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VNN Media Insider
March 10th, 2011

Dear VNN Member: 

 

The arrival of Ash Wednesday yesterday reminded me that Easter is not far away!  It's time to start thinking about your media points for the Easter holiday.  Whether it's talking points about chicks and baby bunnies, Easter lily toxicity for cats or xylitol toxicity for dogs, you can find resources at MyVNN.com!

 

AND...to help keep you up to date, we created a NEW resource for VNN members.  Our VNN Animal and Veterinary Events Calendar is now live at the website.  We will continue to add information to these pages every day and we welcome any feedback or ideas that you have! 

In This Issue
Animals in the News!
WHY Do You Do What You Do?
Small Business Rushes to Social Media
Upcoming Events and Reminders
New Webinars Planned
Transform Your Website
Animals in the News This Week
 
Leptospirosis

Preventable infectious diseases, recalls, and a continued focus on animal/veterinary costs have topped the headlines this week.

 

In Mississippi, a shelter was forced to euthanize about 100 dogs because of a distemper outbreak.  Reports from the shelter say that a surrendered dog was the originating patient.  VNN Member, Dr. Chris Duke, also in Mississippi, had a great article in his local paper about the importance of vaccines and the prevalence of canine parvovirus.  These topics can be addressed in traditional or social media with the help of VNN resources.

 

After last week's recall of Wellness canned cat foods, two other pet related recalls happened. More than 2,700 cases of pig ears were recalled by the Jones Natural Chews Co and a recall of human phenobarbitol has affected veterinary patients.

 

Finally, we are all tired of hearing the concerns and complaints about the costs of veterinary care.  But, this week, several articles actually seemed to defend and explain why some of our pet's medical needs seems so pricey.  Another article can be found here.

 

 

Social

You know WHAT you do and HOW you do it, but do you know WHY?


This video struck a chord with me last week and I wanted to share it all with you.  The speaker is Simon Sinek and this "short" 18 minute video discusses how great leaders inspire.  I say "short" because you will not realize that almost 20 minutes has gone by after you have seen the video.

 

By using examples as unrelated as Apple Computers, the Wright Brothers and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, Simon really digs into the importance of determining "WHY" you do what you do as a business.

 

Click this link for the video: How Do Great Leaders Inspire Action?

 

 

 

Small Business Rushes to Social Media

Dr Jim Humphries on VNN set

 

As we have been saying for 2 years now, the days of traditional paid advertising are almost over for small business.  In a new national survey just released, over 8,500 small and local businesses, who have very limited time and money for marketing, are gravitating towards simple, low-cost online marketing methods such as Facebook and other social media.
 

More than half of local merchants are spending less than $2,500 a year on marketing, and 60% have no plans to raise their budgets this year. As many merchants struggle to manage their existing programs, 37% say lack of time and resources is the top online marketing challenge to take advantage of new, unproven services.
 

With huge consumer adoption, ease-of-use and low barrier to entry, Facebook continues to be a popular way for merchants to market their business, with 70% using the social network for marketing, up from 50% one year ago. 37% rate Facebook as one of their most effective tools, almost tied with Google search (40%) as one of their top three most effective marketing methods. 40% of local merchants say they use the twitter.
 

Tried-and-true online methods trump new, unproven approaches. Three of the top marketing methods for local businesses, social, search (being found when users search for local businesses) and email, are cited as being the most effective, with 36% putting social networking in the top three, 40% citing search and 36% choosing email marketing.
 

Less than 15% of merchants report doing any sort of mobile marketing or advertising, and more than half have no plans to do so in the coming months. Lack of understanding remains a huge barrier to adoption, with 74% of merchants state that they don't have a good idea of how to reach consumers via mobile marketing.  This will change in the next few years. 
 

Only 11% of local merchants have offered a "daily deal" using a service like Groupon or LivingSocial, with an additional 20% planning to do so in the coming months. Also, this type of service is considered not appropriate for medical professionals. 
 

Wow...yes as predicted, over the course of 2010, use of print advertising dropped by 33% (from 40%), use of print Yellow Pages declined 18% (from 45%), and use of direct mail decreased 26% (from 39%).
 

Many of these methods, though, continue to deliver results for local merchants. 24% say that coupons or direct mail are still one of their top three most effective marketing tactics, 23% say print Yellow Pages are a top three tactic, and 20% put print newspaper ads in the top three as well.
 

Concluding that there is no letup in effort to increase new tactics within small businesses, the report says that 51% of local merchants get at least one online marketing sales call a week, with 10% getting called almost on a daily basis.
 

The time to jump in to this method of gaining new veterinary clients was "Yesterday".  So jump in now.  Keep an eye on our monthly webinars to learn the "how to's" and we'll guide you.  
 
 

 

Upcoming Events and Reminders

 

New VNN Story Release:  Are Heartworms Winning the War will be released on Tuesday, March 15th!

We now have a new resource at MyVNN.com.  Check out our Perpetual Animal Events Calendar!
Sincerely,



ContactsThomas Dock, CVJ
Managing Editor

[email protected]

317-281-8658

 

 

Dr. Jim Humphries

President/News Director

[email protected]

719-495-2100

 

 
Red light siren

Upcoming Webinars and Archived Webinars at MyVNN.com

 

 

If you missed our Facebook Business Page webinar, we have now archived it on the MyVNN.com website.  Navigate to MyVNN.com/training and you can find all of our webinars to date.

Webinars are available to view or download.  If you experience any difficulty, please contact us for an alternate way to view.

Coming up on Tuesday, March 22nd, a brand new webinar will be presented.  This time, the topic will be Twitter!  This webinar will start a little later (3:00 pm EST) to allow our West coast members to have an opportunity to join us too.

 

 

Mr. Kevin Knebl will be joining us again on May 4th for a webinar on LinkedIn.  We know that all of you are very interested in how to use this executive social site so make sure you don't have plans at 2:00 pm on Tuesday, May 4th!   Invitations and links to reserve your spot will be available next week.

You can also RSVP for any of the webinars on the MyNewsDesk page at MyVNN.com.

 

All webinars, including Kevin's first webinar with us, are being archived and can be found at our VNN Webinar and Training Center

 

 

TURN YOUR WEBSITE INTO A SOCIAL CENTER!

7 Ways to Transform Your Website Into A Social Media Hub!
  
1.  Add Social Media Buttons linked to your Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn accounts.
  
2. Connect your blog with your website.
  
3.  Embed video on your website.
  
4. Add retweet and Facebook Like buttons to shareable content pages.
  
5. Use SlideShare to embed presentations on your website.
  
6. Add a Facebook Like Box to your website.
  
7.  Use social bookmarking sites, like Digg and StumbleUpon to share new content on your site.  
  
If any of these ideas interest you but you aren't sure how to proceed or the best way to make it happen, contact us and we can help!
  
(See the original article at SocialMediaExaminer)
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