Reviewing and Reassessing Your Social Media Goals

Thomas Dock CVJ
Managing Editor, Veterinary News Network
Practice Manager, Mobile PetDocs
Board of Certification, American Society of Veterinary Journalists  

One of the most amazing things that has happened in the last 5 years is how I have seen veterinarians and veterinary hospitals make the leap into social media and how some of them are doing phenomenal jobs.  I don't recall the exact numbers, but I believe that in excess of 90% of veterinary practices now have a Facebook page, compared to less than 40% when we started speaking about social media back in 2009.

In my weekly quest to keep you up to date as much as possible on the changes in social media, I happened across this great video produced by the Greenies Brand and which starred our own VNN member, Ms. Brenda Tassava from Indiana.  After you "like" the app on Facebook, click the Earn your Social CE button in the middle of the page to start the video process.

Brenda does a great job diving into the importance of not just randomly posting things in your social media, but actually ENGAGING your clients so that their "likes" and "comments" and "shares" will help your reach across many different social media platforms.   This is something that we at VNN have been encouraging from the very beginning of our experiences in social media.  It's not enough to post once a day or four times a week...you need to post content that encourages those people who follow your page/Twitter account/Pinterest Boards, etc to share it and interact with you on the page.

I personally like Brenda's discussion about posting content that educates, entertains or that shows your involvement in your local community.  Additionally, she remarks on the importance of connecting with groups/people/organizations who are already creating great content...why reinvent the wheel and spend too much of your valuable time trying to think of new postings or blogs.   Again, remember that this is the EXACT purpose of the Veterinary News Network.  We save you time in content creation and news collection!

This video is well worth the 23 minutes it takes to watch AND it has CE credit available.  So, find your social media person, get them set up and learn from someone who is doing a GREAT job in promoting her practice and her profession.

Until next time...

Tom

Last week, many of you saw our newest video release, Cryosurgery - Icy Cold Handiwork.  For those that might have missed it, here's the video:

Cryosurgery - Icy Cold Handiwork

Again, many thanks to Dr. Melanie Marsden of Pikes Peak Veterinary Clinic and to the folks at Cryoprobe for their assistance.

We are in the final stages of production for our next video release, scheduled for February 1st.   We all know that February is Pet Dental Health Month and our video and story resources will reflect this by taking the viewer through the steps involved in pet dentistry.   As mentioned before, we would encourage you to use this and all VNN videos on your practice website.  If you need assistance determining the best way to include the videos in a video library, please contact me and I will do my best to help!

Did you see the story of the woman who contracted a serious bacterial infection after attempting to break up a dog fight.  She lost some fingers and parts of her legs!  Dr. Valarie Tynes, a VNN member in Texas and noted veterinary behaviorist, came up with a great idea to help educate dog owners about dog fights.  You will find messaging on "Safely Stopping a Dog Fight" located in the VNN Message Point library!   Thanks, Dr. Tynes!!