EyeWorld Asia-Pacific December 2019 Issue

66 EWAP DECEMBER 2019 NEWS & OPINION in the practice. You can make announcements such as a grand œ«i˜ˆ˜} œÀ ˆv ̅i œvwVi ܈ Li closed, she added. “We’ve also used social media to promote job openings in the practice,” Ms. Jacobs said. “Really, there is no reason not to utilize social media in almost every area of the practice.” Encouraging patients to share positive experiences First, you just have to ask, according to Ms. Jacobs. “Everyone in the practice should be empowered to ask and know what platforms you are on,” she said, adding that it’s important to make it easy for the patient. “Our appointment cards have all of our social media sites on the back with an ask to share their experience,” she said. After an appointment, patients receive an electronic survey to complete about their experience that also links to Facebook, and Twitter. “Recently we also integrated cards with QR codes that the patient can scan and quickly do an online review,” she said. Ms. Boling said one thing her practice has learned is that “if you want positive reviews from your happy patients, you have to ask them directly.” Unlike business pages, posts on personal social media accounts still enjoy broad circulation, Mr. Miller said. “For this reason, it’s more important than ever to encourage patients to share their positive experiences with your practice.” Facebook and Instagram empower patients to share both a numerical rating and text review of their experience in your clinic, he said, adding that email and text reminders are important, but a personal request for patients to share their experience online may be the most effective strategy. While it’s possible that patients will spontaneously share their experience, more formal testimonial programs will yield better results, he said. “For some clinics this means «ÀœviÃȜ˜> w“ˆ˜} ÃiÃȜ˜Ã several times each year,” he said. “For others, social contests can motivate patients to talk about you online. But clinics must take care to observe FTC guidelines and avoid directly compensating patients for reviews.” How to handle a negative social media post Ms. Boling said she recommends that every practice develop a proactive plan and be sure to respond, even if the poster’s perception of the events is not accurate. It’s important to be intentional about having a plan to disengage on a post that isn’t going to be productive. There are times that someone will try to “argue” their point. “This is why we typically try to take a proactive approach from the beginning by acknowledging the comment, apologizing for their experience, and letting them know that someone from the practice is going to be reaching out to them directly to discuss further,” Ms. Boling said. “We always remind them of what our practice mission is and that we look forward to the opportunity to turn their experience around in the future.” Negative social media will happen, Ms. Jacobs said. “You’re dealing with the public and you cannot make everyone happy,” she said. The key is to acknowledge the post and apologize that you fell short on delivering the service they were expecting. You can offer to speak ̜ ̅i «>̈i˜Ì œvyˆ˜i] LÕÌ ˜iÛiÀ engage in combat or disagree with the comment because this ܈ œ˜Þ ˆ˜y>“i ̅i ÈÌÕ>̈œ˜ more. “If you have hundreds of positive comments and one negative, it makes the negative experience seem unusual,” she said. “If you have many negative comments then this is an œ««œÀÌ՘ˆÌÞ Ìœ œœŽ ˆ˜Ãˆ`i >˜` wÝ whatever problem there may be within the practice.” Clinics have the power to remove or block content from their own pages, but not from the wider social media ecosystem, Mr. Miller said, suggesting that clinics should employ monitoring software to rapidly detect mentions of their brand and doctors so they don’t miss critical online conversations. “When negative commentary is detected, clinics must remember that they will be judged as much for how they handle the situation as the commentary itself,” he said. “We advise our clients to take a measured position, to keep HIPAA top of mind, and to reply only once with an invitation for the person responsible for the post to contact the clinic directly for support.” Dedicating staff to social media According to Mr. Miller, clinics today need a staff member responsible for their social media. “This member of the team can produce the authentic photo and video content needed to succeed on social media today, and whether they personally run social advertising or supervise the clinic’s agency, they can ensure that the targeting and investment return are on track,” he said. Ms. Jacobs said that having a dedicated individual or individuals in your practice helps to quickly execute and work with the rest of the staff to get content out and manage the analytics of the data. However, if your practice cannot support this dedicated individual or doesn’t have someone who has the capacity to do it, she suggested outsourcing. There are many companies that will manage social media typically on a monthly retainer arrangement, Ms. Jacobs said. “It’s better to utilize an outside source as needed than not to be present online at all,” she added. Ms. Boling agreed that it would be ideal to have an individual dedicated to social media for the practice. “I am a big believer that no one knows your practice’s voice better than someone who works inside the practice on a daily basis,” she said. EWAP Editors’ note: Ms Boling works at Boling Vision Center & INSIGHT SURGERY CENTER, Northern Indiana. Ms. Jacobs works at Chu Vision Institute, Bloomington, Minnesota. Mr. Miller works at Etna Interactive, San Luis Obispo, California. None of the sources declared CP[ TGNGXCPV ƂPCPEKCN KPVGTGUVU