A few days ago MediBeauty.biz editor, Tom Seery (who I love, by the way), put up a blog post entitled, “Doctors Don’t Need to Be on Facebook (and other good news)“. First let me way – that is a BRILLIANT title! Seriously, who wouldn’t click on this!?  But regardless of the genius title, I think there are a few flaws, so I sat down to give my thoughts…

Here is my response:

“Interesting points here Tom. I think the waters are being muddied in your article, however.  By saying “You don’t need to be on Facebook” I believe you are actually doing them a big disservice.  And I don’t say this because it’s what I do for a living – I say it as a former practice administrator who spent 20 years in plastic surgery management and marketing.  I know from firsthand experience how much of a difference it made in our practice’s patient retention, loyalty to our brand, repeat business, community awareness, and last but not least, referrals.

Now, should physicians THEMSELVES be on Facebook? The answer is yes, if they want to, but for their personal profile for friends and family *only*. These guidelines were set forth by the American Medical Association in late 2010 so this is not new news.  However, whether or not the physician wants a personal profile is less important than the PRACTICE having a page.

Implementing a practice Facebook page (and this goes for all social media platforms) opens an online channel for your practice/brand to engage with current patients, their friends (most likely to buy), and prospective clients on a daily basis. If you think about it, you cannot do this any other way.

I believe RealSelf offers surgeons a wonderful platform to show their expertise and let the patients “get to know them”.  Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest, Instagram, and Foursquare, all provide additional touchpoint opportunities. With Facebook’s Graph Search implications (see this blog post for more) and the strong SEO benefits of social media in general, it’s more important than ever to be active in all channels so you are connecting with this new digitally-connected consumer.

We have become a culture of sharing. The connected consumer shares everything – how they feel about you, your brand, your products, and your service. It used to be a happy customer tell s one person and an unhappy customer tells ten. NOW – that same customer can tell hundreds or thousands the good and the bad with one touch of her finger – and 70% of consumers will believe her!  This is the shift from word of mouth being “one-to-one “ to “one-to-many” and is why social media is not a “nice to have”- it’s expected.

Remember, Facebook is not a marketing platform, but rather another communication platform, similar to the telephone, email, or RealSelf) but the beauty of it is that you engage with patients where they are spending time (and on their terms).  Your updates have to be relevant and engaging to be worthy of a like, share, re-tweet, re-pin, etc.

As for the results you found on whether or not social brings new patient activity, I would question how these practices conducted and measured their social media efforts (see: this blog post about Dark Social Media). All too often the practice sets up a page and leaves it to wither and die by not updating on a regular basis (and losing out on Facebook’s EdgeRank algorithm for getting seen in the news feed), not engaging when patients comment, or flooding the stream with marketing posts. The saddest part is how many 3^rd party providers don’t “get” social media either. So MD’s might be spending good money with so called experts who don’t understand the nuances of social and therefore implement the wrong strategy.

Social media is relationship marketing. Brian Solis, global new media thought leader called social, “The new cost of doing business. In an era of connected consumerism, to earn customer attention, trust, and loyalty is a cost and an investment in relevance and relationships.” (Click here for info about the new empowered customer)

In case you’ve been hiding under a rock (and it’s okay if you have, as long as you come out…), consumers have changed. Your patients have changed. How they interact with the people, businesses, and brands in their life has changed too. And if you don’t switch gears, learn what makes them tick, and adjust your communications with them, you’ll be unable to compete.

This is not just an idle threat. It’s actually happening right now. Take JCPenny, for instance.

Today JCPenny launched a new TV ad campaign on YouTube and Facebook apologizing to their customers *(scroll down for video). They fired the CEO, brought back his predecessor, and have promised to put more promotions back in place. These are very significant changes ~ and all because the consumer outcry was deafening (translation: a 4 billion dollar loss).*

In Brian Solis’s new book, What’s the Future of Business?: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences, he discusses how to understand the new customer and create rich experiences for them so you can be proactive, rather than reactive. So you can avoid what he calls “Digital Darwinism”.  JCPenny is certainly having to be RE-active – considering their huge loss of customers and revenue. But they are being PRO-active in that at least they have started to listen, admit their mistakes (transparency), and change their business model (adapt).

How much time do you spend worrying about negative reviews, tweets, Facebook posts, or the thousands of other ways your patients can communicate to the masses online? Instead of spending your time, energy, and money in a defensive posture, or worse – burying your head in the sand hoping you won’t be the next victim, why not learn about this new connected consumer (your patient)?

The new empowered consumer “participates in their world” via technology. Brian describes them as “always on, sharing real world experiences as they happen with their friends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Socialcam”.

And the coveted “word of mouth” referral source is still just as important. But think bigger. Social media allows word of mouth to be broadcast to tens, hundreds, or thousands of friends and followers, all with a swift keystroke.

So… are you creating relationships with your patients? Do you know what they really want? Do you know how they behave? Brian suggests (as do we) that you “invest in defining not only a positive experience, but also a wonderfully shareable experience.”

But you can’t create the best experience if you don’t know what they want in the first place. It would be like operating on a patient and having the consultation afterwards. It sounds absurd, but that’s truly what we’re talking about.  And JCPenny has just figured out that they should do the consult BEFORE surgery to have the best outcome. They listened, learned, engaged, and adapted.

I highly recommend you pick up Brian’s book because he does an incredible job of articulating who your new connected patient base is (he calls them “Generation C”) and how the landscape for businesses will be forever changed. As he says… #InnovateOrDie

*Click for today’s complete story in Forbes

The Future’s So Dark, You Gotta Wear Shades?

The original song lyrics of Timbuk3′s one-hit-wonder actually were, “The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades.” So what’s up with “dark” reference, you ask? Well, I figured that since we’re going to talk about dark social media, it would be more appropriate to don some dark shades.

First let’s start with the concept of “dark social media”…

In this article which appeared in the Atlantic Monthly in the fall of 2012, Alexis C. Madrigal coined the phrase “dark social” to refer to social traffic that comes to your site from “sources invisible to most analytics programs”. He explains:

“It (dark traffic) shows up variously in programs as ‘direct’ or ‘typed/bookmarked’ traffic, which implies to many site owners that you actually have a bookmark or typed in www.theatlantic.com into your browser. But that’s not actually what’s happening a lot of the time. Most of the time, someone G-chatted someone a link, or it came in on a big email distribution list, or your dad sent it to you.”

Mr. Madrigal studied this topic further with the help of a real-time analytics firm called Chartbeat. What he found was extremely interesting, especially how it relates to Return on Investment, or ROI, (which we’ll get to soon). They found that dark social isn’t just some inconsequential figure, too small to worry about. They concluded that almost 69 percent of social referrals (see pie chart below) were dark, followed by Facebook at 20 percent and Twitter at 6 percent.

So I ask you… if nearly 70% of your social traffic comes from dark sources, how can you can measure the ROI of social?

My answer (and I’m not alone in this) is, “you can’t”…but this is not to say that social media has no value to you and your practice. In fact, I believe it’s much, much more valuable than you give it credit for.

Cue the “Future’s So Bright” chorus!

Courtney Seiter of Marketing Land said something in her post on the subject that sums it up perfectly…

“It’s a shot to get on someone’s radar and let that person know you’re cool, smart, funny, interesting and valuable to have around. And if you keep being all those things, eventually they’ll want to get to know you better. Or even tell their friends about you. That’s the value of social media – the potential to create a new relationship where there wasn’t one before. And then the ability to repeat that process as many times as you have friends and fans.”

Loyalty. Family, Affinity. Devotion. Allegiance. Bonds. These words are like gold for a practice (or any business for that matter).

You know the cost of acquring a new patient is much higher than a referral or return visit by an existing patient. So why obsess about the ROI of social media when it can be one of the key elements driving your retained and referred business? One presentation I saw asked, “how do you measure the ROI of your telephone or your copier?” It’s a core business tool, plain and simple.  And one of my favorites… the famously outspoken Gary Vaynerchuck (aka. Gary Vee) said in a 2011 keynote to inc500, “What’s the ROI of your mother?” (Watch the 3 minute video – you’ll love it.)

And Brian Solis, Prominent Social Media Thought Leader and Principal of Altimeter Group, said in his new book What’s the Future of Business: Changing the Way Businesses Create Experiences, “Perhaps this is just the new cost of doing business. In an era of connected consumerism, to earn customer attention, trust, and loyalty is a cost and an investment in relevance and relationships.”

Given the “that’s so 90′s” feel of ROI, I propose some new terms…

Mari Smith talks about ROE – Return on Engagement. An excellent alternative. But let’s delve even deeper. What about…

• ROE – Return on Empowerment – The “connected consumer”, as Brian puts it, is in charge. So arm (empower) her with relevant, valuable content, and you will earn her undying devotion (and her friend base!). Put THAT in your calculator and see what happens!
• ROR – Return on Relationships – Having patients feel an affinity to you and your practice creates a family-like bond, one which hopefully gets stronger with time as you continue to deliver wonderful experiences both in the office AND ONLINE!
• PAF - Practice Affinity Factor. This metric would measure not only patient satisfaction with office visits and procedure results, but also referrals, return visits, coupled with online engagement.

So the next time someone asks you the ROI of social media, I encourage you to put on your dark sunglasses and just smile… because you “get it”.

P.S. Share your thoughts and ideas in the comments below – I’d love to hear from you!

*P.P.S. I highly recommend Brian’s new book (as well as his previous ones).  As a creative person I’m especially loving the hardcover version (versus the kindle) because of the art & images by Hugh McLeod @GapingVoid.

You may have heard the buzz about Facebook’s big announcement at their press conference last week: Graph Search. Simply said, Graph Search takes all of the information that is publicly on Facebook and curates it for you in real-time search.

So every word, “like”, picture, post, comment, milestone, etc. that you and your friends (and their friends, and so on…) have done in the Facebook environment is all there for you to dive into. Facebook said, “It is now about connections between people versus connections with a computer.”

Let’s pretend you are looking for single women under the age of 50 who like football, wine, going to the beach in tropical locales, and shoe shopping, who also happen to live in San Diego, CA. You can search for her! (Oh, wait...)

Ahem, more importantly, maybe you want to find “Plastic Surgery places that have been liked by my friends”. Up pops up (immediately!) all the results. You can further narrow down by region, etc.

Click to enlarge

Why is this important for you?

Well, just think about the importance of recommendations in our culture (especially on the internet nowadays). We TRUST our friends and who they recommend. Graph Search perfectly ties what you are looking for with results tied to people you know (or their friends).

We believe this is HUGE for physicians and getting potential new patients.

Advice:

1. Go sign up for Graph Search so you can start playing with it as it rolls out. This is the only way to truly feel the power and potential of this tool and begin to plan for how you show up in results.
2. OPTIMIZE your profile (if you want to be found, that is) and your page’s About sections. We’ve always advocated that you load up these sections with keywords and good information to be found – but the advent of Graph Search makes this all the more important.
3. Make sure your page’s age restrictions are turned off. If you have age restrictions on your page, you won’t show up in search results (this has always been the case). PLUS most apps don’t work with the restrictions on anyway – so put “anyone 13+” as your setting. Note: If you have nude or semi-nude before and after photos, we believe it’s best to remove them from Facebook and direct patients to your website instead. Facebook is a social site, so do what would be in good taste here. Think of it as similar to going to a party: You might give out your business card but you would never ask your date to disrobe and show off her new flat tummy. It’s not the time or place for that. Social is no different.
4. Make sure you update your page regularly and interact with your fans. We think, based on Facebook’s typical operating style, that companies whose pages have high engagement rates will be rewarded with higher search rankings. (Again, that’s just a hunch – we’ll wait and see.) But even if Facebook doesn’t rank the results, don’t you want to impress your potential new fans and patients with an amazingly close-knit community on your fan page? This is a major PLUS for most prospective patients.
5. Re-check your personal information – this new search puts everything that’s marked PUBLIC into the hopper – so if you won’t want something found, better lock it down. It’s also a good time to re-visit your own personal “likes”, as well as those for your page. For instance, if you said you “like” XYZ Autobody Repair, that’s a form of endorsement, and will show up on search. If you would rather not have that show up for whatever reason, then make sure to “unlike” that particular page.

We are proud to have Monique’s latest article featured in the Fall 2012 edition of Surge magazine – the official publication of the American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (AACS). In Part One of this series, Monique explored five common mistakes that medical practices make make when trying to execute their social media plan. In this second part of the series, you will learn 5 more social media faux pas and how to avoid being “cyberspace roadkill”.

Article Link: Surge-Fall 2012 CSM Article

P.S. Monique is speaking at the AACS Annual Meeting in January 2012. Be sure to stop by her lectures, Cutting Through the Facebook Noise: How to Make Sure Your Audience Sees your Messages and In Synch: Making Your Online and Offline Brand and Voice Congruent on Thursday, January 17th in the afternoon panel (S1-05 ). See full AACS 2012 meeting schedule here.

In this edition of “Cosmetic Social Media In the News” we’re sharing an interesting little article in this month’s issue of DuJour magazine in which our Founder and CCO, Monique Ramsey, is quoted.

The piece explores how to deal with patient privacy in today’s hyper-connected world. Should you require patients to turn off all cell phones in case they Instagram, tweet, or upload to Facebook a photo of your waiting area? Should you post a sign with your office policies regarding privacy? Monique’s quote was cut short, but her opinion on the subject is echoed by Boston cosmetic dermatologist, Dr. Ruth Tedaldi, in the last paragraph.

We hope you find the topic thought provoking. Feel free to leave us your thoughts about the topic of “privacy” in today’s hyper-connected world.

~ Social Butterfly Team

Part 2 of a 2 Part Series

(Read Part 1 here)

If you read Part 1 of this series, you know WHO you’re creating content for and WHAT she might find relevant.  Next, let’s look for sources to inspire you… get the creative juices flowing.

Media: What’s trending in the news oftentimes makes interesting (and timely!) content. Piggyback onto trends and ride the viral wave as your readers share this “hot topic” with their friends. Just remember to keep it relevant. For instance, a recent news story reported that Kim Kardashian’s boyfriend du jour forbid her to get Botox.  So, if you are a cosmetic practice who offers Botox to your patients – this might set up a great topic for discussion. And if it gets a little heated, that’s okay. You can remind everyone to keep it civil if need be. And remember to encourage the discussion by posting replies to each person who comments with @ tags. (If you don’t have a clue what we mean by @ tags, click here for a über-fab article from my dear friend, mentor, and relationship marketing expert, Mari Smith).

Blogs & eNewsletters: Subscribe to lots and lots of blogs and eblasts. You can get great ideas from topics posted by WebMD, EverydayHealth, KevinMD (aka “Social Media’s Leading Physician”), and many others. Read what they have to say and you’re very likely to have at least one light bulb go off. Then take that topic and tweak it to suit your audience (remember the importance of relevance). You can also get great ideas from your society newsletters (ASPS, ASAPS, AACS, AAD, NSOCP, etc). Plus don’t forget about your consumer-facing publication(s) and websites – such as RealSelf and ProjectBeauty.

Google Alerts: If you don’t know what a Google Alert is click here. You might already have some alerts set up with your practice name, physician name, etc., but do you have alerts on topics such as breast augmentation news, Botox, celebrity plastic surgery, etc.? The possibilities are endless (really!) and you can choose the alerts to come to you as they happen or once per day, week, etc.

Use the Twitter Search Function

Twitter # Search: One of the coolest ninja tricks on Twitter is the search feature. You can search on any key word you want (ex: #CosmeticSurgery) and see what’s being discussed in real time! You can jump into the conversation and/or look for great content ideas. Some of the coolest content I’ve found was from using this method. Warning: If you have A.D.D., this might not be the most effective use of your time. It’s really easy to get sidetracked and forget why you came in the first place!

Fashion & Beauty Magazines: Oh my goodness… is there ever a plethora of information here! I have to admit, I got a little carried away recently and subscribed to a bunch of great magazines (and just might need a bigger Post Office Box). BUT, I have gotten my money’s worth already!  Here are a few I subscribe to:

• Allure (1-year auto-renewal)
• Fitness (1-year)
• Self (1-year auto-renewal)
• Lucky (1-year auto-renewal)
• Better Homes & Gardens (1-year auto-renewal)
• W (1-year auto-renewal)
• InStyle (1-year auto-renewal)

Google + Search: Just like Twitter, you can use the full power of Google’s search in a much more fun and social environment, Google+. You can search topics and get a whole host of terrific (and trending) info from the web. Think of it like a news feed of posts just on the topic you are interested in. It’s the best – try it out and let us know what you think!

Follow Heavy Hitters (like us!): Just kidding… (well, sort of). We’re just making sure you are still paying attention! But seriously, think of big influences in your specialty and see what they are doing to get ideas.

Books: Stop by your local book store and browse the health, beauty, medical, and humor sections. Here are just a few of my favorite books to draw inspiration from for posts and tweets (click on them to learn more):

• Complete Life’s Little Instruction Book: 1,560 Suggestions, Observations, and Reminders on How to Live a Happy and Rewarding Life
• The 100 Simple Secrets of Happy People: What Scientists Have Learned and How You Can Use It
• Happiness Rocks: A Powerful Blueprint to Master the Art of Lifelong Happiness
• World’s Best-Kept Beauty Secrets (World’s Best Kept Beauty Secrets)
• Motherhood Is Not For Sissies (Keepsake)
• Secrets of Longevity: Hundreds of Ways to Live to Be 100

IMPORTANT NOTE:  This should go without saying, but we’ve had it done to us plenty, so we’re saying it anyway. “Do not plagiarize (steal) someone else’s content. They worked hard to create it – so give a “hat tip”, denoted by this symbol: ↬ to those who gave you the idea  or inspiration (such as ↬ Courtney Romagnoli). Or, if you are introducing a topic and linking or sharing the bulk of the article with little modification, put this symbol to say “via”: ᔥ (such as ᔥ Monique Ramsey”). Read more about using these symbols and the correct ways to attribute content on the Curator’s Code website.

We hope this gives you some inspiration on how to find amazing and relevant content. Do you have other ways you find inspiration for your posts? Share them with us in the comments below!

~ Monique

Part 1 of a 2 Part Series

A question we often get asked is, “Where do you find all the great content for your client’s posts?”

At first blush, it seems like an easy enough question to answer. However, we find that to get great content (the kind that gets traction), you need to spend a few minutes to prepare. Think of it in the same way you review the patient’s chart notes and pre-op photos before performing surgery.

STEP ONE: WHO IS YOUR PATIENT?

The first step we do for each client is to learn about the target audience. Let’s say you run cosmetic surgery practice and your typical patient is a female between the ages of 25-65.

STEP TWO: WHAT DOES SHE LIKE?

Next,  think about WHAT she likes – her interests, her goals, her style, etc.  Since she is a cosmetic surgery patient, you can draw certain broad conclusions, such as:

• Her appearance is very important to her
• Heath, fitness, and cooking tips would be interesting
• She may be a bride, new mom, or have a child getting married so think about the topics might be valuable to her during these life events
• She stays in the know about the latest beauty and cosmetic surgery trends
• If she is a mom, then she’ll be interested in her kids, so think about incorporating topics that deal with family
• Is she a business professional who “does it all”? She might appreciate time-saving beauty tips, or ways to make her life easier (simple recipes, etc.).

Also think about the clothes she wears, the magazines she reads, does she travel?  And remember, your practice might have an evolving patient base as time goes on, so be sure to re-evaluate this question every so often. Your patients give you a ton of useful information at each visit – all you have to do is look, listen, and look for trends.

STEP THREE: RELEVANT CONTENT

The above tips should help paint a picture of your typical and/or target patient and will give you clues as to where to look for relevant content. Notice we said “relevant” content.

Think about the massive amount of content you are bombarded with in a given day. What makes you stop and actually READ something? Maybe it’s because it “catches your eye”, makes her laugh, or is pertinent to your life at that moment. Or possibly it was passed on to you by a good friend.

Posting relevant content is probably the most important tip we can give you. If the reader finds it relevant, she’ll find it valuable. When she finds it valuable, she shares it with her network (typically like-minded people who ALSO might be your patients). She’ll re-tweet, “like”, share, forward, Pin, and +1 to her heart’s content, because sharing something of value, also makes her look good to her circle of friends.

In Part Two of our Social Media Inspiration blog post we’ll show you how to be a Content Curating Ninja so you’ll always have great ideas at your fingertips. Stay tuned!

Hi friends!

I am so excited to talk about one of my favorite online symposiums of the year, the Facebook Success Summit 2012. If you have never registered, I highly recommend doing so. The amount of “bang for your buck” is astounding to me, and I have attended (from the comfort of my own office every year since they started doing these classes. And, if you cannot attend one or more of the online sessions, they are all recorded for you to listen to at your leisure.

What Is It?

The Facebook Success Summit 2012 is a special online conference designed to help you master Facebook marketing (brought to you by Social Media Examiner).  Join my friend and mentor, Mari Smith (co-author, Facebook Marketing), Dave Kerpen (author, Likable Social Media), fellow Mentor with Mari classmate of mine Amy Porterfield (co-author, Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies), John Haydon (co-author, Facebook Marketing for Dummies), Mark Schaefer (author, Return on Influence), Jesse Stay (author, Facebook Application Development for Dummies),  as well as experts from Campbell’s Soup, Autodesk, 24 Hour Fitness and Intel; As if that isn’t enough, you’ll hear from Brian Carter (author, The Like Economy), Chris Treadaway (co-author, Facebook Marketing), and Andrea Vahl (co-author, Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies)—just to name a few.

Register today and save 50%! The price will go up the closer we get to the event, so click sooner, rather than later for the best deal.

Click here to learn more and get a free sample class from the last summit. Just look for the yellow box in the sidebar.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me directly at monique at cosmeticsocialmedia dot com, and I will be happy to help.

~ Monique

Monique Ramsey, CRMS

Certified Relationship Marketing Specialist

Today’s tragic shooting at an Aurora, Colorado midnight premiere of “Dark Knight Rises” shows how pre-scheduling and/or outsourcing social media posts can have negative consequences.  Below is a screen shot of a national business who had a very ill-timed, pre-scheduled Facebook post:

Click to enlarge

Now, we believe that they definitely made the right call in the way they addressed the situation, up-front and honestly. BUT, the only way to avoid something like this (which can really spin out of control in a hurry) is to post LIVE. This is especially true when you link up your social media accounts together (ie. Facebook auto-posts to Twitter, which auto-posts to your LinkedIn account). Then you have a problem to solve on all 3 platforms (see below).

Click to enlarge

Here at Cosmetic Social Media, we prefer to post live, and from within the platform.* This means that when we make a Facebook post, we post live and while signed into Facebook (instead of using a 3rd party platform such as Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, etc.).  Prior to this past month, Facebook did not have a way to pre-schedule your posts from within their platform. You can do this now using the little clock icon (see graphic below).

All this being said, there are times when pre-scheduling is a very handy tool. You might be traveling or giving a lecture and a pre-planned post can put activity on your page where there would otherwise be none. Just remember, if you do decide to pre-schedule a post, make it something benign such as a lovely quote about beauty or a “Happy Patient Quote of the Day“, so you don’t end up with a PR disaster on your hands.

*Note: We have been known to schedule a post here and there, but we do try to make it a rare exception, not the rule.