Why is social media so important to your practice? Today, it is increasingly common for patients to find their physicians online. Creating a positive online presence can be one of the easiest ways to market your practice and make a lasting impression on potential patients.
Although creating or improving your online presence is not difficult, it requires you to take a series of proactive steps. Increasing your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is an important step in creating a positive online presence. SEO is the process of making your online content more likely to show up when someone uses Google, Yahoo, or another search engine. The easiest way to do this is to develop a social media plan and then create content that ensures your patients and potential patients understand your perspective as a physician.
Before you begin posting to a social media channel, determine the overall tone of your communication. Identifying your main publishing themes early will help keep your content consistent and ensure your followers see you the way you wish to be seen. Which social media platforms are best for physicians? Each social media platform is better suited for some objectives than for others. Remember, though, that you will want a presence on platforms that patients use regularly and consider influential.
The first social media platform you should consider is LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a business-oriented social networking service and a great tool for managing your professional identity. Creating a LinkedIn profile (which is basically a digital version of your CV) only takes about 30 minutes. LinkedIn profiles get ranked high on Google results page. So this act alone is enough to yield valuable results in your efforts to build your online presence.
Medical professionals often use a blog as a platform to create an authoritative voice. Blogs are uniquely positioned to help you educate and engage with both your patients and the medical community and also rank higher in search engine result pages other than social media profiles.
Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to send and read short messages called “tweets.” Twitter has great potential for building a wide-reaching audience. However, each message is restricted to a 140-character limit, so you will need to be concise. Twitter is best used for sharing quick tips, advice, opinions on trending topics, and links to articles relevant to your specialty.
Physicians who use Facebook should maintain a separate profile page for their personal and professional persona. Your personal page should be limited to your family and personal friends. Patients should not be allowed access to your personal profile page. However, your professional page is the one that patients can view and with which they can engage. Your posts on the professional profile page can advertise special travel events, conferences, education opportunities, and breakthroughs in medical research.
When developing a social media plan, err on the side of caution. Your social media profiles are a way of building an online audience, but they also expose you and your practice to liability when not done carefully. Federal and state privacy laws limit the freedom for posting on social media. The Health Insurance and Portability Accountability Act (HIPAA), in particular, has very strict rules about patient health information being disclosed publicly. You can be fired, sued, and fined $100 to $50,000 per violation. Be certain to avoid privacy violations; omit any information that could be used to identify specific patients.
Whether on professional or personal profile pages, never identify someone as a patient on social media. Addressing patients as a collective on social media should help you avoid any privacy risks. If an unknown patient reaches out and asks a personal health question on social media, do not answer. Instead, take the conversation offline with a standard response that asks him or her to call the office and make an appointment. And never, under any circumstances, should you attempt to diagnose someone via social media. This can open you up to serious liability. Instead, encourage the individual to see a physician for a diagnosis.
The most effective weapon against liability is to have a clear, strict office policy that specifically addresses the use of social media both on and off the job. Your policy should include who in the office will have administrative privileges on your practice’s social media profiles, as well as the kinds of content deemed acceptable. It should emphasize professional behavior, both during working and nonworking hours. All employees should be trained on these policies with specific examples to emphasize how even small, seemingly innocuous disclosures can constitute privacy violations.
Social media can be a valuable tool in promoting your practice and instrumental in reaching potential patients who are searching for information about physicians online. Take control of your online profile by developing a social media plan, utilizing the appropriate social media platforms, creating original content that interests patients, and developing an office social media policy. These steps can optimize the content for search engines to help promote your practice and reduce liability related to privacy laws violations.
For more information on drafting a social media policy, see our exclusive whitepaper at www.CAPphysicians.com/social-media.
For further information on your online reputation, see The Physician’s Online Reputation Action Guide at www.CAPphysicians.com/practice-management-guides.
The above recommendations are meant to serve as general guidance and do not serve as professional advice of any kind. We encourage providers to conduct their own research and seek specific information from a qualified professional. Claims arising from non-patient media communications are excluded under the Mutual Protection Trust Agreement.
Kimberly Danebrock is a Senior Risk Management and Patient Safety Specialist for the Cooperative of American Physicians. Questions or comments related to this article should be directed to kdanebrock@capphysicians.com.