An overview of social media and the potential benefits for your practice. Social media is a critical component for all small businesses and professionals, but at first glance, navigating through the nuances of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can seem like a daunting task. Yet as we clock the steady growth in these channels, it has become a necessity for dermatologists to understand and embrace these emerging methods of communication. If you want to see an increase in your online traffic and expand your practice, there is no doubt that social media offers extensive and measurable benefits. Early adopters will have an advantage as more people engage in online networking. As it matures, social media is becoming a very complex entity. Social networking platforms can be an extension of customer support, influence purchasing decisions, drive traffic to other marketing platforms such as Web sites and blogs, contribute to brand building and a host of other purposes. More directly, they can be used to attract people to your events, seminars and clinics. To effectively use social media, you need to engage people, generate sincere and real two-way conversations, network and build relationships. The idea is to grow your network and reputation over time by providing value and sharing information relative to your niche and marketplace. For a dermatology practice, social media can be the most cost-effective channel to generate new patients, referrals and revenue. Consumers often require multiple touches, including e-mail, search and social media, before taking action. Social marketing and search marketing have fundamental differences, but they influence each other. Your social media and search teams should work together to maximize results. The more followers you have, the more blog posts you make, the more credible you are to search engines. Choosing the right keywords will also help you rank higher. Although your Web site remains at the core of your marketing cosmos, social media has the potential to become even more important than search engine optimization. Social media is changing the landscape of online marketing. Your patients, colleagues, vendors and competitors are on Facebook and LinkedIn. They are blogging, tweeting and uploading movies to YouTube. The main reason for dermatologists to have a presence on these powerful platforms is to remain visible and relevant to a range of audiences that matter, including the medical and pharmaceutical industry at large and the media.
Facebook: The Largest Web site
With more than 600 million users and a valuation of more than $70 billion, Facebook is one of the most influential companies in the world and the largest photography site. This highly addictive connective platform has changed the way we communicate. It is now poised to become an essential component of doing business online, having recently launched “Facebook Deals” to go head-to-head with other daily deal platforms such as Groupon. By investing some time and energy, you can build brand loyalty, establish your expertise, engage with patients on a deeper level, and drive traffic to your Web site where visitors can make a purchasing decision, schedule an appointment, buy a product, or set up a treatment. Creating a profile for your business is a violation of Facebook’s terms and conditions. Therefore, you need to start by creating a personal profile using your real name. To build your profile upload a photo, enter your education, business and contact info, and join your local network. The more complete your profile, the more easily you can connect with other people. Facebook offers customizable privacy settings that control who can see different elements of your profile so that you can share photos of your kids with friends and family, but not with patients or professors. Once you have a personal profile, you should create a professional page. Pages can be populated with practice information, photos, video, upcoming events, discussion forums and links back to your Web site. Pages are made publicly available so search engines can find and index them. As people become “fans” of your page, you can stay in touch and share information to build a network of like-minded individuals. If a fan of your page posts a negative comment, the assigned Page Administrator can delete the post and ban the user from posting again. By utilizing a customized Facebook page app, you can add interactive features such as a shopping cart, appointment scheduling, highlight multiple locations, and grow a subscriber base. Your page can be promoted via eblasts, Facebook ads, and through the Facebook network. However, the messages you send out should not be solely about you or your practice. To generate viral excitement, it needs to incorporate your customers, partners, staff and anyone else who can endorse you or provide testimonials and enter the conversation.
Twitter: What Are You Doing?
Twitter just celebrated its fifth anniversary with 200 million users worldwide and a valuation of around $9 billion. It is much more than a way to tell people what you had for dinner. Tweets are 140 characters including spaces that read like text messages or a microblog. The more you participate and interact with other users, the more you increase your chances of getting noticed. Being active on Twitter is a way to get your messages across, but your reach is limited by the number of followers you attract. Once you build your Twitter network, you can promote special offers, skin care products, new treatments, tips on sun protection, skin cancer and aging skin, and other content of interest to your followers. Twitter is also a good place to find relevant news and retweet links to your followers. The more people you follow, the more content you retweet, the more people will follow you and retweet your content. In the Twitterverse more is more, which necessitates enlisting third-party applications, such as TweetDeck and HootSuite or outsourcing the process to maintain steady growth over the longterm.
Linked In: Relationships Matter
Linkedin is different from Facebook and Twitter in that its primary purpose is to serve as a networking tool for business to business. It is not an ideal platform to reach out to patients. Start with a profile that contains a headshot and as many details about your expertise as you feel comfortable including — such as undergraduate degrees, medical school, fellowships, areas of specialization, research, board certification, professional organizations, contact details, etc. You should also include a summary of who you are and what you do, because people will search for you in different ways. Many dermatologists also create a Company Profile for their practice. Many of your colleagues are on LinkedIn so you can get started by reaching out to people you know and inviting them to connect. LinkedIn lets you upload contacts from AOL and Gmail as well as a spreadsheet. Another powerful tool on Linkedin is to join Groups that are relevant to your interests and practice. Groups can be built around location, industries, companies, alumni groups, specialties, or categories such as medical devices, dermatology, medspas, etc. Linkedin is also useful to recruit candidates for research studies, find qualified staff, and locate potential partners, associates, affiliates and office space. Additional applications allow you to create events to announce upcoming speaking engagements, invite colleagues, connect with associates at conferences, and promote your blog. Although it is not as social as other networking options, this platform is far simpler to use, straightforward and logical, and does not require daily posting for a busy dermatologist.
Youtube — Broadcast Yourself
YouTube, which is owned by Google, is all about original video content. More than 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and the site surpasses 2 billion daily video views. To get started on YouTube, you will need to create a Channel for your practice and then upload video content. This content may take the form of educational videos, commentary about a procedure or treatment, or footage of an actual procedure. To receive updates of new videos, you can subscribe to individual channels. For example, search under the category of “Science and Technology” to find the most subscribed and most viewed channels. YouTube video content can be embedded in your tweets and posted on your Facebook page.
Measuring Results
So you’ve got a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, and YouTube channel. But how do you measure your results? To effectively measure results, metrics need to be specific to your business, and measure how social media is driving traffic, customers, revenue, and your bottom line. To maximize the effects of these platforms, all of your social media marketing should ideally be integrated into one seamless online experience. For example; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn hyperlinks should be placed on the landing page of your Web site and included in eblasts that your practice sends to patients. Facebook page posts can be automatically posted to Twitter in real time. Your addresses in all social media platforms should be included everywhere all the other contact details for your practice exist, both virtually and in print, including your e-mail signature. Social media is more cost effective than other marketing initiatives because you do not need a big budget to be successful. You can enlist professional firms to help you, or assign a dedicated person on staff to stay on top of it. Perhaps the greatest challenge for dermatologists is that social media is deceivingly labor intensive and it takes a long period of daily engagement to see results and reap the rewards. There is little question that a well-executed social media marketing program will generate new business, help you to keep your existing patients by engaging with them, increase your Google rank, and enhance word of mouth. The question is not whether you should have a social media presence; but rather, whether you can afford not to. Wendy Lewis is President of Wendy Lewis & Co Ltd, Global Aesthetics Consultancy, author of 11 books, and Founder/Editor in Chief of beautyinthebag.com. Disclosure: The author has no conflict of interest with any material discussed in this article.
An overview of social media and the potential benefits for your practice. Social media is a critical component for all small businesses and professionals, but at first glance, navigating through the nuances of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can seem like a daunting task. Yet as we clock the steady growth in these channels, it has become a necessity for dermatologists to understand and embrace these emerging methods of communication. If you want to see an increase in your online traffic and expand your practice, there is no doubt that social media offers extensive and measurable benefits. Early adopters will have an advantage as more people engage in online networking. As it matures, social media is becoming a very complex entity. Social networking platforms can be an extension of customer support, influence purchasing decisions, drive traffic to other marketing platforms such as Web sites and blogs, contribute to brand building and a host of other purposes. More directly, they can be used to attract people to your events, seminars and clinics. To effectively use social media, you need to engage people, generate sincere and real two-way conversations, network and build relationships. The idea is to grow your network and reputation over time by providing value and sharing information relative to your niche and marketplace. For a dermatology practice, social media can be the most cost-effective channel to generate new patients, referrals and revenue. Consumers often require multiple touches, including e-mail, search and social media, before taking action. Social marketing and search marketing have fundamental differences, but they influence each other. Your social media and search teams should work together to maximize results. The more followers you have, the more blog posts you make, the more credible you are to search engines. Choosing the right keywords will also help you rank higher. Although your Web site remains at the core of your marketing cosmos, social media has the potential to become even more important than search engine optimization. Social media is changing the landscape of online marketing. Your patients, colleagues, vendors and competitors are on Facebook and LinkedIn. They are blogging, tweeting and uploading movies to YouTube. The main reason for dermatologists to have a presence on these powerful platforms is to remain visible and relevant to a range of audiences that matter, including the medical and pharmaceutical industry at large and the media.
Facebook: The Largest Web site
With more than 600 million users and a valuation of more than $70 billion, Facebook is one of the most influential companies in the world and the largest photography site. This highly addictive connective platform has changed the way we communicate. It is now poised to become an essential component of doing business online, having recently launched “Facebook Deals” to go head-to-head with other daily deal platforms such as Groupon. By investing some time and energy, you can build brand loyalty, establish your expertise, engage with patients on a deeper level, and drive traffic to your Web site where visitors can make a purchasing decision, schedule an appointment, buy a product, or set up a treatment. Creating a profile for your business is a violation of Facebook’s terms and conditions. Therefore, you need to start by creating a personal profile using your real name. To build your profile upload a photo, enter your education, business and contact info, and join your local network. The more complete your profile, the more easily you can connect with other people. Facebook offers customizable privacy settings that control who can see different elements of your profile so that you can share photos of your kids with friends and family, but not with patients or professors. Once you have a personal profile, you should create a professional page. Pages can be populated with practice information, photos, video, upcoming events, discussion forums and links back to your Web site. Pages are made publicly available so search engines can find and index them. As people become “fans” of your page, you can stay in touch and share information to build a network of like-minded individuals. If a fan of your page posts a negative comment, the assigned Page Administrator can delete the post and ban the user from posting again. By utilizing a customized Facebook page app, you can add interactive features such as a shopping cart, appointment scheduling, highlight multiple locations, and grow a subscriber base. Your page can be promoted via eblasts, Facebook ads, and through the Facebook network. However, the messages you send out should not be solely about you or your practice. To generate viral excitement, it needs to incorporate your customers, partners, staff and anyone else who can endorse you or provide testimonials and enter the conversation.
Twitter: What Are You Doing?
Twitter just celebrated its fifth anniversary with 200 million users worldwide and a valuation of around $9 billion. It is much more than a way to tell people what you had for dinner. Tweets are 140 characters including spaces that read like text messages or a microblog. The more you participate and interact with other users, the more you increase your chances of getting noticed. Being active on Twitter is a way to get your messages across, but your reach is limited by the number of followers you attract. Once you build your Twitter network, you can promote special offers, skin care products, new treatments, tips on sun protection, skin cancer and aging skin, and other content of interest to your followers. Twitter is also a good place to find relevant news and retweet links to your followers. The more people you follow, the more content you retweet, the more people will follow you and retweet your content. In the Twitterverse more is more, which necessitates enlisting third-party applications, such as TweetDeck and HootSuite or outsourcing the process to maintain steady growth over the longterm.
Linked In: Relationships Matter
Linkedin is different from Facebook and Twitter in that its primary purpose is to serve as a networking tool for business to business. It is not an ideal platform to reach out to patients. Start with a profile that contains a headshot and as many details about your expertise as you feel comfortable including — such as undergraduate degrees, medical school, fellowships, areas of specialization, research, board certification, professional organizations, contact details, etc. You should also include a summary of who you are and what you do, because people will search for you in different ways. Many dermatologists also create a Company Profile for their practice. Many of your colleagues are on LinkedIn so you can get started by reaching out to people you know and inviting them to connect. LinkedIn lets you upload contacts from AOL and Gmail as well as a spreadsheet. Another powerful tool on Linkedin is to join Groups that are relevant to your interests and practice. Groups can be built around location, industries, companies, alumni groups, specialties, or categories such as medical devices, dermatology, medspas, etc. Linkedin is also useful to recruit candidates for research studies, find qualified staff, and locate potential partners, associates, affiliates and office space. Additional applications allow you to create events to announce upcoming speaking engagements, invite colleagues, connect with associates at conferences, and promote your blog. Although it is not as social as other networking options, this platform is far simpler to use, straightforward and logical, and does not require daily posting for a busy dermatologist.
Youtube — Broadcast Yourself
YouTube, which is owned by Google, is all about original video content. More than 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and the site surpasses 2 billion daily video views. To get started on YouTube, you will need to create a Channel for your practice and then upload video content. This content may take the form of educational videos, commentary about a procedure or treatment, or footage of an actual procedure. To receive updates of new videos, you can subscribe to individual channels. For example, search under the category of “Science and Technology” to find the most subscribed and most viewed channels. YouTube video content can be embedded in your tweets and posted on your Facebook page.
Measuring Results
So you’ve got a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, and YouTube channel. But how do you measure your results? To effectively measure results, metrics need to be specific to your business, and measure how social media is driving traffic, customers, revenue, and your bottom line. To maximize the effects of these platforms, all of your social media marketing should ideally be integrated into one seamless online experience. For example; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn hyperlinks should be placed on the landing page of your Web site and included in eblasts that your practice sends to patients. Facebook page posts can be automatically posted to Twitter in real time. Your addresses in all social media platforms should be included everywhere all the other contact details for your practice exist, both virtually and in print, including your e-mail signature. Social media is more cost effective than other marketing initiatives because you do not need a big budget to be successful. You can enlist professional firms to help you, or assign a dedicated person on staff to stay on top of it. Perhaps the greatest challenge for dermatologists is that social media is deceivingly labor intensive and it takes a long period of daily engagement to see results and reap the rewards. There is little question that a well-executed social media marketing program will generate new business, help you to keep your existing patients by engaging with them, increase your Google rank, and enhance word of mouth. The question is not whether you should have a social media presence; but rather, whether you can afford not to. Wendy Lewis is President of Wendy Lewis & Co Ltd, Global Aesthetics Consultancy, author of 11 books, and Founder/Editor in Chief of beautyinthebag.com. Disclosure: The author has no conflict of interest with any material discussed in this article.
An overview of social media and the potential benefits for your practice. Social media is a critical component for all small businesses and professionals, but at first glance, navigating through the nuances of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can seem like a daunting task. Yet as we clock the steady growth in these channels, it has become a necessity for dermatologists to understand and embrace these emerging methods of communication. If you want to see an increase in your online traffic and expand your practice, there is no doubt that social media offers extensive and measurable benefits. Early adopters will have an advantage as more people engage in online networking. As it matures, social media is becoming a very complex entity. Social networking platforms can be an extension of customer support, influence purchasing decisions, drive traffic to other marketing platforms such as Web sites and blogs, contribute to brand building and a host of other purposes. More directly, they can be used to attract people to your events, seminars and clinics. To effectively use social media, you need to engage people, generate sincere and real two-way conversations, network and build relationships. The idea is to grow your network and reputation over time by providing value and sharing information relative to your niche and marketplace. For a dermatology practice, social media can be the most cost-effective channel to generate new patients, referrals and revenue. Consumers often require multiple touches, including e-mail, search and social media, before taking action. Social marketing and search marketing have fundamental differences, but they influence each other. Your social media and search teams should work together to maximize results. The more followers you have, the more blog posts you make, the more credible you are to search engines. Choosing the right keywords will also help you rank higher. Although your Web site remains at the core of your marketing cosmos, social media has the potential to become even more important than search engine optimization. Social media is changing the landscape of online marketing. Your patients, colleagues, vendors and competitors are on Facebook and LinkedIn. They are blogging, tweeting and uploading movies to YouTube. The main reason for dermatologists to have a presence on these powerful platforms is to remain visible and relevant to a range of audiences that matter, including the medical and pharmaceutical industry at large and the media.
Facebook: The Largest Web site
With more than 600 million users and a valuation of more than $70 billion, Facebook is one of the most influential companies in the world and the largest photography site. This highly addictive connective platform has changed the way we communicate. It is now poised to become an essential component of doing business online, having recently launched “Facebook Deals” to go head-to-head with other daily deal platforms such as Groupon. By investing some time and energy, you can build brand loyalty, establish your expertise, engage with patients on a deeper level, and drive traffic to your Web site where visitors can make a purchasing decision, schedule an appointment, buy a product, or set up a treatment. Creating a profile for your business is a violation of Facebook’s terms and conditions. Therefore, you need to start by creating a personal profile using your real name. To build your profile upload a photo, enter your education, business and contact info, and join your local network. The more complete your profile, the more easily you can connect with other people. Facebook offers customizable privacy settings that control who can see different elements of your profile so that you can share photos of your kids with friends and family, but not with patients or professors. Once you have a personal profile, you should create a professional page. Pages can be populated with practice information, photos, video, upcoming events, discussion forums and links back to your Web site. Pages are made publicly available so search engines can find and index them. As people become “fans” of your page, you can stay in touch and share information to build a network of like-minded individuals. If a fan of your page posts a negative comment, the assigned Page Administrator can delete the post and ban the user from posting again. By utilizing a customized Facebook page app, you can add interactive features such as a shopping cart, appointment scheduling, highlight multiple locations, and grow a subscriber base. Your page can be promoted via eblasts, Facebook ads, and through the Facebook network. However, the messages you send out should not be solely about you or your practice. To generate viral excitement, it needs to incorporate your customers, partners, staff and anyone else who can endorse you or provide testimonials and enter the conversation.
Twitter: What Are You Doing?
Twitter just celebrated its fifth anniversary with 200 million users worldwide and a valuation of around $9 billion. It is much more than a way to tell people what you had for dinner. Tweets are 140 characters including spaces that read like text messages or a microblog. The more you participate and interact with other users, the more you increase your chances of getting noticed. Being active on Twitter is a way to get your messages across, but your reach is limited by the number of followers you attract. Once you build your Twitter network, you can promote special offers, skin care products, new treatments, tips on sun protection, skin cancer and aging skin, and other content of interest to your followers. Twitter is also a good place to find relevant news and retweet links to your followers. The more people you follow, the more content you retweet, the more people will follow you and retweet your content. In the Twitterverse more is more, which necessitates enlisting third-party applications, such as TweetDeck and HootSuite or outsourcing the process to maintain steady growth over the longterm.
Linked In: Relationships Matter
Linkedin is different from Facebook and Twitter in that its primary purpose is to serve as a networking tool for business to business. It is not an ideal platform to reach out to patients. Start with a profile that contains a headshot and as many details about your expertise as you feel comfortable including — such as undergraduate degrees, medical school, fellowships, areas of specialization, research, board certification, professional organizations, contact details, etc. You should also include a summary of who you are and what you do, because people will search for you in different ways. Many dermatologists also create a Company Profile for their practice. Many of your colleagues are on LinkedIn so you can get started by reaching out to people you know and inviting them to connect. LinkedIn lets you upload contacts from AOL and Gmail as well as a spreadsheet. Another powerful tool on Linkedin is to join Groups that are relevant to your interests and practice. Groups can be built around location, industries, companies, alumni groups, specialties, or categories such as medical devices, dermatology, medspas, etc. Linkedin is also useful to recruit candidates for research studies, find qualified staff, and locate potential partners, associates, affiliates and office space. Additional applications allow you to create events to announce upcoming speaking engagements, invite colleagues, connect with associates at conferences, and promote your blog. Although it is not as social as other networking options, this platform is far simpler to use, straightforward and logical, and does not require daily posting for a busy dermatologist.
Youtube — Broadcast Yourself
YouTube, which is owned by Google, is all about original video content. More than 35 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute, and the site surpasses 2 billion daily video views. To get started on YouTube, you will need to create a Channel for your practice and then upload video content. This content may take the form of educational videos, commentary about a procedure or treatment, or footage of an actual procedure. To receive updates of new videos, you can subscribe to individual channels. For example, search under the category of “Science and Technology” to find the most subscribed and most viewed channels. YouTube video content can be embedded in your tweets and posted on your Facebook page.
Measuring Results
So you’ve got a Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, Twitter account, and YouTube channel. But how do you measure your results? To effectively measure results, metrics need to be specific to your business, and measure how social media is driving traffic, customers, revenue, and your bottom line. To maximize the effects of these platforms, all of your social media marketing should ideally be integrated into one seamless online experience. For example; Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn hyperlinks should be placed on the landing page of your Web site and included in eblasts that your practice sends to patients. Facebook page posts can be automatically posted to Twitter in real time. Your addresses in all social media platforms should be included everywhere all the other contact details for your practice exist, both virtually and in print, including your e-mail signature. Social media is more cost effective than other marketing initiatives because you do not need a big budget to be successful. You can enlist professional firms to help you, or assign a dedicated person on staff to stay on top of it. Perhaps the greatest challenge for dermatologists is that social media is deceivingly labor intensive and it takes a long period of daily engagement to see results and reap the rewards. There is little question that a well-executed social media marketing program will generate new business, help you to keep your existing patients by engaging with them, increase your Google rank, and enhance word of mouth. The question is not whether you should have a social media presence; but rather, whether you can afford not to. Wendy Lewis is President of Wendy Lewis & Co Ltd, Global Aesthetics Consultancy, author of 11 books, and Founder/Editor in Chief of beautyinthebag.com. Disclosure: The author has no conflict of interest with any material discussed in this article.
