involved in
something that we don’t understand. It’s just too hard to make the time.


“It’s humbling to admit what you don’t know.”

Let’s begin by building a foundation.
“Thinking of yourself as a brand.”

There are many definitions of a what brand is. One of my favorites is, “a promise
(to the consumer) to deliver a consistent message, product and/or service.”
Success in an online environment requires thinking of yourself and your practice
in a different way.

Let’s take Starbucks as an example.
Regardless of where you are in the world you can walk into any Starbucks and
you will notice that:
o The experience is the same.
o The menu is the same.
o The price is the same.
o The product is the same.
o The service is the same.

When you think of Starbucks you recall your
perception of the Starbucks experience. If you had
a good experience you will come back. If you had a
great experience you will most likely share it with
your friends. Conversely, if you had a bad
experience you will share that as well. Their
consistent delivery of their (brand) promise that
includes superior customer service breeds loyalty.

We are evolving into small communities of shared interest
based upon trust and authenticity.

My practice isn’t a brand...

We believe that your practice is a brand…though you most likely have never
thought of your practice in those terms. Let’s apply the Starbucks example to
your practice:
• How easy is it to reach you or to make an appointment with you?
• How accessible and comfortable is your office environment?
• What are the attitudes of your office staff ? How do they treat your
patients?
• How close to their actual appointment time do you see your patients?
• How do your patients feel about the actual time they spend with you?
o Do your patients feel as though they have been heard?
o Do your patients feel as though you spoke “at” them?
• How well cared for do your patients feel when they leave their
appointment?


• How well informed are they as to what they need to do, or what results
they can expect?

The image your patients have of you and your practice, as the result of the
aggregate of characteristics above constitutes your brand. As you can see, it’s
not a stretch to think of yourself as a brand because--you already are a brand.

Applying branding principles will help you, and those in your practice,
consistently maintain a positive perception of your practice online by sharing
effective messaging in line with your brand objectives.

Don’t be alarmed! We are not asking you to radically change. We are only asking
you to view your practice (business) from a different perspective.

In today’s online world “relevancy = quality.”

Media in the 20th Century was both entertaining and manipulative. This
conditioned us to place higher value in self-defined“experts” thus relinquishing
our critical thinking skills. We had unwittingly given our power of choice to media
creators who controlled distribution and defined quality by relying on “experts” to
help shape our opinions.

Disruptive technology has changed our behavior. Unlimited access to information
has given us the opportunity to be better informed and less reliant upon the same
experts we easily trusted in the past.

As we question our traditional sources (experts). we are forced to find new ways
to analyze and corroborate the information we find. Further complicating the
situation is the sheer volume of information available. Managing this activity is a
constant struggle. Therefore it is only natural for us to stop when we are satisfied
that the information we have found is relevant to our search. Thus, the definition
of quality has changed. Quality has been replaced by relevancy to our current
need.

While some embrace this new behavior others retreat and rely upon only their
small circle of friends or those who influence them.

Where do we turn?

Ironically as the availability of information increase the number of people we trust
decreases. Credibility will be the new currency in a social web. Anything you can
do to ensure your reputation as a trusted source will increase your value.


How does online presence and social media relate to (brand) loyalty?

Social media is the method by which you can share your online presence and
have your audience engage with what you are offering. Being actively engaged in
your online presence and social media gives you the opportunity to effectively
“shape” your message in a low-cost way to those seeking the services you offer.

With repetition and repeat engagement with your patients, you can deliver on
your brand promise…creating loyal followers (patients) that will sustain and grow
your practice. Overwhelmed? Don’t be, it gets easier.


Social Media-Getting Started Guide Part 2
An Overview of Social Media Distribution
Implementation of your social media program you will require social media
platform registrations. Ideally your username, or handle, will be consistent across
all your social media outlets.

Each platform focuses on different aspects of the social media universe having
different functionality and purpose specific to their respective capabilities.

A somewhat silly description is as follows:

Twitter: I'm peeing right now.

(real time)

Facebook: I just peed.

(documentation)

Foursquare: I'm peeing here.

(geo location)

Quora: Why am I peeing?

(question and answer wiki)

YouTube: Watch this pee!

(video)

LinkedIn: I pee well.

(business)

Social networking sites are numerous. To be effective using social media will
require you focus on the sites where your patients and audience congregates.

The Twitter Help Center can be found at: http://support.twitter.com/
Facebook help can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/help/
Facebook pages: http://www.facebook.com/FacebookPages?ref=ts
Foursquare: http://support.foursquare.com/home
Quora: http://www.quora.com/How-do-I-get-started-using-Quora
Youtube: http://www.google.com/support/youtube/bin/static.py?
p=&page=start.cs&hl=en_US
LinkedIn.com https://help.linkedin.com/app/home


GETTING STARTED Part 3: The Power of Search and
Identifying your Brand.
Before we begin there are a few things that you should be aware of:

Every keyword or search term is saved and indexed by Google.

Every comment, blog
post, status update,
tweet will remain on
the Internet.

Everything posted
online, no matter how
trivial, can and will
show up in an online
search.

Translation: Everything we post online is representative of ourselves, and the
businesses we work for. As such, we should be acutely aware and conscious
about what we post online. “If you don’t want the world to read it--don’t post it”.

“Failing to plan is planning to fail”
What this means to you and your practice:

We are all defined by what we choose to share--be it in person or online. We now
have the ability to control our online presence by distributing consistent
messaging across the web.

Developing a consistent online profile:

A well-defined online persona is CRITICAL to the success of any practice,
business or personal activity. The key to creating this consistency is being able
to represent your brand in your messaging in a way that allows users to easily
understand and spread to their personal networks. The following is a list of topics
to explore, to help you discover. define and shape your (brand) persona.
Remember that we are talking about perception.


• Core Values- the center of gravity
that will inform all of your brand
(practice)based marketing decisions
• Brand Pillars- the foundational
qualities that will sustain and fortify
the brand (practice)
• Brand Characteristics- the traits
that are adaptable to the community
you serve
• Promise- What is our mission? How
do we express it?
• Brand Aspirations-the definition of
what attributes we aspire to portray
through brand related actions
• Culture- interpreting the beliefs,
social forms and material traits of
your brand (practice)
• Personality- The marriage and
matching personalities of the
business and the individual

Moving through this seemingly tedious process thoroughly will yield massive
benefits because you are defining your online presence and creating the
foundation for your social media marketing strategy. This will give you and your
employees the information required to implement your practice (brand) marketing
strategy successfully. And, help prevent costly missteps.

“We are all brand managers and representatives of our brand”

Communications as Social Objects
We all have the ability to control which messages we
receive, which messages we ignore and what content
we share to our online social network. The information
we share become “social objects” that extend our
messaging and brand identity far beyond what is
possible using traditional marketing methods.

Effective social media campaigns engage the
consumer in conversation. These conversations give
your audience the ability to gain deeper understanding of you thus creating a
foundation by which to judge if your message is relevant to their needs. Most
importantly to note: this activity is entirely outside of you control.


“Express, Listen, Respond, Interpret”
After completing the branding exercise,
you will experience the urge to blast your
message out to your patients. Do not
forget that the goal is to engage in a
conversation, not overwhelm the user
with the virtues of your offering. A more in
depth look at branding can be found in
Part 5.

Express

Your messaging should be focused on creating value
for your patients and readers in an easy to absorb,
conversational manner. The goal is to establish yourself as an authentic and
trusted source. Leave your marketing and sales pitches for another day and be
yourself.

Listen

A conversation requires you to listen. Listening to your patient or business
associate is more important than extolling the benefits of what you offer.
Reading their comments, testimonials and private messages shows respect. This
is essential in building any relationship.


Respond

In real life if you were interested in creating a relationship your conversations
would be a combination of speaking, listening and responding. The most
significant difference is that in an online conversation.anyone will be able to
witness the interaction and choose to engage or ignore. Your reply, as with all
online posts, will be available to all whether they comment or not. Responding to
patients comments or questions serves to reinforce your relationship with your
patients and customers.

Interpret

Using web analytics! is perhaps! the single most useful tool to consistently
maintain high value, relevant, branded messaging to! your patients. Without
consistent!monitoring your!trafﬁc you! will have no idea what works and
what!doesnʼt. Delivering unfocused messages can cause your patients to
become confused, lose attention and ultimately dilute your value -- potentially
harming your practice and brand in the process.


GETTING STARTED Part 4: The Art of Digital Curation.
2 cu·rate
verb ˈkyur-ˌāt, kyu-ˈrāt
̇ ̇
cu·rat·edcu·rat·ing
Definition of CURATE
transitive verb
: to act as curator of <curate a museum> <an exhibit curated by the museum's director>

Why Is Curation Important?
FACT: Due to the power of disruptive technology…

The individual has the ability to shape, distort and
impact the perception of online information.

FACT: Gone is the power of mass media to restrict access to information.

Traditional trusted sources of information/referral
have lost their relevancy.

FACT: Everyone has the opportunity to distribute and share information online.

Anyone can become an expert by declaration.

FACT: Your patient is now forced to be responsible for
determining the accuracy and quality of the information
they consume, becoming accountable for their health.

Credible and verifiable information will become the
most powerful currency in the world.


We must assume that the “empowered consumer” searches for and chooses
verifiable content that is relevant to their needs. We must also assume that the
“empowered consumer” will distribute, interact with and share this information
with their community of friends and acquaintances.

The only control we can exert (over our reputation) is the quality and
relevancy of the information we present.

Who will be the judge? Ultimately it will be the patient.

“Patients will look to peers for validation of
information.
This will be accomplished by the social sharing of
information across the web and mobile devices.”

How can you do?

Always post credible, authentic and relevant information

TAG, CATEGORIZE and
ARCHIVE your digital content.

BLOGS:

Blogs consistently rank higher
than web pages suggesting that
your blog will be the patient’s
first contact with you online. As a
result, the power of your blog is
enormous.

Keywords incorporated in your
blog with links related to content
will improve search results for your post, resulting in higher traffic.

Categorize your content by groups- allowing you to navigate to what you want to
look for.

Archiving your content makes it is easy for a patient to find previous articles.


TIP: blog about current events, holidays or trending topics. If you can
incorporate these into what you want to say, there is a strong likelihood
that your blog will appear higher in search rankings by association during
a keyword search.

As a patient reads your blog they will evaluate your credibility. If you are
authentic in your presentation, and the relevance of what they are reading is
valuable, you will gain a follower. If you consistently share great content, you will
become a credible source of information for your patients who will in turn feel
comfortable sharing your information with their friends and acquaintances online.
It is important to understand:

Your patient’s trust is EARNED.

You are not entitled to this trust.

It cannot be bought.

If you abuse this trust the results will be
immediate:

They will close your window and be
gone forever.


Getting Started Part 5- An Overview Of The Basics Of
Branding

What is Branding? Why is it Important?
Primarily used as a marketing term, branding can be used to define the identity
and personality of your practice. It is crucial for you to give an accurate picture of
who you are and what you stand for as the reader will determine very quickly
whether or not what you offer is what they are looking for.

Simply put, your brand is your promise to your patient. It tells them what they can
expect from your treatment and services, and it differentiates your offering from
that of your competitors. Your brand is derived from who you are, who you want
to be and who your patients perceive you to be.

When a prospective patient lands on a webpage they will decide whether or not it
is what they want in less than 10 seconds! Therefore, it is essentially important to
present a focused, branded message that informs the potential patient who you
are and help you shape what people perceive you to be. Achieving this goal will
require time and effort on your part to discover. Daunting but certainly not difficult.

ASSESSMENT AND DISCOVERY

Every practice is a sum of its
parts. Each individual adds value
to the whole. It is important to be
able to identify the strengths and
weaknesses in your practice to
get the maximum value out of
your social media campaign and
online persona.

Take a moment to reflect on who
you are, where you have been
and where you wish to go.
Cultivating an interactive and
flourishing community to support
your (brand) practice will require
focus, dedication and discipline.


BRAND PERSONA

Traditional management has been a control and command
model. Decisions are made at the top and subsequently filtered
down through the organization. Social media changes the game.
Everyone can be brand ambassadors through their tweets, status
updates, blogs, videos etc.

Some may be concerned because of a lack of control but others will understand
that empowering employees to become brand ambassadors creates a sense of
ownership amongst your employees resulting better decision-making.

To begin the branding process requires that department heads, and, to some
extent employees, be included in the decision making process.

If employees are empowered to represent your practice, values and parameters
will need to be defined to insure that your messaging will be consistent. The
following parameters will provide the guidelines necessary for building a cohesive
brand strategy.

CORE VALUES
The core values of your practice--its stature, intentions and
purpose--are the foundation upon which all practice (brand)
activity rests. These core values will dictate your words and
actions, acting as a center of gravity, reinforcing your practice
(brand). Without a center of gravity, uncontrolled and unrestricted
activity will dilute the value of your practice (brand).

PILLARS

Pillars are objects that support, sustain and fortify your practice
(brand). The qualities of these objects will govern the perception
of your practice (brand), establishing its central themes. This will
answer the question, “what is unique about our practice?”

BRAND CHARACTERISTICS

Defining brand characteristics will help establish the traits you
wish to associate with your brand. Simply stated brand
characteristics are:
•What is it that we aim to portray?
•How would our patients describe us?
•How would our patients describe our competitors?
A clear definition of these characteristics will enable your
practice to adapt and grow without losing focus.


THE PROMISE

What is our mission?
Answering this question is not as simple as it sounds and will
require some soul searching. Your promise to your patients will
guide decisions made on behalf of your practice.

BRAND ASPIRATIONS

Nothing in life is static.Your practice is a living and breathing entity
that requires not only real-time management, but direction as
well. Identification of your practice (brand) aspirations create a
“traffic lane” for you to follow as you move forward toward your
goals.

CULTURE

In a social media context, we define “culture” as the beliefs, social
forms and material traits of a particular group. These traits will
define, strengthen, and support the values of your practice,
earning respect, confidence and loyalty.

PERSONALITY

It is the combination of all of the above that will determine the
personality of your practice. The more authentic and unique each
element is will honestly illustrate what your practice (brand)
represents.

Moving through a brand building process will take time and soul searching. It will
require you to think differently about the way you do business. This is a good
thing because holding on to a status quo mindset will prevent you from becoming
successful as our culture struggles to meet the challenges we face.

Some of you will want to roll up your sleeves and be fully engaged in the
branding process. Others will wish to hire branding/marketing companies. At the
very least, the previous descriptions of how to identify your brand will help you
understand and start the process and/or know what questions to ask of the
marketing companies you interview, if you choose to outsource this process.


REMEMBER:

“FAILING TO PLAN IS PLANNING TO FAIL”

GETTING STARTED PART 6-
Creating An Editorial
Calendar
Social networks allow you to share and
promote your practice (brand) message at
a fraction of the cost traditionally spent to
acquire new customers and maintain
relationships. Leveraging social networks
is at the core of a social media marketing
campaign.

The objective of your social media
campaign should be to:
• Deliver a consistent message
• Create a dedicated tribe of followers (patients) who will support your
message
• Steer the experience of your practice (brand) by the quality of the content
you share
Acquiring and maintaining a relationship with your
patients requires you to:

•EARN their trust to garner their attention.

•ONLY distribute quality content that is meaningful and
relevant to their needs.

•LISTEN to their comments and engage in
conversation.

•REVIEW and analyze traffic results of your efforts and
change your approach as need be.

With time, you will find what works for you. The
effectiveness of your social media campaign will be directly related to the quality
of the information you share and the frequency that you distribute your message.
Consistency of output is critical to maintain an active network. Creating an
“editorial calendar” to help you manage this activity.


Where do I begin? What do I talk about? Who is going to be responsible for this?
Why do I have to have a schedule? When will I find the time? Where will I find
the content?
Let’s take these one at a time.

Where do I begin?
• Begin by identifying who your editorial manager will be. This will be the
person responsible for maintaining your schedule of tweets, status
updates, blog posts and video blogs.
• Identify who in your organization will be best suited to participate as
“brand ambassadors”.
What do I talk about?
Everyone has different skills and interests. You will find that if someone is
an expert in a skill set they will have something to say. The trick will be to
have them adopt and integrate the goals of your practice (brand).
Why do I have to have a schedule?
• Without having a schedule and adhering to it, your social media campaign
will be ineffective and potentially cause more harm than good.
• Consistently sharing quality content generates trust and credibility
• Credibility will be the most valued currency as time moves forward.
When will I find the time?
• It is possible to manage and maintain a robust social media presence in
30 minutes or less a day. Don’t worry. We’ll show you how.
Where will I find the content?
• You already possess more content sources than you are aware of.

Basics of a
Social Media
Marketing
Campaign


A Case Study: Finding Quality Content for your Social Media
Campaign.

To a keep a blog current you will constantly be looking for new topics. For most
people, it is hard enough to get started let alone deliver quality material on a
scheduled basis. Not to worry. Help is on the way!

Let’s look at a sample business: Pegasus Home Health Care.

One of the services that Pegasus Home Health Care offers its customers is
“Personal Care Services”. The following is from the Pegasus Home Health Care
website.

Pegasus offers
a variety of
services. I see
a year of
potential social
media content
topics.

Where do you
begin to find
content that fits
your brand
promise?

Look no further
than the
expertise you
offer your
patients to find
a treasure
trove of
potential topics
to talk about
that will engage and inform your patients. The goal is to create trust in your
patients as they identify you their source of credible content regardless whether
the content is original or if merely provide a link to content relevant to their needs.


In this example, you will see a list of blog topics created from Pegasus’ services.

Training yourself to look at your practice in this way you will see that finding
topics will not be as difficult as you might think!

Your biggest challenge will be to stay on schedule.

To create a format
that will be simple
to execute, we
suggest you create
a calendar,
available to all,
and assign
individuals to be
responsible for
blogs (articles)
about specific
topics that are
related to your
brand mission and
their personal
expertise as
shown in the figure at the top of the page.


REMEMBER: Your content does not have to be
distributed in real time.

Getting Started Part 7- Content Aggregation and
Syndication
“Web content is the textual, visual or aural
content that is encountered as part of the user
experience on websites. It may include,
among other things: text, images, sounds,
videos and animations.”

Web 2.0 has transformed our culture into a
content creation machine! Blogs, Status
updates, photos and videos are being created
at an astonishing rate.

It is apparent that the explosion in content
creation is matched by our willingness and
interest in sharing our creations.

More significantly is the fact that we freely share the content of others with our
friends and acquaintances. Retweeting, forwarding links, commenting and
“liking” has all become commonplace, if not expected, on the web.

In the context of an integrated online content strategy: what does this mean to
us?

Sharing content that you curate can be as
important as content you create!

A successful online marketing and content strategy is as much about who we are
as what we say. It is the totality of what is presented and in what context that will
define your practice (brand). Remember: What your patients will take away is
the perception of their experience.

A Social Media strategy will consist of blogs, tweets, commenting on content,
supplying links to other pages and responding to comments of other about your
content. Only posting content that is consistent with your brand values will create
a unified online brand presence.


There are no “tried and true” rules of the road. However, best practices are
emerging.

The following is an example of appropriating content to use for our content
strategy and distribute to your patients on Twitter and Facebook.

Goal:
Drive more traffic
Enhance your credibility by providing relevant information
Earn the trust of your patients.

Method:
1. Find a webpage or (your) blog that contains information that would be
interesting and valuable to your audience.
2. Share that link to your audience through your social networking profiles.

ATTRIBUTION of sources is extremely important when sharing links.
Be sure to let your readers know where you found the information.

(NOTE: Owners of public content actually support the sharing because it drives
awareness and page views.)

Using search, I found an article about Social Media guidelines for Doctors.


The next step is to compose a short headline or description of what the article is
about. It is a call to action to get the reader’s attention. Keep this short--100-120
characters including the link shortened by bit.ly.

Many URL’s are too long for Twitter or status updates. Bit.ly is a link shortner that
creates a unique, URL that compress a URL. This allows people to add
comments when Retweeting (sharing with their followers) if they like.

For this example, I wrote:

“New social media guidelines for doctors: http://bit.ly/awR3aS.” (60 characters)

It is important to note that you should shorten only the link and not your entire
status update (headline). Otherwise the reader will have no context by which to
judge their interest. Most likely your post will be ignored.

Research and create a list of quality sources to cull content from and you will be
amazed at how quickly this can be accomplished. From start to finish, the
distribution process, including linking to other web pages, literally takes seconds
to complete.

As you become more enthusiastic about social media, you may want to get
involved in as many social networks as you can. There are numerous syndication
tools available. (ping.fm, hootsuite, posterous). The downside would be that it is
time consuming to keep up with more than a couple of networks. We suggest
that you focus your posting activity to your blog, Facebook and Twitter to start.


Getting Started Part 8- Composing a Blog-

Given the demands on our time, we have come to expect our media to be able to
impart critical information as succinctly and quickly as possible. We make the
determination to continue reading (or viewing) based upon what we learn from
fewer than 300 characters. If we are not sufficiently engaged, we will move on to
other pages. We all have way too much to absorb. We don’t want to waste our
time.

The Headline

To easily fit into status updates, blog
headlines and tweets, headlines need
to be limited to 100-120 characters.
Short headlines combined with a bit.ly
link (shortened URL) of this length
easily fit into status updates on most
any online platform.

The goal of these status updates is to
create a call to action. At the same
time, you should be conscious of


“overselling”. Simple, direct, and authentic post that are integrated with your
content strategy is always a good policy. Readers want value in return for their
attention. Perception of value creates credibility which in turn defines you as a
trusted source.

The First Paragraph

As we consume more information, we have
come to expect that what we read online is
compact and to the point. Effectively using
your online real estate requires an almost
laser focus towards getting to the heart of
the matter as quickly as possible.

Hyperlinks

In addition to “just the facts”, today’s readers expect an in-depth, engaging
experience. Hyperlinks and keywords embedded in a blog rate highly in Google
search which will increase traffic and raise your search results.

Text editors have the capability to use any text in your blog as a link to another
webpage. This creates a rich experience for the reader and will create credibility
based upon the quality of the content used for reference.

Building an engaging patient experience enhances value. User engagement =
longer page views.


Getting Started Part 9:
5 Things you can do to help you succeed with your
social media campaign

1. SOCIAL RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT

Test, learn from mistakes and be willing
to fail. Start on a small scale and then
apply what you learn to larger projects

2. GO BEYOND YOUR UNIQUE SELLING PROPOSITION

Your patients control their media
experience and are resistant to
traditional “push” marketing. As a result
advertisements and marketing
messages can easily be ignored. Brands
that “pull” patients by offering greater
value (“Multiple Brand Benefits”) will
have longer lasting success.


3. STRIVE TO UNDERSTAND YOUR PATIENTS

Your patients are multi-
dimensional people with multiple
passions and interests. The better
you understand your patients and
their passions the easier it will be
to create an effective content
strategy that engages and creates
community.

4. TAKE THE TIME
REQUIRED

This is a marathon not a sprint.
The only short cut to hard work
is to buy someone else’s hard
work.


5. DIP YOUR TOE IN
Just start. You’ll never know until you try.

1. Express - your practice/brand values with a cohesive
content strategy

2. Listen to your patients - they will be happy to tell what
works and what doesn’t work for them.

3. Respond- never let comments go unanswered. Taking the
time to reply sends an important message-that you respect
your patients and business clients.

4. Measure and evaluate- set goals for your social media
program with deadlines to accurately measure and evaluate
your progress.


Social Media For The Healthcare Professional-A Beginner's Guide

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