VNN Media Insider
October 21st, 2010 |
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| Dear VNN Member: |
Once again, headlines were screaming out about Facebook and privacy concerns. The Wall Street Journal reported that an investigation found some third party applications were leaking personal information to advertisers. From our standpoint here at VNN...I wouldn't worry too much about it. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch was quoted as saying: "The only real concern is that all that data can also be tied to you doing something with a third party app. So in addition to your profile information, the database also gets to know that you like Farmville.
"Is this a real problem? No."
It seems that bringing together the words "Wall Street Journal", "Facebook", "investigation" and "privacy breach" gets everyone paranoid. And, at least this time, there really was nothing to worry about.
Part of our job at VNN is to help you sort through the rumors and the truths of what you (and your clients) are hearing in the media. Whenever you have questions, Dr. Jim and I are ready to answer them and help calm any concerns you might have about this new way of interacting with and marketing to your clients.
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| Privacy on Facebook |
 Given the tone of the article above, I thought it would be a good idea to review how you can change your privacy settings at Facebook:1) In the upper right hand corner, click Account and then choose Privacy settings.2) Click "Customize settings" to choose what information you wish to have public and what needs to be seen only by your friends. 3) Once you choose your settings, click "Preview My Profile" in the upper right. This will show you what other people see when they find you on Facebook. Don't like what you see...increase your privacy levels and reassess!4) Once you have set these, they stay until you decide to change them.Again, if you have questions, I am happy to help! |
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| How Do Your Employees Impact Your Facebook Page? |
 If you read Dr. Humphries' column in our last Media Insider, you have probably realized that to avoid be bogged down in the social media swamp, you often need to delegate tasks and responsibilities to your staff. But...how can you make sure that they are appropriately handling those chores?
Many of us worry about what kind of impact one of our employees will have on the reputation of our hospital if allowed to interact with clients, or potential clients, on Facebook or other social sites. My first piece of advice is to STOP worrying! As Director Of Education for seven veterinary hospitals, I would encourage employees to talk about the great things happening in the hospitals whenever they were out socially. This was great "word of mouth" marketing, so why would I want it to stop just because it happens online instead in the grocery store? Encourage your staff to interact with your Facebook page, make suggestions for status updates and generally help you make your page an exciting place to visit!
Next, kudos to Dr. Nancy Willerton of University Hills Animal Hospital in Denver. She encourages her employees to interact on their page, but she asks that any employee who does sets their personal profile set to strict privacy settings. This tiny step enables her to insure that a client or would-be client doesn't navigate over to the employee's profile and see the latest round of beer pong pictures or those wild birthday videos!
When employees interact with your page, their friends "see" that interaction and may be moved to make comments. In turn, friends farther removed see those comments and might continue the trend. It's all part of "going viral".
Finally, have a good monitoring plan in place. You, your associates or your practice manager should be reviewing the site at least twice a day. Not only will you find questions from clients in a timely manner, you can also find (and possibly remove) inappropriate comments.
Reports and research continue to show that social media can be valuable to many businesses. Not only does it allow for interaction with your clients multiple times per year, it has great potential for referrals and, believe it or not, research is now showing that the average person who likes your page provides a little over $135 in value to your brand. They will also interact with you 10 times per year and provide at least one recommendation. Strong evidence for keeping an active Facebook page going!
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| More Resources Coming From VNN! |
 Dr. Jim has tackled a very tough subject this month in our latest VNN story resource. How do we address or deal with unsupervised, unlicensed non-veterinarians providing medical care for our animals? From "equine lay dentists" in Oklahoma to unsupervised individuals providing rabies vaccines, it almost seems as if the veterinary profession is under attack. After reading the article, stop by PetDocsOnCall.com and read Dr. Jim's blog...I think you will want to make a comment or two!!
For several months, we have been describing the capability of VNN to create customized "video blogs" or "vBlogs" for our members. We can put your face and voice to our videos for a unique and personal resource for your website. This highly professional service is available to you at a discounted price because of your VNN membership.
We are also creating "welcome videos" for hospitals. These short videos can help introduce new clients (or even established clients) to your hospital and really show off everything you have to offer!!
Take a look at this two videos that we recently completed:
I am sure you can see how intensely valuable professional videos like this could be to your hospital.
Have you been interviewed on camera recently? Do you have a link to a website with a video of you that you would like to capture for your media kit? Contact us and we may be able to help you grab that video and use in your social media or even at your hospital website or blog! |
| Reminders |
Don't forget...next weekend is HALLOWEEN! Have you done your media yet? November is Adopt a Senior Pet Month (ASPCA) and National Pet Cancer Awareness Month. Other November observances that might pertain to pets or be adapted to pet care include: National Diabetes Month
National Animal Shelter Appreciation Week (Nov 1-7) (HSUS)
National Family Week (Nov 20-26) |
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Welcome to our new members from Washington!
Sincerely,
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