You like many other medical professionals, have heard repeatedly that you must be on social media. But what does it mean to be “on social media?” And how do you know if you are doing it right? We know you have questions, luckily, we have answers!
We advise our Doctors to use social as an opportunity to build brand and earn the public’s trust. Medical professionals should be using social media for two purposes. They should be using social media to either educate or entertain their audience. These are the two main forms of value that people can bring online. Everything else is usually just perceived as noise or spam. Focus on providing value in your posts and your audience will find you. Breaking through the noise on social media and finding your voice requires context, creativity, and volume.
Context:
Before a leader makes a speech to a room full of people, they usually want to know their audience. They want to know who is in the room so they can tailor their message accordingly. You should be doing the same with your creative on social. How you post on Twitter should not be the same as how you post on LinkedIn. Twitter has a much more laid back and casual culture, while LinkedIn has a formal business culture. We hope you adjust your communication on social media between sites. It’s like how you communicate with your medical colleagues at conferences differently from buddies at a BBQ. Understanding context is the first step to succeeding on social media. This statement is especially true for paid advertisements. Both Facebook and Instagram allow advertisers to choose their target audience based off numerous demographics, locations, interests and other data. We advise you decide your audience(s) before investing in creative.
Creativity:
Every medical professional on social needs a writer, videographer, and graphic designer on their team. If you find someone with more than one of these three skills, hire them! While you are busy seeing patients they can write blog posts on topics you wish. The videographer can document patient sessions like this one (with written permission of course) or even record seminars and presentations. You want to find someone who is motivated and who has both filming and editing skills. You will also want a graphic designer in your corner who can make branded marketing material and unique posts. Once you have all 3 of these skill sets on your team, you need to implement a scalable content creation system.
Volume:
The reason you are on this page now is because of the sheer volume of content that the Mindful Living team has put out. The more content you put out, the more “at bats” you have for going viral. But the goal should never be to go viral. Rather it should be to build a content creating machine which focuses on volume. Its important to have a system which allows you strategically re-purpose pillar content. Start by recording a 20 vlog on YouTube as pillar content. Then strip the audio and edit it to be deployed as a podcast! After snip a highlight of the 20 minute YouTube video and re-purpose it into a 30 second long TikTok clip. Or even transcribe that same YouTube video into a blog post. For more information on the process of re-purposing content click here. Please remember that often documenting is more engaging that creating. So, if you don’t know what kind of content to make just document your day to day life! Quality is subjective and you are not the ultimate judge! So, when all else fails, DOCUMENT! It will help increase the volume of content you put out on a daily basis.
Warning:
Don’t get caught up in vein numbers such as “likes” or “followers”, or “views.” Those three metrics are easy to fake and do not equate to revenue. Rather focus on bringing unconditional value to people that are likely to one day become patients.