Social media usage as a practitioner

[DPolaris]

Just wondering what people's thoughts are of Instagram/Snapchat/Youtube/Facebook being a platform to share cases and stories (obviously with owner permission, and clinic/hospital permission). There's this beef vet (Cody Creelman) that I'm sure some of you are aware of who is super supportive of putting up vlogs of cases, short videos of abscesses, pictures of stuff, etc. and he said that since using social media he received a lot more clients and most of his clients were extremely excited to be featured, etc. The videos/pictures serve partly as an educational tool, partly as an advertisement platform and partly as a "well this is a pretty fun and cool hobby!" However, he did admit it might be a bit more tricky in a small animal/companion animal setting, which is understandable especially considering the other thread on here further down about "Cyberbullying".

Thoughts?

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[CalliopeDVM]

Just wondering what people's thoughts are of Instagram/Snapchat/Youtube/Facebook being a platform to share cases and stories (obviously with owner permission, and clinic/hospital permission). There's this beef vet (Cody Creelman) that I'm sure some of you are aware of who is super supportive of putting up vlogs of cases, short videos of abscesses, pictures of stuff, etc. and he said that since using social media he received a lot more clients and most of his clients were extremely excited to be featured, etc. The videos/pictures serve partly as an educational tool, partly as an advertisement platform and partly as a "well this is a pretty fun and cool hobby!" However, he did admit it might be a bit more tricky in a small animal/companion animal setting, which is understandable especially considering the other thread on here further down about "Cyberbullying".

Thoughts?

Personally, I would stay as far away from social media as possible........but I'm not a practice owner, so driving business with marketing isn't something I concern myself with (I stick to driving business with good service and good word of mouth). I do know of a few clinics that post cool cases, with permission, on their Facebook page - but it can be fairly labour intensive (so it takes staff time) and I don't know if it really is a productive use of that time/money. The truth is that most veterinary business (at least in small animal medicine) is decided by word of mouth, location, and convenience; an internet presence is important, of course, but blogs and Facebook are not the deciding factors when people are looking for a vet.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

A very bubbly former classmate of mine posts a lot of FB - most of it is cute pictures of her and her patients and she hashtags the hospital.

In her case and with her personality, I think it works out really well. The clients love the fact that she "shows off" their pets and she's very good about keeping it very light. YMMV though.

 

[LetItSnow]

Whether or not it has specific marketing value for a single practice (to Calliope's point), I don't know. I am suspicious that Calliope is right.

But, I think it can have value - if done well, with permission, etc. - with regard to general pet-owner education: what our capabilities are, toxins to watch out for, when to bring an animal in, etc. You can wrap "education" in specific examples chosen from your cases.

 

[pinkpuppy9]

A very bubbly former classmate of mine posts a lot of FB - most of it is cute pictures of her and her patients and she hashtags the hospital.

In her case and with her personality, I think it works out really well. The clients love the fact that she "shows off" their pets and she's very good about keeping it very light. YMMV though.

I think this makes a lot more sense than posting details about interesting cases. I personally would only post these on the clinic FB page and not my personal page, but that's just me.

I could just be a pessimist about this, but I think posting details about cases or images of surgeries or other attention-grabbing stuff is a good way to shoot yourself in the foot. I can't help but think about all of the pictures from spay/neuter marathons that are taken and re-labeled as 'animal torture in labs' by ARAs. People believe it, and they may or may not say what clinic/vet posted the image. There's also the people that use opportunities such as a picture/video of an abscess to play doctor themselves, decide you're an idiot, and make sure everyone on their feed knows about it. These examples are based off of things I have seen go down in the comments sections of veterinarians' posts. Some people can ignore all of the crap, but I think it'd be foolish to ignore the risk you're inviting by posting that stuff.

There are benefits to social media, but I personally think I wouldn't go beyond pictures of cute patients. I agree that info on common toxicities etc. would be a good way to connect with clients. I'd rather have my clients looking at infographics I approve of than Googling, which may result in a cat getting peroxide.

 

[dyachei]

Whether or not it has specific marketing value for a single practice (to Calliope's point), I don't know. I am suspicious that Calliope is right.

But, I think it can have value - if done well, with permission, etc. - with regard to general pet-owner education: what our capabilities are, toxins to watch out for, when to bring an animal in, etc. You can wrap "education" in specific examples chosen from your cases.

you basically described our company FB page

 

[Trilt]

I don't know that it necessarily draws clients in, but every couple days we post cute and light hearted things on our facebook page and I know several clients who have been super tickled for their pet to be "famous." Otherwise the clinic page just auto-posts the vetstreet articles regularly.

 

[pooter]

My boss: "What's facebook?"