The Use of Social Media in Your Veterinary Practice
1. The Use of Social Media in
Your Veterinary Practice
Brenda Tassava, CVPM
Broad Ripple Veterinary Management Solutions, Inc.
VHMA Retreat, January 2010
2. Social Media Marketing
Defined
You can buy attention (advertising)
You can beg for attention from the media (PR)
You can bug people one at a time to get attention (sales)
Or you can earn attention by creating something
interesting and valuable and then publishing it online for
free: a YouTube video, a blog, a research report, photos,
a Twitter stream, an ebook, a Facebook page.
----David Meerman Scott, Web Ink Now
3. Social Media is...
David Amano, Harvard Business Review says social
media is:
“a way of thinking and approaching business that
requires passion and commitment and, above all,
willingness to participate in social spaces honestly and
freely and by the rules of the social network itself.”
4. Social Media is not....
a quick fix
purely a sales tool
something to be automated
customer-centered......it IS people-centered
5. Why social media?
Shana Pereira, Tourism Queensland Regional Director:
"Consumers don't want to be sold anything anymore,
you want to feel like you've gone out and found it
yourself and decided on your own that that's what you
want to do, or that's what you want to buy. There's no
better time to actually go out and really try new things,
because you just never know what's going to work."
9. Step 1: Listening
Google Alerts: create keyword specific alerts to be
emailed when content appears online
TweetBeep: monitors up to 10 keyword alerts
SocialMention: tracks 80 social networks for your
keyword; also monitors strength and influence of
conversations
10. Social Media Venues
Twitter LinkedIn
Facebook Foursquare
MySpace AIM
Flickr Ping
YouTube Skype
Blogging Loopt
11. Social Media Venues
Twitter LinkedIn
Facebook Foursquare
MySpace AIM
Flickr Ping
YouTube Skype
Blogging Loopt
12. Step 2: Join the Conversation
Where do you start?
16. Demographics of Twitter
more than 6 million members
growth rates of 1,382% year-over-year
median age of Twitter users: 31 (Gen X, ages 28 to 45)
26% of users are 35-44 yrs. old
14% are “stable career” types
Another 12% are “young cosmopolitans”, 40-somethings
with household incomes over $250,000
29. Recommended Reading
Twitter Power by Joel Comm (@joelcomm)
Twitter Marketing for Dummies by Kyle Lacy (@kyleplacy)
“Tweeting for Pets” by Tamara Fox (@AAHAHelpingPets),
Trends Magazine, January/February 2010 issue
33. Blogging for success
Have a plan or schedule
Be consistent and develop a pattern
Links are good! Reciprocate whenever possible
Watch what generates traffic and write MORE on those
topics
Divide longer “articles” into 2 or 3 posts
Don’t apologize
40. What do I talk about on
Facebook?
Happenings in the Links to videos
practice
Links to photos
Happenings in the
Events
community
Links to new blog posts
Staff anniversaries
Ask questions
Inspirational quotes
about pets Speak with “one voice”
41. Link your clinic Facebook
Page to your clinic’s Twitter
account!
52. Social Media Toolbox
StumbleUpon: content resource extraordinaire!
Minggl: can’t live without this!
Tweetdeck: manages multiple Twitter accounts
Evernote: a place to keep thoughts/ideas organized
Google Reader: pulls all the blogs you want to follow to
one place!