Effective Facebook For Medical Professionals A Guide For Healthcare Professional Using Facebook to Promote Your Online Social Media Expertise ... and how to stand out from the rest!
Louisa Chan www.SynergyMarketingPro.com
Synergy Marketing Pro offers Marketing Strategies and Services for Small Businesses. You can reach us at www.SynergyMarketingPro.com
Effective Facebook For Medical Professionals The Widespread Influence of Facebook 750 million users are on Facebook today, 11.5 million of these are from Malaysia; that’s 44.5% of our entire population. Research shows that people spend at least 20 minutes a day on Facebook and they search for information using Google. A third of these searches include city such as “Hospitals in Kuala Lumpur”.
If you are not showing up on searches (whether on Google or Facebook), you are cutting yourself out from the increasing mass of people looking for you on these platforms. Although some people have concerns with maintaining a Personal Facebook account, the potential of this social media platform is too compelling for businesses and brands to ignore.
Social Media is a powerful tool for building and showcasing doctors’ expertise online. The American Medical Association (AMA) acknowledged this last November. Social Media provides an effective way to communicate with patients although one must be careful to observe appropriate doctor-patient relationship and the Medical Council code of conduct1.
Responsible Use Of Facebook For Medical Professionals I highly recommend that medical professionals make use of a Facebook Page instead of a Facebook personal account for all non-personal use. Any effort that promotes your professional practice and branding is best done using a Facebook Page. This way you reach out to your clients while keeping your personal and 1
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2011/08/01/bisb0801.htm
@ Louisa Chan www.SynergyMarketingPro.com
professional life separate and not run the risk of unintentionally transgressing guidelines from the Singapore Medical Council.
In fact Facebook requires that businesses make use of a Facebook Page in the terms of use2 (here. This additional resource will explain why you need a Facebook Page and not a Facebook Profile Account3.
The Singapore Medical Council and many hospitals worldwide have vibrant Facebook Pages. Posting on your business Facebook Page can boost your Search Engine Ranking so you are more easily found on web searches. That translates to having more visitors and clients.
Having a Facebook Page also allows you to understand your patients’ demographics because Facebook provides you with your fan’s basic profile information. So although you may not have a large fan, insights into patient demographics lets you focus on your market (including age, sex, location) and you get the quickest growth. A Singapore chiropractor client now knows more about her clients that when he was using paid Google advertising (which has very expensive keywords in paid advertising).
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https://www.facebook.com/terms.php
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http://www.synergymarketingpro.com/you-need-a-facebook-page/
@ Louisa Chan www.SynergyMarketingPro.com
Effective Use Of Facebook For Medical Professionals
1. Make Full Use Of Visual Branding With Profile Picture. Most people only put up a photo and do not make use of this prime real estate. You can include information of your business website, phone number or contacts on other social media platforms (e.g. LinkedIn, Twitter, Foursquare). Patients like to know who you are and to find out a little about your background before they consult with you. Your image can be 540 pixels high and 80 pixel wide.
2. Fill Up Basic Business Information on the Info Page. Patients like to know your specialist area, practice location, practice overview and description. If you have a local business listing on Google Places or a Venue on Foursquare, you can include details here so you can bring readers from your Facebook Page to your clinic or company website.
3. Upload Your Video And Photo Tab so patients can see educational clips of talks, interviews with specialist doctors or happening at the hospital. Videos and photos are proven to increase engagement for the audience. We had a lot of success in using videos and photos of our Singaporean Speaker on his Fan page. Viewing increased 25% and audience feels connected when they see clips of their favorite speaker delivering a presentation on the Facebook Page.
@ Louisa Chan www.SynergyMarketingPro.com
Note: Be careful you do not show photographs or video clips of results of surgery or of consultations taking place or of operative procedures being conducted where doctors or patients are easily identifiable. 4. Use Notes On Your Page so you can import blog posts from your website. This way your patients get to read your articles on multiple platforms and you get to leverage on white papers you have already published elsewhere. For bonus points, you can also activate Polls and Question on Facebook so you can conduct surveys and increase engagement from patients.
5. Create Events for special activities at the clinic or hospitals. These could be special talks, health fair, an opening ceremony, introducing a new staff or new technology. Events on Facebook can generate free viral buzz in a very short time.
6. Set Up A Patients Newsletter Sign Up Page so you can capture patients email addresses for ongoing relationship building. Using an eMail Marketing system saves you from sending mails to people who are not interested in your content (also known as spamming) and helps you focus on a targeted group of people who do want to receive updates from you.
7. Start posting. Once or twice a week is good. You don’t need to be writing all the content either. In fact your page can be a hub for medical resources and point to third party content. Where there is a sense of community, @ Louisa Chan www.SynergyMarketingPro.com
your fans will start connecting with each other with minimum input from you.
Your Facebook presence allows you to educate your community; not to give confidential or specific information about a certain patient. You can reach out to your patients and connect but remember not to give direct medical advice. It is wise not to disclose too much personal details on the Internet.
There are many more things you can do with a Facebook page like running ceremonies and campaigns. Used correctly and effectively it can get you great results. You will need to maintain the page and may occasionally need to delete posts from others that violate the Medical Council code of conduct. You will also need to manage your brand’s online reputation.
Facebook is free to use (for the most part) and has great viral power. While creating a Facebook Page is not complicated, optimizing it and getting it to work takes knowledge and time. While you won’t expect a newly set up Facebook page to bring in a flood of followers you can start building your online branding and your email database.
@ Louisa Chan www.SynergyMarketingPro.com
About The Author Louisa Chan is a Social Media specialist who helps medical and health professionals set up optimized online social media presence. She speaks and conducts public workshops on responsible and effective use of Social Media and is the author of popular social media guide, “Social Media In 1 Hour A Week” (http://www.SynergyMarketingPro.com/1hoursocialmedia). Contact Details www.SynergyMarketingPro.com Mail@SynergyMarketingPro.com
Additional tips are available at Marketing Resources Using Social Media (http://www.synergymarketingpro.com) Online Networking Sites for Doctors (http://www.sermo.com/) Marketing On Facebook – Best Practice Guideline (http://www.synergymarketingpro.com/marketing-on-facebook-best-practiceguideline/)
@ Louisa Chan www.SynergyMarketingPro.com