Heidi Allen Digital Strategy

Social Media has provided the opportunity to listen to conversation, and observe the musings of many professionals. In particular we are afforded the opportunity to listen in on the conversation between medical professionals. Some medical bloggers such as @Doctor_V have embraced the nuances of social media providing stimulating discourse on the ramifications of health technology, social/professional media, medical education and online debate. The resulting discussions are often vigorous, stimulating and entertaining.

I am evesdropping on their conversation, and pondering the different views. Here are some examples of conversational rhetoric:

This from a cardiologist, Dr Wes on Medicine to Social Media: Get Over Yourself. @DoctorWes provides useful tips and insights for physicians as they take their first tentative steps into social media

I have noticed an interesting psychodynamic to most medical bloggers, social media enthusiasts, and internet-savvy individuals use social media: … we all are narcissists

We love our blogs, our posts, our ‘wall,’ our ‘followers,’ our ’subscribers,’ our ‘friends’, and our ‘unique visitors.’ ….. But I find it funny that social media ‘experts’ continue to ponder why doctors don’t ‘engage’ more in social media. After all, it’s the rage, right?

…One might think that the instantaneous communication afforded by social media would be the perfect place for ‘on-line collaboration.’ Yet in reality, using social media, even doctor-limited online forums, might be the worst place a doctor could ask for advice, especially when uniquely identifiable issues specific to an patient are discussed with others in such a potentially public, legally-discoverable way. For many doctors, the legal, ethical and political climate is simply not conducive to permitting patient-specific discussions on the internet.

….No matter how you parse it, doctors don’t avoid the internet and social media because they’re simply Luddites, they avoid the internet because they enjoy the benefits of anonymity, privacy, efficiency and legal protection that comes with dropping off the grid.

And this from Dr Ves quoting from Risky Business – Tweeting the Symptoms of Social Media (PDF). Dr Ves’s blog, and social media presence is a rich source of information. His motto is to share what you find useful, share what you’ve learned. @DrVes provides a plethora of useful tips on blogging, tweeting and online feed management

To date there are at least 540 hospitals in the United States utilizing social media tools: Hospitals account for 247 YouTube channels, 316 Facebook pages, 419 Twitter accounts, and 67 blogs.

The number of individual and independent medbloggers is in the thousands….[yet there] are a number of other scenarios that could lead to liability. For example, what happens if an ‘off-duty’ physician responds to a health question by a neighbor while doing yard work? Suppose the same exchange occurs through online ‘messages’ between a physician and one of the physician’s ‘friends’ on Facebook, creating an electronic record of the exchange that could potentially support the existence of a physician-patient relationship, thereby creating certain liability arising therefrom

And this very personal comment from Dr Mike [@sandnsurf], an Emergency Medicine physician in Australia. Although he blogs predominantly on medical education, he also provides insight into the development of social media as a tool for physicians.

..for [me], the foray into the underworld of social media has been an enlightening and liberating experience.

I love reading physician anecdotes, experiences and case-based blogs, and this has inspired me to share similar stories for educational purposes.
I love the frank, open and sometimes harrowing comments, descriptions and experiences of patients and reading their side of the doctor-patient relationship.
I love the opportunity to debate, comment and interact with other physicians who have given up their time to share their experiences and thoughts and to express their ideals.

I now interact with people from all round the Globe, and although these ‘friends’ are virtual – they still afford comfort in collaboration, interpolation and juxtaposition…this conversational expansion has enhanced my local work practice by helping me rise above the petty bickering and political inanity of water cooler gossip.

I gave up explaining to colleagues what I do and why I do it a long time ago. I believe the ride we are taking is not purely a narcissistic extension of our individual dictum but more an opportunity to broaden our horizons, embrace difference and promulgate evidentiality.

Blogging can be lonely. Especially lonely if we constantly rely on viewer stats, page rank and comment counts to justify the time we take to document our cogitations …but I am surfing the blogging wave to taste the salt water; feel the rush of wind in my face; and brush up against dolphins…not to observe from the beach, ice cream in hand, blistered by the rays of apathy and indifference.”

Scott Rosenberg talks about the 10 myths of blogging in a lively way that caught my attention:

Myth #4 ‘There are too many blogs” (who says you have to keep up); closely followed by Myth #3 ‘Blogging is Dead’ (don’t project your own burnout onto the rest of the world)

Myth #2 ‘Blogs are trivial’ (blogs are where we turn when we want to go deep on a subject)

From Fora Tv

You’ve heard all the arguments about blogging, pro and con. Blogs are a wondrous innovation, keys that have unlocked a vast treasury of self-expression and allowed underdogs everywhere to challenge giants. No, wait! Blogs are a scourge that is debasing journalism, undermining traditional authority, drowning us all in meaningless chatter, and destroying civilization as we know it.

Thanks to Bora at ScienceBlogs for alerting us to this one.

Many bloggers start strong, blog with great enthusiasm and then disappear – why does this happen?

People quit blogging maybe because they run out of things to say. After the intitial enthusiasm you need more info to continue. That, and not spending hours pouring over two paragraphs just in case there’s a better way to say it.

The advice:

• you don’t have to write the best post ever
• break it down
• keep it simple
• keep it short
• if it’s long break it into two posts
• focus on what you know

It’s easy to forget what you know and focus on what you don’t know.  Do your readers a favour and tell them what you have learnt so they can learn too.

‘One of the best approaches to educational blogging is to write for yourself as you learn or write for beginners (same thing)’ @DrVes

What to blog about?

Use your RSS  - Stay with me, your eyes are beginning to glaze because you’re not quite sure what RSS is.

RSS is a simple concept with a rubbish name

RSS button

RSS automatically collects new information from the sites you have chosen onto one page.

That’s it.  That’s all it does.

How do you set it up?

• you press the RSS button (often top right on a website).
• it adds the blog your are looking at to a page you’ve set up
• you can add as many as you want to
• you log off, go and have a life away from your computer

Next time you log on, any new posts that have been written will be ready and waiting for you to read, all on one page.

Fancy RSS button

which means: – you make sure you have a cuppa in hand, and spend the next half hour reading all the new info that’s been posted

= you’re up to date with all the latest news.

= new info = new ideas = blog posts because you want to share it

How do you do it?

Go to Google Reader, sign up.

If you don’t like the interface search for Feedly (my preference) and sign up with your gmail account (I’ve written about how to use additional Feedly features here)

Every time you log into your reader, any new posts will be waiting for you to read.  Have a look at the common craft video here for a quick video demo.

RSS and twitter are my entry into the online world and make sure I don’t get lost. Even some twitter streams go into my reader (yes, there is an RSS button for every tweeter, go and have a look), so although I may not follow someone on twitter, I am seeing their twitter stream in my reader).

That said, some people never run out words, ever

‘I am a health professional and I hope to get a website up soon to ‘advertise’ my service. I see the great importance you place upon social sites as word of mouth, etc, but I am still not sure how that actually works.
Your site gives excellent detail on specific areas (eg tweet management, etc.) but can you direct me to info that explains the BASICS of why and how I should bring social sites onto my website in the first place. (I value and protect my privacy, do I really need to “expose” myself and thoughts on social sites just to go with the trend in order to get business my way??).”

Great Question!

Another comment from a Health Professions Publisher, Mel:

‘Now you’re just getting beyond me, or actually it’s just that I’m so behind!!’

How does it all work and fit together? I am about to launch a basics series, but in the meantime let’s answer these questions:

I haven’t even got a website.  How do I get one?

If you want a basic site you DON’T need to spend thousands – start simply, one way would be to get yourself a Wordpress site, install a package like Thesis which is nice to search engines (which means you get found) and completely customisable which means it doesn’t have to look like a blog, and find a good hosting company.

The best recommendation I have is to hire someone to get your site put together and going.  There is no need to learn how to do it because you will be learning how to work your site after it’s built.  When I first started the basic question I had was:  How do I get a blog?  Where do I go?  WHO do I ask?

Whether it’s a blog or a website (there is no difference between to the two) here are the steps.

1. Hosting service

If you are offering a professional service you need to get your website hosted by someone as it gives you a lot more control over your site. Wordpress has some recommended hosting services

2. Software

I would recommend using something like Wordpress, which is a free, open source publishing programme which can also be used for basic content management a focus on ‘aesthetics, web standards, and usability’. It was originally designed for blogs but is now being used by many business websites because it is so versatile.

3. Design

Once you have chosen your software you’ll want to customise it.  There are many free design templates available which I have tried, but now I would recommend buying something like Thesis (it’s not expensive) which allows you to design your site relatively easily even if you’re not a programmer.  Then think very carefully about what you want on your site.  It will save you money if you know the elements you want before you employ someone to set it up for you.

4. Set up

I would recommend that you find someone to set up your site, ask them to install Thesis and incorporate your design elements (logos, what you are selling the different sections of your site). You can do it yourself but… having done that, and hindsight being a wonderful thing, I would have saved myself a couple of wrinkles if I had gone straight to an expert.

4. Dynamic content

However you design your site, build a part into it that has new content.  If you want to be found by search engines (in other words you want your customers to find you) you need to have new content on an ongoing basis.  Many people do this in the form of a blog – (take a look at Beyond Digital Media as an example, the new content is under the ‘news’ section). You may feel that you don’t have time for a blog, or have nothing to say, but it doesn’t have to be a huge piece of writing.  If you send out a monthly newsletter use this as your dynamic content- break it up into a couple of paragraphs at a time and publish those on your blog as well as sending out the complete newsletter.

Having new content on your site will immediately set you apart from the more static (boring) websites of which there are a gazillion.  You want your site to be found.

5. Social networks

Now that you have a website you want to start advertising it.  Social networks are a good place to do this find the ones that are relevant to your area.  Bodyinmind has a research focus, so the social networking sites I use there are more relevant to clinical researchers compared with the sites I use for this site.

6. Who do you ask?

If you don’t know anyone to host or set up your website, ask friends who do have a site, who they used and start there. I have now used a couple of services and people for this site and for BodyInMind and if you’d like to know who I use or can recommend drop me an email.

Advice

If you would like some specific advice for your site, whether to incorporate a blog/ social media for your customers or more general advice for what you are planning - drop me a line.

Related reading: How to get started with a blog

“Oh, you’re so definitely a techie! You make me look and feel like something from the stone age. Maybe you’re not so hot on the actual operational stuff, but on the systems, the principles, the potentialities … you are.” He’s got it  – I’m hopeless on the ‘actual operational stuff’ – so with these words of encouragement I would like to write about a book that was put into my hands recently by Gavin Heaton, ‘The Dial Up Guide to Blogging’. I wish I had this book when I started out. It beings like this:

“A couple of years ago I moved house.. [and] needed to transfer my high speed broadband account to my new address.  There was a long silence before I was informed that there was no broadband option available for my new street address.
What?
The best offer available was a dialup connection.  I was astounded.  After all, I lived in Sydney…”

(- and if you aren’t a Sydneysider, the situation is still pretty pants out here as regard internet access). All he had was dial up and had to keep it really simple.  If you feel that others know  much more than you and you the only one on the planet who doesn’t get this stuff — this book has some simple gems written for non-techie people.

While I’m figuring out how to add a link of the book to the sidebar here is some more on what it’s about.  My copy has more highlights than white space.  Some tasters:

“My new reality made me re-think the entire way that I used the internet. It made me change the way that I write and read blogs and use social media sites.  It made me think about what I value and how I prioritise it….

Blogging can be surprisingly addictive.  It can draw you out from behind your computer into real world ‘meetups’, it can change the way you think, write and behave. And it can take an inordinate amount of time away from the daily activities of life.

Chapters

1. Knowing your objectives
Chapter one is one page with 13 points — if you can answer them you’re well on your way to a successful blog and it will save you a lot of time.

2. Welcome to your domain
What is .org .com. edu, subdomains, how to register your name, hosting..

3. Setting Up your blog/website
Pros and cons of using a blog service like Wordpress, Tumblr, or a separate hosting site, how to install Wordpress

4. Setting up your social web identity
Google, analytics, Technorati, Feedburner (Excellent chapter)

5. Writing your first posts
Types of posts, objectives, how to write

6. Making blogging easier
Finding ideas

7. Out and about in the blogosphere
RSS feeds, being part of a community

Here’s how to get it – cheap as ($10), 42 practical pages from Lulu.com (*)

*I have no vested interest in sales of the book – but have included the link in case you would like to know how you can get hold of a copy

I spent some time with Karen Vegar setting up her new site.  It took us 30mins to set up her blog Ultimate Vodka. This was the result, and it already had 56 views within half an hour.

Go to Posterous – the register page which gives you the button to sign up: http://posterous.com/main/register

• Chose a name for your new blog
• Put in your email address and password and sign up
  then go to your email and confirm your email address

Spend 10 minutes editing your profile — a couple of sentences about you and upload a photo (use the browse button to upload an image from your computer, not too big if you want it to load)

To post a blog:

• Go to your email
• compose an email
• send to post@posterous.com
• what you put in the subject line becomes your blog header
• the text in your email becomes the main text of your blog
• to add a picture to your blog post, simply attach it to your email
• press send

posterous will post for you and email you with the link to your new post.