1. Educate and Interact without Wasting Time!Thomas F. Dock, BS, CVJ Veterinary News NetworkBoard of Certification, AmericanSociety of Veterinary Journalists

2. Traditional forms of marketing yourpractice are falling by the wayside New and social media are the preferredways for pet owners to find information orlearn about your practice Traditional media still has value as amarketing tool 3. Identifying which tools will work best foryou Identify best practices for each social tool Real time button pushing andexperimentation 4. An inexpensive and easy way to target clients andpotential clients in your area A way to create a positive first impression aboutyou, your hospital before they even meet you! Social Media allows you to earn a reputation as acaring expert An interactive, dynamic and high-tech tool thatenables you to educate and motivate clients 5. Blogs Review sites (Yelp) Comments on news stories/articles Networking sites(Facebook, Twitter, Linked In) Video sites (YouTube, Vimeo) Forums Which social tool reaches the audiencethat is best for you? 6. Founded in 2004 Easy sign up, use and navigation Currently the largest social network (>800 M) More than log on every day! Very informal, social, friendly Should have a Personal Profile and a BusinessPage! Can be used for Marketing, Education Relationship building (personal or business) Sort of a huge High School Reunion! 7. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iROYzrm5SBM 8. Facebook Profiles Facebook Pages Personal Foruse, connect with businesses, non-friends, family, etc. profits, etc Share things you Educate, interact, enlikegage with clients Friends Likes 9. Previously,all business pages needed to be associated with a current and valid Facebook profile Now, you can create a page without thatrequirement. Just need email address anddate of birth Facebook Business Account These business accounts are also limiting Bewarnedsetting up clinic pets as Facebook profiles, etc, can potentially cause the loss of your profile! 10. What Do I Do WithA Facebook Page? Clients like your page because they areinterested in you and your hospital So say things that would be interesting to yourclients (and potential clients) at a Mixer orsocial meeting. Interesting cases/Photos / Videos Your Blog Posts What you are doing for the community Fun Facts about Pets Twitter Feed Other interesting Fan Pages Make sure your Page is connected to yourwebsite! 11. Important reminders:A Facebook Page does NOTreplace your website! Facebook will always own the page and can remove it at any time, without warning Facebooks platform, although powerful, is limited. Not easy to explain complex issues or topics. Facebook is the party, your website is home. Focus on bringing people HOME! 12. Best Practices forA Facebook Page? Many practices get frustrated with lack ofinteraction and engagement on their page The BIGGEST reasons that Facebook pages dontgrow or fail to engage are: Too many posts daily Too much marketing Posts are too long or too infrequent Lack of interaction from page. 30 BILLION pieces of content are shared onFacebook every month!! FACEBOOK EDGERANK 13. UnderstandingEdgeRank Facebook looks at each piece of content as anobject and the interactions between thatobject and the end user is called an edge In simple terms, the more interaction betweenthe end user and our Facebook page, the higherthe Edgerank. Higher Edgeranks lead to agreater probability of the post being seen by theend user. Types of posts (Video, photo, links) are alsoweighed as is the age of the post. 14. Less is more! Posting constantly will cause people to view you as spam. Consider 2-5 posts weekly or 1- 2 posts per day as a good benchmark for success. Less is still more! LONG postings do not get read! Keep your posts and updates to about 80 characters and you will increase your interactions. 15. Varythe types of postings you create. Dont just focus on status updates (We love taking care of your pets) or links. Try including pictures of interesting cases Video Sample questions Whenposting links, use the full link, not the shortened link generated by many third party apps. 16. Consider the time you are posting According to Buddy Media, pages thatposted after normal business hourssaw a 20% increase in engagement Thursdays and Fridays often show ahigher level of engagement comparedto other days, but this could be skewedby type of industry. Take home? Research your ownInsights! (A topic covered later today!) 17. Finally, even though third party apps make life a little easier and more efficient for us, Facebook does not rank those posts as high as manual posts. Sotry to make at least 1-2 of your daily postings directly on Facebook rather than using TweetDeck or HootSuite. 18. Important reminders: Staff involvement should be encouraged, but monitored If staff members like the page (and why wouldnt they?), encourage interaction but set ground rules Staff personal profiles should be set to strict privacy settings. (next slide shows why!) Explain and enforce client/doctor confidentiality Get ideas from staff! 19. Is this what you want your clients seeingwhen they visit your staff membersprofile? 20. Important reminders: Marketing should only be done on rare occasions. As mentioned in the first hour, people dont like to be sold to in social media. Keep marketing efforts to a minimum on Facebook page (80/20) Howeverthere are real life examples of this working 21. Important reminders: Contests and promotions have strict rules on Facebook. Facebook prohibits a page from requiring a like or even interaction in order to be part of a contest. Pages have been removed for this violation. If you want to run a contest, use a third party app. Coupons and other gifts are ok as long as everyone has the opportunity to receive one. 22. Other Facebook Steps:Take advantage of the Post asPage feature! Instead of posting comments on other Pagesas you, post as your hospital! Look for pet related pages in your area, thelocal Chamber of Commerce, TV and radiostations, etc. Remember, focus on adding to theconversation, not necessarily marketingyourself or your hospital. You can change the default setting whenposting on your own page. 23. Use Facebook as Page 24. Began in 2011 Around 90 million users at start of2012, estimated to grow to 400 million by end ofyear Individual profiles and business pages allowed Makes connecting on the web more likeconnecting in the real world Easy method of sharing different things withdifferent people. Circles, Hangouts, 25. Began in 2005"YouTube is to video browsing what a Wal-Mart Supercenter is to shopping: everything isthere, and all you have to do is walk in the door. Second largest search engine Jan 2012: 4 billion videos streamed daily 800 million unique visitors per month 26. Non-Anesthetic Dental Scaling Video is no longer expensive to produce Most iPhones, Droids and other smart deviceshave very good video capturing abilities Find compelling subjects, keep to about 2-3minutes, brand with your hospital name Custom videos created for your hospital by VNN. 27. Began in 2003 More than 135 Million Users + 600K new perweek (48 M in US) Professional / Executive Huge Data Base and Search Great Research Tool Connecting gives you 3 levels of connections Good to connect with highly connected people Functionality like Slide Share Answers section very helpful 28. Connectivity is the key!It is the virtualized and interactive version of a pile of business cards on your desk! YOUR ONLINE RESUME And your ability to demonstrate your expertise and learn from others. 29. "LinkedIn.com,a business-orientated networking site, can be an ideal way for professionals to present an online profile of themselves...Unlike social networking sites, [with] LinkedIn youre outlining all your credentials; presenting the professional rather than the personal you. Considering the sheer vastness of the digital space, the potential for building up a solid base of contacts and fostering new business relationships is boundless."[ 30. LinkedIn is Where theInfluencers ARE! Average Age: 42 Household Income: $122,000 Male: 64% Household Income $100k+ 53.5% Own Smartphone/PDA: 34% College Grad/Post Grad: 80.1% Business Decision Maker: 49% EVP/SVP/VP: 6.5% 24% Have a Portfolio Value of $250k+ 31. GoodProfessional PhotoUpdate Status Frequently Connect, GetRecommended Add Your Web SitesPersonalizedPublic Profile 32. What Do I Do With ALinkedin Profile? Set up your profile (good photo) ROI (risk of inactivity) Get something up now and tweek later Be very complete even back to high school Do an update about 2X per week Think of it as merging your Rolodex contacts Build a very professional and complete resume Easy to use their formatting Begin to invite contacts Write and request recommendations Send personal notes not the default template Use Advanced Settings to find contacts 33. 10 Ways To Use LinkedIn:1) Increase Your VisibilityAdd connections (upload your contact list)2) Improve ConnectabilityUse full executive bioUse LI link in your signature block3) Improves your Google RankingLinkedIn is indexableCustomize your URL 34. 10 Ways To Use LinkedIn:4) Promote your Web and Blog My Website, My Company customize Instant search engine findability!5) Give and Ask for RecommendationsExcellent credibilityLives there forever6) Pose Questions and Give AnswersMakes new connectionsEstablishes your expertise 35. 10 Ways To Use LinkedIn: 7) Find or Create Groups A great way to network smaller scale E.g. local, alumni, associations (ASVJ) 8) Applications BlogLink, Polls, Reading List, Box.net, My Travel, SlideShare, Events, word press, Tweets etc. 9) Use Advance Search Amazing ability to narrow a search of all users Think of this as your Rolodex search tool for 120 Million People! 36. 10 Ways To Use LinkedIn: 10) Connect, Connect, Connect background check, investigate a company, find local experts, servicemen, gauge health of a company, participate in specialty groups Get out of Linkedin what you put IN! An Amazing Resource for the Professional! 37. Some Recommended Veterinary Groups onLinked In:o Veterinary News Networko VHMAo Marketing in Veterinary Medicineo Pet Loss Professionalso Veterinary and Pet Businesso Pets for Patriots 38. DIVE in and LearnGoogle: Linkedin Learning Center LinkedIntelligence.com Get Started with Linkedin (bnet.com) Blog.linkedin.com 33 ways to use Linkedin For Business 100 Smart ways to use LinkedIn 39. A Micro BlogA blogging site originally designed (2006)to answer the question What are youdoing? In 140 characters or lessNow, functions more as a real time searchfor trending topics and news as well as alink sharing platformMany people dont get Twitter! 40. People are asking Is Twitter For Real? OR a Fad? 80% of Twitter accounts are inactive~200 million users Most do not know how to use and abandon 94% of accounts have < 100 followers 5% of users = 75% of all activity The Twitter core is very committed. 41. Traditionalmedia and journalists arequickly discovering the value of Twitter Short tweets teasing a breaking story orupcoming news item can lead to increased webtraffic/viewers Remember the plane in the Hudson? Twitter users: Come to find information, read tweets andconsume content. They are also coming to vent, complainand, occasionally, praise services and companies. 42. The Good Mortons Steakhouse 43. Twitter (and other social media sites) representa leveling of the playing field when it comes tointeractions with companies Emails and phone calls can be ignored Social media gives upset clients a place to vent beyondnormal social interactions. Some customers may just search for XYZ AnimalHospital fails and add to the conversationothers willactively make it a personal mission to embarrass you. Mobile devices allow complaints to happen when theclients are still in your parking lot! Dont forget about the cameras! 44. What Do I Do With ATwitter Account? From Business / Practice Perspective Twitter is a communications platformthat helps business stay connected withconsumers Share within a business, gather real timeintelligence and feedback, buildrelationships with clients. 45. To listen in on the conversations happeningright now, search Twitter for the name ofyour company, product or brand. If youhave a Twitter account use the search boxon the right side.The Twitter stream is just a conversationand you contribute, answer, offerresources AND as always, drive traffic toyour site / blog etc. 46. Even if you dont tweet regularly, having a presence on Twitter can help you monitor what is being said about you or your hospital. 47. A VNN Member who just did not get the whole TwitterThing.dove in and tried it.A week later he is being followed by his localNBC TV station AND he scored a weekly gig. 48. Insert another pet picture 49. Insert another pet picture 50. www.MyVNN.com 51. Become A Certified Veterinary Journalist!American Society of Veterinary Journalists www.ASVJ.org 52. Contact Information:Tom Dock, CVJ TomDock@MyVNN.com 719-495-7065www.MyVNN.com