Tweet or Retreat
“Passion always beats skill. Realize that it’s the passion in your subject matter that will engage,” Gary Vaynerchuk
My passion constantly finds me trying to educate physicians, RNs, allied professionals or hospital executives that a presence on the stage of medicine and social media stage would be in their, and their patients best interests. Seeing, and realizing the potential of twitter in healthcare and knowing social media would mainstream, I envisioned a global chat room of knowledgeable contributors, influencers, patients, and thoughts leaders— all interacting to improve the knowledge base of not only each other, but our world-wide followers as well. Sounds great, right?
Fast forward to the present day — as an interested observor I love to see that this has become a reality for many. The data @chimoose recently presented at the Mayo Clinic was impressive!
Sadly, it has also become painfully clear that many are now present on the social stage without knowing why or what they are doing there. After seeing droves of physicians and groups jump onboard and simply not get it… is it time for them to retreat?
Simply stated, the issue is in the driver behind the message and the context of that message. I use twitter quite actively as an inbound tool… and obviously as an outbound educational and interactive tool. My primary objective… education and curating knowledge. Meeting people far more intelligent than me… and soaking up and sharing what I have learned.
Why have I begun to believe that many physicians need to rethink their objectives of a presence on Twitter? This image says it all.
An inbound marketing tool pushing an outbound marketing tool … by a physician 
What is the purpose of a message like this? First and foremost it displays a complete lack of understanding of the social, communicative, collaborative, and networking nature of twitter and other social platforms. Worse… it shows that this physician is not interested in educating his patients or interested observors… he’s interested in operating on them. Next… the hashtag stating “spinesurgeryworks” — well … depending on your diagnosis, actually that is factually incorrect.
To those who argue that social media… or twitter in particular is a waste of time… I would only agree if the aforementioned case is your premise. Too many physicians and hospitals are being led down the rosy path of the promise of financial reward by marketers — Beware , many of them do not understand how “social” works any more than you do. If you are on twitter as part of an overall marketing initiative… stop… save your money and come back when your passion to help people becomes your primary driver. Centrifugal forces should guide those objectives…. not centripetal ones.
Is there a tangible ROI of a presence in social media as a physician or healthcare provider? Sure! Should your Social ROI be a more relevant measuring stick — yes.
Is it time to retreat? For many, yes. However, it should be temporary. You should define your persona and message, reach deep for that inner passion that got you to where you are today.. tap into it and let it be your guide as you execute a passion driven, carefully crafted presence on the medicine and social media stage.
Howard, THANK YOU!
You called a very important topic into focus – the use of social media as a marketing tool (alone) by providers. At the minimum messages like the image you use in this post prolong the idea of sick care. At worse, they are tools to generate penitentially unnecessary worry, tests, and procedures.
And, you call out the absence of the right things… things like information, two way communication, trust.
Kudos on a courageous post!
Thanks Nick… Not sure how courageous it is … but this touches on many of the issues which can arise in info curation via google, Twitter or wherever you choose to look. We have recently started to debate the credibility of medical tweets (whatever the definition of that is)… I believe it’s time to start that conversation. If “we” do not police ourselves, who will? Just so it is clear, when this post emerged I reached out and tried to assist. I tried to show them what I perceived to be an issue with their use of Twitter as a purely marketing platform. I also called into question the hashtag in question… but to no avail. They were all too proud of this and a few more banners they have planned
[...] The power of Twitter in medicine and social media is only recognized by a few. Your passion, your message and the context of the message matter most. [...]
[...] “the issue is in the driver behind the message and the context of that message” To Tweet or Retreat @PhysiciansPract: “panel speaker Shelley Guffey: “if you can’t handle change in this [...]
[...] The power of Twitter in medicine and social media is only recognized by a few. Your passion, your message and the context of the message matter most. [...]
Well said! Major league faux pas everywhere.
[...] See on http://www.howardluksmd.com [...]
[...] The power of Twitter in medicine and social media is only recognized by a few. Your passion, your message and the context of the message matter most. [...]