Wading into the Social Media Waters: Do They “Like” Me? Does It Matter?

Whether you were an early adopter or have resisted the trend, social media is becoming increasingly valuable for businesses. It provides an almost ideal platform for manufacturers, retailers, and service providers to engage consumers in regular, ongoing conversations about their offerings. From a healthcare perspective, many patients use social media to seek out opinions, support, and information regarding their medical conditions and healthcare needs, but medical professionals have generally been hesitant to participate, citing privacy and liability among their chief concerns. They also mention concerns about the cost to staff social media efforts. These are top-of-mind issues to be sure; however, when implemented effectively, social media can become a vehicle by which healthcare providers educate patients, increase patient engagement, and grow their businesses. The O&P EDGE asked experts in the profession to share their social media experiences and weigh in on best practices, benefits, and pitfalls to avoid should you decide to wade into the social media waters. Why Use Social Media? Social media is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, and people use it worldwide, says Ray Rico, owner of strategic marketing firm Ray Rico Freelance, Memphis, Tennessee. "Practices can benefit from integrating social media into their marketing strategies because it allows them an online presence and a voice-and hopefully a conversation." But why should an O&P practice start that conversation to begin with? According to Rico, interaction is the primary goal. O&P practices should use social media to engage patients in two-way communication. And while social media can become an effective part of a company's overall marketing strategy, it is not in and of itself marketing, caution Rico and Patty Johnson , president of Ron Sonntag Public Relations, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is not a vehicle with which to pitch what you are offering, Rico says. Rather, it is another promotional outlet to get your company's name out there and to help with search engine optimization (SEO) by linking social media to the practice's website, explains Johnson, who manages social media channels for six O&P practices, as well as for many non-O&P clients. Using common keywords on social media as well as your website will enhance SEO, she says. Michael Schultz, BS, MBA, CPO, founder of Horizon Orthotic & Prosthetic Experience (HOPE), headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, says that the various social media outlets they use have had a tremendous impact on creating awareness about HOPE and have contributed to the practice's success. "We use social media as a tool to reach out to friends, patients, and colleagues, both on a local and regional level," he says. "[It] has been a benefit to our practice by creating greater awareness of our clinical expertise and the services that we provide." Rico shares a story about an O&P client whose social media campaign has been so successful at building awareness that the client is becoming a source for information about upcoming industry trends. Choosing a Social Media Platform According to our experts, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are the most popular social media platforms in the United States today. Benefits include ease of use, the ability to link to each other and to a website, and there is no cost to create an account. These reasons make it feasible for both small and large practices alike to take advantage of these resources, agree Johnson and Rico. Choosing a social media platform depends upon your intended purpose: Facebook is more business-to-consumer oriented, while micro-blog platform Twitter is more effective for real time, one-way communication of news and urgent messages. The video-hosting platform YouTube works nicely as an education tool, allowing users to share how-to videos and videos stories, among other things. Johnson says that for her O&P clients, Facebook has been the social media platform of choice, followed by YouTube. "People have only so many hours in the day, so what we have tried to do is pick the social media that works for our clients and...try to be successful with it." To increase your success with social media, our experts offer the following best practice tips: Facebook: "The rule of thumb with Facebook is that one-third should be self-promotion, one-third should be industry news, and one-third should be interactive," Johnson says. The interactive part can be as simple as asking individuals what they are doing during the coming weekend, she adds. Having said this, she admits that there is not a lot of interaction on the Facebook pages she administers for her O&P clients. "O&P is not retail," she says. "There aren't as many followers. But we sometimes ask people to weigh in on a topic, and we do get some feedback." The feedback is mostly positive, Johnson says, but if, for any reason, that feedback is negative, she advises her clients to address it quickly. To engage the Facebook users who have "liked" your company's page, both Johnson and Rico recommend posting to Facebook no fewer than two times a week and no more than three times a week. If you post more frequently, you risk annoying your followers who then might "unlike" you, and if you post too infrequently, you don't give your followers a reason to stay engaged. Include visuals, such as photos and links to YouTube or Vimeo videos. (Author's note: Vimeo is another video-hosting website that is gaining traction.) Johnson recommends setting up the company's Facebook account under the business owner's name or by creating a company profile. If the account is set up under an employee's name and e-mail address and that employee leaves the company, he or she can take the ownership of that account upon leaving. Rico adds that Facebook offers best practice guidelines at www.facebook.com/help/405494409496261/ . Twitter: Because Twitter is a real-time social media platform, Rico says that topics, updates, and stories should be focused on real-time updates or breaking news. Since Twitter posts, called tweets, are limited to 140 characters, messages should be simple and concise. Hashtags (#) can be used before key words or phrases to categorize the tweets; if you click on a hashtagged word, all other Tweets marked with that keyword will be shown. Twitter offers users its own set of best practices, such as combining useful content with an engaging tone, being timely, and tweeting often. "You may want to try tweeting a couple times a day to see how your audience reacts, then adjust as needed," according to Twitter's online guidelines. To read more Twitter best practices, visit business.twitter.com/best-practices . YouTube and Vimeo: O&P is a highly visual industry, and with the accessibility of smartphones and their video recording capabilities, Johnson wonders why more O&P practices don't use them as a means of providing content for their social media and websites. She advises those who are new to shooting video content to be aware of background noises and to shoot in a location where no music, traffic noise, or other people speaking can be heard. "Consider shooting videos on a variety of topics from patient successes to mini-introductions of new technology," she says. "Videos should be no more than a minute or two in length." "You don't have to be an expert to film and add [videos] to YouTube, but...if it looks unprofessional, don't post it," Rico adds. Like Facebook and Twitter, YouTube also offers best practice guidelines at www.youtube.com/t/ads_best_practices#starter ; Vimeo offers insight and pointers at vimeo.com/help/basics . Regardless of which or how many social media platforms your company chooses to use, Rico and Johnson recommend designating one or two individuals to administer social media efforts and establishing clear guidelines about what, when, and how often to post. "Creating a policy and procedures protocol on the front end...sets the standard for what can be posted, how often posts can be created, and how to keep them relevant in order to maximize readers' engagement," Rico says. They say it is important to make sure the branding and imaging match up with your company's logo. Just like brochures, business cards, or building signage, social media is a reflection of your company. "Make sure that postings are grammatically correct and not offensive," Johnson advises. "Use photos and imagery that are in keeping with your brand and reflect your standards." Johnson and Rico also stress that if patients are going to be showcased, regardless of capacity, require them to sign release forms so the practice is in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) guidelines. Starting the Conversation Once you have decided to add social media to your marketing mix and chosen which platform is right for your practice, the next step is to start the conversation. But what should you talk about? Social media can be used to talk about myriad things, our experts say. You can keep patients informed about weather-related closings, staff anniversaries and birthdays, training and certification courses your clinicians have attended, community-service involvements, and facility-sponsored events such as peer support groups or holiday parties. With the vast amount of medical information on the web, it can be difficult for patients to sort through which sites are credible and which ones are not. O&P practitioners can use social media to share information and educational materials from reliable and verified sources—including themselves. It can also be used as a means to interact with patients and to network with other practitioners. Infinite Technologies Orthotics and Prosthetics (ITOP), headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, uses Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. They also just started a blog, and links to all of these information outlets can be found on its recently updated website. When staff members were deciding how best to use social media, they sought advice from their patients. Kady Paradise, clinical relations and education coordinator, is the company's social media administrator. "When we asked our patients what's most important to them, they all wanted to be kept in the loop of what is happening in our office and what the hottest and newest technology is," she says. So she follows that advice by posting office updates, staff news, industry updates, and news about the latest technology that ITOP receives from others' social media outlets. HOPE uses Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube—all of which are offered via links on HOPE's website-to share information that is informative, inspiring, educational, and unique, as well as to introduce new technology, Schultz says. For example, HOPE's page on Facebook includes photographs of various stages of a bionic partial-hand prosthesis being fabricated and video demonstrations on how to don and doff the prosthesis. He admits, however, that two-way interaction is limited, mainly coming from patients who have posted comments or videos on HOPE's page on Facebook or who "tag" HOPE, he says. ITOP reports a similar pattern. Rather than specific questions, Paradise says the company mainly receives general comments on its page on Facebook. ITOP and HOPE are not deterred, however. They say they are continuing to seek out ways to increase patient interaction. Citing a similar lack of interaction on its page on Facebook, De La Torre Orthotics and Prosthetics, headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, has shied away from its usage, says Libby Johnston , De La Torre's clinical relations representative and social media administrator. De La Torre formed a committee prior to starting a page on Facebook, making a point of including a cross-section of employees so the practice could benefit from a wide age range of people and a variety of experiences in its implementation. "At first we were all gung-ho about everything," Johnston says. "We...thought about what we would do, and we put together a Facebook page." But she says that despite a link on its website, the De La Torre page on Facebook did not get a lot of traffic. Johnston attributes this partially to the practice area's demographics: the Pittsburgh area has an aging population, and many of these individuals do not have a computer or a smartphone, let alone Internet access. Lack of time to adequately administer social media is another issue, she says. "What really makes social media is if a variety of people post and talk...not just the people that are pushing it." So while input from the clinicians and staff would make the practice's page on Facebook more interesting, they are already too busy addressing outcome measures and documentation requirements to have another task added to their workload, she says. From time to time, she posts O&P-related news items, stories about individuals with amputations, or even a funny or inspiring photo. But "there are only so many kitty cats in braces that I can find," she says. Rather than focusing on social media, De La Torre has stepped up its efforts to optimize its website, which Johnston calls a social media outlet of sorts. "It is not a flat website; it is pretty active," she says, especially their frequently asked questions (FAQs) page. She also has started posting some YouTube videos on it, such as what she calls the "YouTube sensation, 'How to Put on Your Walking Boot.'" Social Media Is Here to Stay Many individuals and businesses assess the popularity of their social media efforts by the number of "likes" they receive on Facebook, the followers they have on Twitter, and the views their YouTube videos receive. However, O&P practices shouldn't let lower numbers deter them from participating in social media, Johnson says, because the profession itself is small in terms of the number of practitioners and patient care facilities, so increases in likes, followers, and views "are...incremental to begin with." Instead, she advises those new to social media to keep steady with their posts and work to increase their audiences by sending requests to others to like them, mention their social media platform to colleagues and encourage them to sign on, provide links on their websites, and put the various social media logos on their business cards and other advertising to alert others where else they can be found on the Internet. "Do your homework," Rico says. "Research other markets to see what others are doing. If you aren't on social media now, don't wait. It's not going anywhere." The benefits of social media are forthcoming if you are consistent and persistent—although they might not always be measurable. Just ask Paradise and Schultz. "It's fun!" Paradise says. "I have learned a lot, and I am always in the know with what's going on in the industry." "I think the most surprising outcome is how our patients have used these outlets to publicly share their gratitude for what our team does to improve the quality of their lives," Schultz says. "We often have patients who express their gratitude in the office, but it has a rippling effect when it goes out over the Internet." Community Building Social media and online communities are distinct but not mutually exclusive. While social media is certainly geared toward engaging individuals' participation, and can even foster community building, online communities are designed to build sustained interactions and longer-term relationships. IT writer Pam Baker likens the two to speed dating versus marriage ("Is Social Networking Community Building?" CIO Update , May 20, 2010, www.cioupdate.com/trends/article.php/3884676/Is-Social-Networking-Community-Building.htm ). With the aim of community building, Hanger Clinic, headquartered in Austin, Texas, launched EmpoweringAmputees.org in 2010. "The objectives of Empowering Amputees.org are to provide resources, information, guidance, and perspectives on issues related to limb loss and limb deficiencies for patients, families, caregivers, coworkers, and friends," says Carrie Davis, Hanger Clinic's Amputee Empowerment Partners program national coordinator and upper-extremity patient advocate. "It is a community where members' participation in forums and blogs help make the site [a] resource for real-life information from the people who really get it." People worldwide with similar experiences and needs can participate in question-and-answer sessions, blog, share information and encouragement, or even just observe.

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