Doctor, you need to know that if you engage in social networking deliberately, you can use it to your advantage.
This is also one reason why we have established our membership site to allow various degrees of interaction with our members. Historically, not only in our own experience but also with research studies that have been done, chiropractic doctors fall behind other groups when it comes to the use of social networking. This discussion aims to enlighten you a little bit and whet your appetite. Look for more information on social networking in our upcoming technology workshops.
If social networking is done properly, it has a lot of advantages. It can put you in front of an enormous number of people in your own neighborhood and around the world. Just make sure you follow these two basic rules.
Rule 1: Your participation is limited. In other words, as one of my confidants advised me some time ago, limit yourself to no more than a few minutes per day.
Rule 2: Make sure what you are contributing is of interest and benefit.
Of course, there are exceptions. Social networking on hobby sites is something totally different.
On professional sites such as the Perfect Practice Web forum, if we had more doctors participate we'd start to see the benefits of sharing instantaneously.
If nothing else comes of this discussion, at the very least, take a look at our forum. Post something interesting. Post questions about things you need help on or recommendations for vendors and suppliers. The information you can share is limitless. As long as it's done in a professional and timely manner, everybody in the group will benefit.
So, lets cover some of the more common social networking sites, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. I'd like to discuss each of them a little bit at a time. They're all very important, and each has its place.
In comparison with other social networks, Facebook is the most commonly used in North America. Nexopia is used predominantly in Canada. Other social networking sites include MySpace, Tagged, Highfive, Bebo, Skyrock, Orkut, etc. Other sites that are also widely used around the world are Friendster and Cyworld.
There are so many sites that you can go to. I urge doctors to participate in those forums that will provide visibility and the opportunity to have a professional but friendly image. Facebook would be number one on my list, not only in my personal experience but in the experience of the other people in the field we talk with every day.
Another advantage of Facebook is that you can link videos and blogs to it. You can do this with other sites as well, but Facebook is so hardwired in through Google that the opportunities are limited only by your imagination and your financial resources.
MySpace is similar to Facebook. We have found it to be not quite as popular when we survey other professionals.
Twitter, on the other hand, is a fun site that can allow you to put yourself in front of thousands and thousands of people quickly.
The caveat with all these sites, but especially for the first three mentioned, is to understand that when you post, it is permanent. You have to make sure this information gets disseminated. It can be used against you. God forbid something unintentional gets posted on a particular site. Keep in mind that all your post are subject to the highest level of public scrutiny. One of the scariest things now, not just for healthcare professionals but other people, is that Facebook and other online posts are being used against them in legal matters.
Be professional, cautious and intelligent about what you're doing.
The next site is LinkedIn. This site is pretty cool. It seems to be a little bit more difficult to get into. You need to spend a little bit more time with regards to networking, simply because it is professionals.
LinkedIn regularly send emails updates of what's going on with other members of your network.
It also keeps us inform of what's happening with the other online communities. For example, if you take a look at allied professions and what's going on online, it gives us a great idea of what we should be doing.
Get yourself up and running. Get out there. I encourage all member and guest doctors to do this and list yourself to each others Facebook Friends Lists!!!
This will have tremendous benefit. You automatically get more exposure on-line, just from linking with us and your profession and others on Facebook.
Be professional, friendly and proud, and take some time with it.
Online Social Security Application
A study, conducted by WebTrends, shows that only five per cent of companies see the blog as a valuable tool and more than three-quarters have never used the medium. However, Smallbusiness.co.uk recently reported new research, which claims that small businesses should increase their use of internet blogs in order to communicate with their customers.
It seems that companies still prefer more traditional means of internet marketing such as direct email, used by 46 per cent of respondents and web analytics favoured by 37 per cent. Commenting on the figures, Nick Sharp at WebTrends says: "Corporate blogs can be very effective communication tools within or on behalf of a corporate community."
In a survey conducted by email research specialists, emedia, using its RapidResearch service, it was found that only 8% of online networkers use social sites to contact clients or potential clients. However, the survey also indicates that 87% of all respondents think that social networking sites can be used for business purposes, including networking (65%), exchanging ideas (58%), getting advice (44%), recruitment (43%), research (35%) and selling (31%).
Users of social networking sites visit these sites on a regular basis and almost half of them (48%) admit using these websites at work. Nearly one in four (24%) users log in every day with half of them logging in several times a day. Up to 45% of users log in at least once a week.
In an article by Claire West, these statistics are said to show that almost two thirds (62%) of users say they are worried about the safety of their personal data held on these sites. Because of fears over security, nearly one third of users (31%) have entered information that is false about themselves in order to try to protect their identity.
The latest social media site to appear is Facebook - the site that, according to Freshbusinessthinking.com, could well be described as Friends-Reunited-meets-MySpace-meets-Google. But from a business perspective, the article suggests that social networking sometimes seems more like a solution in search of a problem.
LinkedIn.com, for instance, could eventually be a subscription service allowing users to input and manage their contacts and to search for connections - but it is already feeling the heat from Facebook. Will Facebook (and other forms of social media) become appropriate use for enterprise and business?
The Daily Telegraph recently reported that "More than two thirds of employers are banning or restricting the use of Facebook and similar sites over fears that staff are wasting time on them when they should be working".
In an article by Mark Ellis in the same web magazine, he tells us that Facebook has more than 5 million users in the UK alone. "Myspace", which is another "social networking" website, boasts 10 million UK users. If you add in to the mix good old fashioned email and messaging services like MSN and it is a wonder that the people who work for you have time to do any real work at all? Employers are right to be concerned about loss of productivity! It's a serious issue. According to some estimates addicts of Facebook, Myspace and Bebo (that's another social networking site) are costing UK employers more than £100 million a day in lost productivity. Defending the right of employees to surf the TUC has urged employers not to over react by banning access to such sites but to put in place policies to cover the general use of social networking sites.
However you are perfectly within your rights to put such sites off limits altogether and you might well decide to do so, continues Ellis. The TUC suggests a more pragmatic approach which would allow staff access during breaks within mutually agreed parameters. Ellis suggests a clear Internet and Email policy for all staff.
So with the fear of misuse of information and negative views from clients being publicly aired online, why is it that businesses are still seeing social networking as a viable use of their time?
Being informed is vital to advancing in the workplace, and having easy access to that information provides good opportunities ' in particular for women - in large corporations, especially if they are working part time, from home or are on maternity leave. Head of employer brand and diversity at professional services firm Deloitte, Tom Crawford, encourages employees to use Facebook whilst at the same time, providing guidelines and advice on how to use it responsibly, instead of banning it from the workplace as have many other employers.
If you are concerned about how much information about you might already be online, Garlik.com offers a service called Data Patrol which scours the internet and then offers you advice, depending on the information that it manages to unearth.
But how can social networking work best for small businesses, who want to increase their ways of keeping in contact with new and existing clients?
In the Dow Jones White Paper "Tracking the Influence of Conversations: A Roundtable Discussion on Social Media Metrics and Measurement", Jeremiah Owyang and Matt Toll tell us that "The advent of social media ' blogs in particular ' (bring) with it at least the potential for removing the barrier between a seller and buyers who are remote ' geographically, economically, culturally or otherwise." They go onto say that "Those questioning social media's impact on corporate marketing strategy today may well work for the same corporations that questioned whether creating a corporate Web site in the mid- and late-1990s, or allowing employees (gasp!)to be using the internet whilst at work, was a good thing to do."
Aleks Krotoski, conducting research at the University of Surrey into the psychology of online social networks, believes that social software encourages collaboration. It is the social in the software which will bring communities together, building upon the success of its technological predecessors and enhancing, rather than replacing, human interaction.
One online directory of professional service providers has launched a social network online for the exclusive benefit of their service providers. Whether it is to share newsletter links with each other, hobbies, or favourite charities, they hope it will become a place where their professionals UK-wide will be able to get to know each other better, or just pop on occasionally to see what others are up to.
What's SNO?
One Social Network Optimiser, writing for O'ReillyGMT about how social network optimisation can become part of a marketing strategy for businesses, believes that companies can no longer deliver a one-way web, 'interact with the consumer or fade away' is the message which every business needs to hear. Search Engine Optimisers have generated large amounts of value in focusing search engine results towards their client's one web site. Now a new breed of "Optimiser" can take the message of the client to the many eyes and in turn create new "conversations" and "awareness" about their client and their business. This social network optimiser believes that SNO Agencies will be another facet of existing disciplines in Public Relations and Marketing Agencies. They will use their own network of Friends and Contacts on-line formed through social networks with which to build new links and ideas between their clients and their audience. SNO Agencies will work with existing Public Relation and Marketing Agencies utilising current conversations and ideas to help promote and direct awareness of the product without directly advertising or "spamming" those communities.
Both John Hayes Jr & Suzy Miller are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
John Hayes Jr has sinced written about articles on various topics from Disease & illness, Vacation and Education. Dr. John Hayes, Jr. is an Evvy Award Nominee and author of Living and Practicing by Design. Get more information about his unique approa. John Hayes Jr's top article generates over 4400 views. Bookmark John Hayes Jr to your Favourites.
Suzy Miller has sinced written about articles on various topics from Network Marketing, Internet Marketing and Network Marketing. To learn more about how you can use SNO to benefit your business, contact: Nik Butler at www.certainshops.com. For a humorous guide to social netwo. Suzy Miller's top article generates over 2900 views. Bookmark Suzy Miller to your Favourites.
