In the right hands, tweeting can greatly enhance a healthcare provider's brand. Four physicians with an active Twitter presence illustrate the basic tenets that lead to social media success.
Photo: Library of Congress |
Since the dawn of time people have been soliciting professionals for all matters of free advice and the healthcare marketing journalist is no exception. While doctors are showed their friends' children's bruised elbows and lawyers are handed their second-cousin's job contract to read over, I am, without fail, asked by various doctors and specialists for advice on a single topic: social media.
At a recent follow-up appointment with a surgeon for an old injury, my doctor asked a more specific question: should he be tweeting?
It's clear, from anecdotes I hear from my sources within the healthcare industry and stories I've picked up at conferences over the years, that hospital marketers are often posed the very same question. How they respond, however, varies; while some organizations have thrown themselves into social media from the get-go, others are reluctant to let any member of staff—including physicians—post anything on social media without direct oversight.
This hesitancy is not unfounded, as there are countless stories of doctors, medical students, nurses, and other hospital staff members violating HIPAA through their personal online accounts, unintentionally or otherwise. For example, just last year a physician at Chicago's Northwestern Memorial Hospital allegedly posted photos to his Facebook and Instagram accounts of a model admitted to the ER for excessive alcohol consumption.
With incidents like these cropping up in the media, it's no wonder that some hospitals would rather ban all staff from tweeting professionally than risk a privacy violation. Fortunately, the number of organizations that share this view has shrunk over the years as marketers have figured out that, when entrusted to the right people, tweeting can greatly enhance their brand.
There are many tweeting physicians who are representing themselves and their organizations in a positive light, and their online tactics provide a great template for any aspiring tweeting MD.
1. Share Content
Kevin Pho, MD / @kevinMD is among the most lauded and followed physicians on Twitter, is a master of sharing unique content on the microblogging site. Of course, it's hard to get much across in 140 characters, so he mainly directs his 97K+ followers to longer articles posted on his blog.
Mike Sevilla, MD / @drmikesevilla, a family practice physician in Ohio with 16,000 followers, is also a quality content sharer, which he does largely by re-tweeting or posting links to relevant health articles. This is perhaps the most practical tactic for a busy physician who wants to share his or her views and advice without having to reinvent the wheel.
2. Find Your Niche
While some tweeting physicians, like Pho, are able to cover a large swath of topics, it's often easiest for docs to stick with what they know and share articles and insights on their specific medical specialty or area of interest.
Natasha Burgert, MD, FAAP / @DoctorNatasha is a Kansas City, MO-based pediatrician who mainly shares information about pediatric health issues with her 8,200 followers. That's not to say she doesn't deviate from that topic—she also discusses her passion for technology, but having a main focus helps her to hone her tweets for her audience.
3. Interact with Other Docs and Patients
The main benefit to Twitter, versus other forms of social media that physicians may participate in, is the ease with which they can interact with followers. Interactions are vital to gaining credibility on Twitter, as they show the person behind the account is monitoring their replies and invested in providing a meaningful experience.
Mike Sevilla is a master of the art of the Twitter retweet, using the function to respond to comments, network, and keep in touch with colleagues.
4. Show Your Personality
Twitter is the perfect media for physicians to take off their white coats every once in a while so the Twitterverse can get an idea of what the person behind the keyboard is like.
Tim Sturgill, MD/ @symtym, an emergency physician, manager, and director of social media at Canton, OH-based Emergency Medicine Physicians, does this very well, often by posting amusing or interesting photos. The California native has recently been traveling to New York City and Chicago for conferences and has shared some frosty looking photos along with funny commentary with his nearly 3,000 followers.
Mike Sevilla lets his personality shine through on Twitter as well, posting a variety of engaging Olympic commentary throughout the month of February.
As Twitter's eight year anniversary approaches next month, it's clear that the social networking site has proven its staying power. While some of the healthcare world has started to embrace, there are still plenty of opportunities to put it to better use. Identifying the right clinical staff member to represent themselves and your organization, with some guidance from the experts listed above, may be a beneficial way to gain more traction with your patients and community online.
Marianne Aiello is a contributing writer at HealthLeaders Media.