Page 39 - Delaware Medical Journal - July/August 2019

PRACTICE MANAGEMENT
(Even if you delete a post, it can still show up in searches.)
Gaines’ advice to both groups is the same: “A lot of it is common sense. Just be mindful of what you’re putting out there. You just have to make
sure you’re protecting your patients’ privacy, that you’re being professional, being consistent to your brand and are always thinking, can this be taken out of context? Then you’ll be able to safely use social media.”
And the importance of taking the leap into social media cannot be overstated, because for better or worse, many patients and caregivers will choose a new physician largely based on their online presence, says Lynn Bouscaren, Owner of Peak Medical Marketing in Newark, Delaware.
Gaines likes to illustrate this with the example of someone asking a friend for a recommendation for a plumber. “The friend says, ‘I know Joe the plumber.’ You might then pull up your phone, start Googling Joe and maybe a Twitter page shows up where he’s posting about the same plumbing issue you have, or you might see a photo of him lecturing at a plumbing convention. You say, going to go with him.’ But then when you call Joe and he asks who referred you, you’re going to say, ‘My friend Suzie.’ You’re not going to necessarily mention that you researched him for legitimacy and made sure his website didn’t have copyright 2002 and he was a real person. But that held real weight in your decision to go with him.”
CHOOSING THE RIGHT PLATFORM
All in all, Facebook is the platform that most patients and their caregivers will use, notes Bouscaren. Twitter is obviously popular as well, but relies
heavily on responsiveness. A patient or potential patient who tweets at you will expect a response, and might get upset if they don’t receive it, says Bouscaren. So use Twitter only if someone is monitoring the account for interactions each day.
Your choice of platform should also be informed by research on your targeted patient population, says Gaines. While she agrees that Facebook is a good choice for practices looking to attract middle-aged and older patients and caregivers, younger patients have been migrating off that platform and prefer Instagram or Snapchat.
Those platforms are more visual,
but they can still work for a practice
or for individual physicians, Gaines believes. For example, you might post pictures of yourself giving a lecture at a conference to underline your status as post a screenshot of the headline on a new article that’s relevant to what you do,” she suggests.
GETTING STARTED AND GETTING BETTER
Once you’ve chosen which platform to focus your efforts on, what do you need your social media presence? Here’s what the experts recommend:
Create a consistent brand. “It’s very important to make sure your Facebook mirrors what your website says,” says Bouscaren. “You need
to have a consistent logo and it’s

[across platforms] so everything looks uniform.”
Find the right voice and stick to it. Because you want your brand to
be recognizable and consistent across platforms, it’s very important to settle on one person who will represent you
online, says Bouscaren. “You can assign one staff member, or you could hire it
out on a part-time basis to a marketing to look for: “You have to make sure it’s somebody who understands your vision, understands how to use social media, understands the proper use of hashtags and can write well,” says Gaines. “Maybe you have all of that in your secretary or your lead medical assistant, or maybe it’s you or a friend who helps you on the side. It doesn’t matter who — they just need to know what they’re doing.”
Be timely. When posting, think about what might be on your patients’ mind, suggests Bouscaren. Do they need tips for managing their seasonal allergies,
or a reminder to tread carefully on icy sidewalks? Also, consider what’s going on in your practice. “If you just got a new type of X-ray machine, you may want to talk about how you’re offering this new service,” she says.
Make posts easily accessible
and widely applicable. “The language needs to be elementary — written for fourth- to sixth-grade reading level,” says Bouscaren. “If your post is super- technical, no one will read it.” She also recommends that physicians stay away from posting detailed treatment protocols generic, helpful information, and you should always recommend at the end that they come in and talk to a physician,” says Bouscaren.
Schedule posts. Especially for
doctors who manage their own social

it consistently can be an issue. Gaines recommends using tools like Hootsuite
or Buffer, where you can schedule social media posts days in advance. “You can time them so they come out when you’re going to get the most hits,” she says. “Then it looks like you’re active on social media while you’re actually catching up on sleep.”
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