Dermatology World July 2011 : Page 24
New Media New Questions specials that you’re o ering, or just be part of the community. We’re here, we’re interested in your skin health. You can give some free advice, and patients will begin to recognize that and recognize your brand. They’ll come to your practice to see you and have you as their physician. Facebook is a place to do that under the business page side. A blog is a place to do that. Make sure to have regular posts that are informative or o er specials, but also allow for patients or potential patients to respond or comment. That’s where the so-cial aspect comes in.” As proof of the success of this model, Dr. Benabio said that since successfully establishing his social media presence, he has received inquiries for appoint-ments from as far away as New York City. In addition to building one’s reputation, Dr. Bena-bio said, social media also allows opportunities to ad-dress issues that patients may have had during visits. Even large corporations, he said, have recognized the value of this tactic, with Comcast notably receiving plaudits for devoting resources to monitoring and addressing issues brought up by customers on Twit-ter. Many large companies — including a handful of major airlines — have followed suit. “Another thing you can do is interact with and address patients who may have been unhappy with something about their visit,” Dr. Benabio said. “You can contact them privately and try to solve the problem to the bene t of everyone involved.” Doing so, Dr. Benabio said, will serve to protect and improve one’s online reputation, as well as create a reputation for customer service with that patient and everyone they tell. Positive word of mouth serves as the best marketing tool, he said. THE ROLE OF MARKETING While social media can be an excellent springboard for marketing messages, the rst rule of social media participation is to keep a light hand with the market-ing messages, according to Dr. Benabio. Creating a valued and respected presence, he said, must lead to marketing success in the social media sphere, not the other way around. “Physicians tend to misuse Twitter a bit, only ad-vertising and highlighting specials. There’s a small place for that, but if you understand the Twitter com-munity, you understand that [advertising] doesn’t carry much weight as a strategy. Envision being in a room with a hundred people having conversations. If you just stand at one end of the room and shout out ‘I’ve got a Botox special coming this weekend!’ people eventually get annoyed with you,” Dr. Benabio said. “On the other hand, if you decide to start a conversa-tion about melanoma awareness month or how to look for atypical moles, you may get a person coming over to listen to you. Then someone else notices and you get two people listening, then three. Eventually you have 15 people actually listening to what it is you have to say — you’re engaged in a relevant topic. It’s much better to have the 15 people actually engaging with you than having all 100 people aware but ignoring you.” Ellis agreed, saying that the intrinsic educational aspect of medical information is the best enticement to potential patients. “The building of community is why social media is viable. Getting someone to the dermatology of-ce requires education and a little bit of changing the mindset of the potential customer,” he said. “By using an education model and consistently nurtur-ing what your practice has to o er you’re engaging with the community — they’re learning something new and talking about your practice and what it has to o er.” For physicians wishing to focus more on mar-keting and advertising, coupon of the day sites like Groupon and Living Social o er a great deal of ex-posure and increased foot tra c. On these sites, a business will o er a heavily discounted good or ser-vice — $50 for a $100 restaurant gift certi cate, for example — for one day only that is only honored if a set number of people purchase the coupon for that day. The business bene ts from being showcased on one of the Internet’s most popular sites, and the site gets a set percentage of that day’s sales. “If your objective is to just build practice revenues and attract new patients, tools like Groupon are a great place to start, because you’ll get your highest return on investment from time spent,” Dr. Benabio said. “With Groupon, you don’t have any commit-ment at all aside from signing up and deciding a special to o er. That model is good for your practice, and in most practices it really depends on what the physician or the business manager decides you can handle in terms of cost and increased tra c. The cost only comes from the coupon itself and what you can a ord.” RECRUITMENT AND HIRING In addition to reaching out to patients, social media can be utilized as a tool for the recruitment of new employees, according to About.com health career columnist Andrea Santiago, who also manages social media campaigns for The Medicus Firm. 24 DERMATOLOGY WORLD // July 2011 www.aad.org
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