Doctors and Social Media

The world is moving towards more online everyday and it is unstoppable. If we fail to move at the same speed, it’s us who will be left behind. In this 21st century, when patients have the wealth of medical information at their fingertips, a doctor's reputation is now subject to the whims of anonymous comments just like any other service provider.

3 roles of SMM in Medical Service

1.      Online Visibility/Brand image:  when someone is referred to a doctor, they can search online about them and get accurate info about the doctors online. It is easier and quicker than going through many medical directories manually.

2.      Search Awareness: if someone is looking for a special treatment or service, he can search for those online and find which doctor to see.

3.      Community Building: better customer service which is the CSF for any industry now.

Opportunities

·         Better platform of co-production: Customer can search information online and better understand their own problem and hence could better participate with the doctors in treatment planning.

·         Better platform to manage the demanding customers. This is a consumer driven market. SMM helps to educate the demanding patients by answering their queries in a more efficient manner.

·         Better and greater scope of e-WOM about a doctor through bigger referral network.

·         Gives a preview to the patients what doctors have to offer.

·         Doctors can reduce the routine calls at their office by pushing info to patients online.

·         Patients can easily get exposed to important information immediately in need which helps to reduce their stress level. So SMM is helpful for the patients.

·         A better contributor in pulling traffic to service centres.

·         The constant contact with patients through social media provides an opportunity for the medical practice to stay connected and at the top of mind when it comes time for an elective surgery or procedure.

Challenges

·         Getting the doctors using SMM, new technologies such as Facebook or twitter is sometimes a challenge.

·         There are regulations for medical marketing online. These make doctors a little nervous.

·         Doctors are very busy but they are needed to make their online presence regularly.  For them to manage time regularly is a challenge.

·         Negative WOM might damage the whole career of a doctor.

·         Patients’ privacy issue

A successful Business Model in Medical Industry

Target the Current and potential customers to educate them in a fun way using SM: the goal is to make a relationship with the customers, to engage them and to make them feel comfortable when they actually visit the service centre.

Platforms:

Facebook:

·         A quiz game is played every week with the fans.

·         A Truth-O-Meter is established to  sort through all the misconceptions surrounding the service provided.

·         Every Tuesday morning Doctor posts a question on the Facebook page. A winner is randomly chosen from the correct answers and announced by a short YouTube video every Wednesday. Prizes include gift cards, skin care products and contributions to charity in honour of breast cancer awareness month. This practice has a growing collection of relevant videos on YouTube as well which are viewed quite regularly by the current and potential patients.

Blogs: Doctors keep patients updated by blogging on hot topics in related services they provide.

E-Book

A interactive eBook is designed to be read online or on an iPad, downloaded free, easily forwarded and linked to. It was written in response to the increase in the number of patients coming to our office with problems after a unsatisfied treatment. The idea is to offer patients free and helpful information that is not easily found online. Chapters are informative but also entertaining.

Many Medical service providers are warmly welcoming this new trend with many to start shortly. But many are still hesitating. Outsourcing this service is also an option. The ROI and growth of using SMM is proven measureable and is positive.  If every demand can be goggled and met efficiently then why not medical services from all over the world? What is stopping the patients and doctors?

Ref: http://www.business2community.com/social-media/social-media-success-story-marketing-a-medical-practice-04786