Thanks to the Harrisburg Business Women's Group for allowing me to speak on May 10. I had more questions than answers and ended up breaking my responses into a two-part post! Click here to see Part 1! Below is Part 2.
Would you recommend healthcare on Facebook?
Healthcare is a tricky subject both because of the privacy involved in health care, but also because each specialty is unique in its mission and branding efforts. There are a good number of benefits of using social media in the health care industry, as outlined in this article from Social Media Today. There was another recent story published called, “Making the Case for Social Media Marketing in Healthcare,” which takes a common-sense approach to marketing on social sites. What I like about this story is the mention that both competitors and patients are using social media. From that perspective, most can agree that embracing social media marketing in health care is something we should be doing (if done correctly).
Here’s a site that actually created an online community of health care professionals, which might be used as a resource: http://healthworkscollective.com/
I currently have two clients in the healthcare industry. It’s a little more difficult to foster engagement, mainly because we don’t pay attention to health until we have to. However, it’s critical to stay in front of the audience with information that could affect them. An example could be the ever-changing insurance industry. Be sure to give them information on how changes in policy affect coverage both as a whole and as it relates to that specific industry. 80 percent of people on social sites are lurkers, so they are listening but not interacting. Be proactive with valuable information and members of the audience will become a patient, remain a patient, or refer a patient.
We have a page for The Burg and I have a personal one, as well. I am getting more and more friend requests from business associates. I still want post personal things. Is that kosher?
A lot of people worry about their privacy on Facebook. I have a post about keeping personal/business life separate from a previous entry. I have two comments on the “Is this kosher” question. First, use your privacy settings to control what “everybody” – including people who are not connected will be able to see. (Log into Facebook, click “account” on the top right-hand side, click “Privacy Settings” then go to “Customize Settings.” You can also control who sees what you post. Before you post a status update, click the lock icon to choose who can see it. What you select will override your "Posts by me" setting, which acts as the default. I would also highly recommend creating friend lists to filter the information that you receive as well.
You can create more lists based on how you want to categorize the items. You can filter your news feed and your posts/messages by using these lists.
Second, no matter where you are putting things, there is a level of appropriateness you must follow. The golden rule is not to post anything on social media sites that wouldn’t want to plastered on a NYC billboard. Bottom line: It’s ok to post personal information, just do so with taste.
With real estate, I need to keep certain information posted and be aware of representing myself. I get overwhelmed with what I can post. Any advice?
I am assuming that you are a REALTOR® working with a group or team, so that can be tricky. First, start simple. Tackle the information that you know you should be posting, such as open houses and new listings. Make sure these items list the relevancy both in timeliness and appeal.
Next, if there is no policy on creating your own page, as a subset of a larger group, do immediately so you can brand yourself. Create your own business Facebook page or Twitter handle and start tackling some of the massive amount of information on the current real estate industry. The market has been in flux for years, so there is a lot of uncertainty about buying and selling real estate.
If you are unable to create your own page, I would have a discussion with your broker about how to differentiate yourself from others in your company. What’s nice about social media is that it levels the playing field without having to spend more money. I would make it clear why you need to differentiate yourself, yet still be part of a team.
If you have a social media question, feel free to email me at: info@centralpawebster.com or leave your question here!
