{"id":5335,"date":"2012-09-12T18:24:15","date_gmt":"2012-09-12T22:24:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.carecloud.com\/?p=5335"},"modified":"2012-09-12T18:24:15","modified_gmt":"2012-09-12T22:24:15","slug":"doctors-social-media-connect-patients","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carecloud.com\/continuum\/doctors-social-media-connect-patients\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors: A Social Media Prescription for Connecting with Patients"},"content":{"rendered":"

The year was 2005. I was at my best friend\u2019s apartment when my computer-bound friend called me over to show me this \u2018Facebook\u2019 thing<\/em> \u2013 just for college students, sans mom and dad, and I was instantly hooked.<\/strong> LinkedIn came along two years later, joined Twitter in 2010, and jumped on the Pinterest and Instagram bandwagon earlier this year. You get my point: my life is social.<\/p>\n

This brings me to the present. Very few of us have used a phone book in recent years and Google is now both a noun and a verb, seeing as it has become a primary source of information. At this point, most of us are shocked<\/strong> when we find an untraceable person, company, or non-profit organization. In this sense, the medical field is perverse \u2013 unless a doctor works for a large health system, it\u2019s rare for a Google search to turn up more than a Health Grades<\/a> review, and it will be a doo-doo bird sighting if they have a social media profile<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This presents a major problem when you\u2019re trying to keep your practice open, especially as Millennials enter the adult world. Websites and social media pages give us a sense of security about people and companies, and the more wide-reaching an entity\u2019s social media presence to increase awareness<\/a>, the more reassuring. And you definitely can\u2019t have social pages without posts since July 2011.<\/p>\n

I orchestrate CareCloud\u2019s events and community and social outreach. It is my responsibility that we are a \u2018see and be seen\u2019<\/em> company within the health IT social media universe. And by working towards this goal, I\u2019ve learned there exist 2 rules:<\/p>\n

Rule 1: You have 2 eyes and 1 keyboard \u2013 use them proportionately<\/em>. Nobody likes to be at dinner with a person who won\u2019t let anyone speak. Social media works the same way. Your ideal person to follow or like is someone that interacts, asks questions, and really engages<\/strong> you. The use of hashtags (#), for instance, #ACA (Affordable Care Act), helps you find conversations you may want to be involved in<\/a>, as well as other users that share similar interests.<\/p>\n

Super social media perk: you only need to join conversations and follow people that interest you. No need to listen to stories of your best friend\u2019s girlfriend\u2019s dog and all the things she did that day, unless you like that, in which case you should follow her and<\/em> her dog on Twitter or repin her newest outfit on Pinterest.<\/p>\n

Rule 2: Would you like to read that post?<\/em> When you post on your page and want to promote your own content, thoughts, blog posts, or anything else, make sure it’s something worth listening to<\/strong>. (Again, nobody wants to hear about Princess Pooch and her outfits all the time.)<\/p>\n

Create meaningful content that is relevant to recent headlines and post something you know your audience would enjoy, and feel free to branch out if you think it\u2019s still relatable<\/strong>. For example, CareCloud is a health IT company but we write about entrepreneurship and startup culture quite often. For your medical practice, you may want to post something about being the perfect patient, ideas for fun things to do in a waiting room with kids, or articles about how technology may reduce a patient\u2019s visits to the doctor.<\/p>\n

My life and job are social. I have no way around it. I make sure CareCloud is relevant within the social media universe, and I\u2019m personally very engaged in my spare time. Being the Events & Outreach Manager here simply doesn\u2019t stop at the networking event or the tradeshow – it spills over onto Twitter, Facebook, and Linkedin. It\u2019s sending a tweet to a client when they\u2019re in the news, or tagging a picture of our CEO speaking at Health 2.0. It\u2019s a new way to socialize, and I like to think we get it.<\/p>\n

Nicole Trueba is the Events and Outreach Manager at CareCloud. You can tweet at her personally @theCloudDiva<\/a>, or get in touch with us via our Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The year was 2005. I was at my best friend\u2019s apartment when my computer-bound friend called me over to show me this \u2018Facebook\u2019 thing \u2013 just for college students, sans mom and dad, and I was instantly hooked. LinkedIn came along two years later, joined Twitter in 2010, and jumped on the Pinterest and Instagram […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-growth"],"yoast_head":"\nDoctors: Social Media Prescription for Connecting Patients<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"You're a doctor but don't take advantage of social media? 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