Unity Stoakes is the co-founder and president of OrganizedWisdom, an expert-driven digital media company focused on health and wellness. OrganizedWisdom is building the world’s first digital mapping of online health experts to help people easily discover and connect with credible health resources.
Is your doctor easily accessible online, or does he or she believe that the class='blippr-nobr'>Internetclass="blippr-nobr">Internet isn’t a resource for accessing health information?
If it’s the latter, it may be time to find another doctor. With nearly 90% of online Americans searching the Internet for health resources, it’s likely you and your friends and family already use the Internet to research health issues. It’s true that the web has a jumble of health information, and engaging online takes time, which most health experts don’t have. The good news, however, is that the increasing number of health professionals now embracing the Internet as an important and useful tool for health and wellness is beginning to change your options as a consumer.
Read on for some ways that social media can help doctors, health experts and everyday users.
Social Wellness Trends
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An exciting new social media trend is emerging that disrupts the standard view of health care delivery and will have a profound impact on us all. Thousands of doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, and health advocates are publicly engaging with people online. In fact, nearly 40% of Americans turn to social media for health information.
Patients (and a few early adopter health pros) moved online years ago to share health guidance, give support and find answers. But until recently, many health professionals have avoided using the Internet and social media as a way to help patients. This reluctance is changing, as savvy physicians, nurses, dentists and other health pros are realizing that if their patients are online, then perhaps they should be too. Health practitioners who were once too busy, inexperienced or afraid to share their expertise online, now actively share links on Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter and Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, blog, write for online medical journals, engage on Q&A sites, or contribute to online health sites and forums.
For too long, health and wellness has been a do-it-yourself proposition for patients online, and people have been left on their own to determine how to effectively utilize empty search boxes. People have great access to lots of information, but they must sort through the billions of articles to determine the credible from redundant health encyclopedias, marketing web sites or sites with potentially unknown sources. Then, the task of deciding the credibility of the sources and articles has fallen on the patient alone.
While the number of health experts interacting with patients online is relatively small, there is a clear trend taking shape. A recent Manhattan Research survey of U.S. physicians shows an increase of Internet usage for professional purposes up from 2.5 hours per week in 2002 to 8 hours per week in 2010. More strikingly, while more than 100,000 doctors are using closed social health networks like Sermo.com and publishing in peer-reviewed journals online, thousands of health professionals are now blogging, using Twitter, and connecting with patients on Facebook in very public ways. So much so that this November, for the first time, the American Medical Association released a set of guidelines to direct physicians communicating and engaging with patients via social media. And earlier this year, the CDC also published its own best practices toolkit for how health professionals should be using social media.
Given that so many people now go to the Internet before, during and after their visit to the doctor’s office, the lack of guidance from credible and trusted health experts online is a growing problem. In fact, Manhattan Research shows that 61% of people now use the Internet instead of visiting a doctor. Thankfully, the tide is turning as thousands of health practitioners move online to do much more than interact with friends, family and colleagues and are instead using the social web to dispense their particular health expertise.
What This Means for Health Information Seekers
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We are standing at the precipice of a new online revolution in health care. As more and more health experts embrace the Internet and increase their social media activity, health information seekers will undoubtedly benefit in profound ways. Based on conversations and surveys conducted with experts and health information seekers, here are some of the benefits associated with a robust online community of active health experts:
Interaction With Experts: In the real world, people seeking answers to important health, financial or legal matters look for guidance from the best experts. With a growing community of health experts participating in online discussions, people have access to more expertise than ever before at their fingertips.
Credibility and Trust: With doctors and other health professionals contributing information online in increasing numbers, it is important for a trust filter to separate credible information and sources from information that is not credible. The community of health professionals that is forming online will act as a system of checks and balances to separate good information and sources from the bad.
Transparency: It’s been a watershed year for increased transparency as government, big business, the financial services industry and other sectors have been shining a light into their operations like never before. Healthcare is taking a major step forward in this regard at the grassroots level, with an expert community being formed online by doctors, nurses and other health professionals across the country. As more doctors view social media as an extension of their professional reputation, you can be sure that they will treat their online interactions with the same care as they do in the offline world.
While the increase in the online activity of health experts is a welcome development, searching for crucial health information online remains an overwhelming and intimidating process for many. In the offline world, people searching for health information seek out the best experts — and now with more health professionals moving online, people will finally be able to connect with credible experts they can trust.
More Social Media Resources from Mashable:
- 4 Effective Tools for Monitoring Your Child’s Online Safety
/> - Social Media Parenting: Raising the Digital Generation
/> - 5 Fun and Safe Social Networks for Children
/> - HOW TO: Help Your Child Set Up a Blog
/> - The Case For Social Media in Schools
Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, dcdr
For more Social Media coverage:
- class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for Android, iPhone and iPad
Thanks God we are done with celebrating and can start working! Here’s one essential checklist for you to start:
1. Acknowledge Your Biggest Fans
Do you have fans that re-tweet your posts, email your articles to friends, and send new business your way? What have you done for them? Have you at least taken the time to thank them?
You should always monitor your brand, your website link and your own name (I use SocialMention). Every time someone says something nice about you, you should thank them. If you can do something else in return, by all means do.
2. Understand the Golden Rule of Blogging
Most blogs don’t appeal to the audience they’re writing for. The writing may be good, but the topics aren’t. Let’s say you sell furniture. Your blog shouldn’t be about your specials, the new employee you hired or about your vacation to Hawaii. Your blog should be about furniture.
Always ask yourself this question: who am I writing for? What kind of content do they want? It doesn’t matter if you don’t offer all the services you write about. For example, I own an Internet marketing agency and my audience is business owners. But, I don’t only write about online marketing; I write about topics that are of interest to business owners, such as lowering costs, motivating employees and off-line marketing.
Find out what your audience wants and give it to them.
3. Use Decoy Offers
Have you ever wondered why some stores sell an item for $100 and in the price tags says “Was $200″? It makes the current price look a lot better. Some people might think $100 is a lot of money for that item, but hey, it was $200, so you’re getting a great deal, right? Well, believe it or not, it works. This is because everything is either a great deal or an awful deal based on what you compare it with.
Psychologists call this “the principle of contrast.” How can you use this to your benefit? My favorite way is to present two or more offers. One will be your current offer and then you’ll add some decoy offers. The decoy offers will be really bad deals, but they’ll make your main offer look great. For example, you can sell one can of your product at $19 and three cans at $25 with free shipping and feature this last offer as the weekly special. Try it; it works like a charm and there’s nothing unethical about it. You’ll keep your main offer and all you’re doing is making it look better by adding some not-so-attractive offers.
4. Write Your Marketing Copy First and Develop Your Product Around It
I’ve found this tactic to be extremely effective. Instead of creating a product and then writing the marketing message, I like writing the copy first because by trying to sell it with words, I get a much better understanding of what the audience really wants and I can give them that product or service.
5. People Buy from People, Not Companies
Your customers might have known your company first, but they bought from you because they liked you or the salesperson they dealt with. This is especially true in B2B. The takeaway here is: do a good job explaining how your company can help your clients but do an even better job connecting with your prospects at a personal level.
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Helen Thomas Joins Falls Church <b>News</b>-Press | ARLnow.com
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In a stunning development in the Anna Nicole Smith drug trial, a judge in Los Angeles Thursday dropped all charges against Smith's former confidant and attorney Howard K. Stern. Judge Robert Terry told the court that there was no ...
Putting our Accessibility Heads Together - openSUSE <b>News</b>
Categories. Announcements Build Service Derivatives Distribution Education Event Calendar Events Infrastructure Marketing People of openSUSE Project Sneak Peeks Uncategorized Weekly News Wiki ...
Helen Thomas Joins Falls Church <b>News</b>-Press | ARLnow.com
Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas has come out of a seven-month retirement to write a column for the Falls Church News-Press. Thomas was a.
surface encounters macomb
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BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: Anna Nicole Bombshell -- All Charges Dropped <b>...</b>
In a stunning development in the Anna Nicole Smith drug trial, a judge in Los Angeles Thursday dropped all charges against Smith's former confidant and attorney Howard K. Stern. Judge Robert Terry told the court that there was no ...
Putting our Accessibility Heads Together - openSUSE <b>News</b>
Categories. Announcements Build Service Derivatives Distribution Education Event Calendar Events Infrastructure Marketing People of openSUSE Project Sneak Peeks Uncategorized Weekly News Wiki ...
Helen Thomas Joins Falls Church <b>News</b>-Press | ARLnow.com
Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas has come out of a seven-month retirement to write a column for the Falls Church News-Press. Thomas was a.
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BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: Anna Nicole Bombshell -- All Charges Dropped <b>...</b>
In a stunning development in the Anna Nicole Smith drug trial, a judge in Los Angeles Thursday dropped all charges against Smith's former confidant and attorney Howard K. Stern. Judge Robert Terry told the court that there was no ...
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Categories. Announcements Build Service Derivatives Distribution Education Event Calendar Events Infrastructure Marketing People of openSUSE Project Sneak Peeks Uncategorized Weekly News Wiki ...
Helen Thomas Joins Falls Church <b>News</b>-Press | ARLnow.com
Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas has come out of a seven-month retirement to write a column for the Falls Church News-Press. Thomas was a.
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BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: Anna Nicole Bombshell -- All Charges Dropped <b>...</b>
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Helen Thomas Joins Falls Church <b>News</b>-Press | ARLnow.com
Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas has come out of a seven-month retirement to write a column for the Falls Church News-Press. Thomas was a.
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surface encounters rock tops
BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: Anna Nicole Bombshell -- All Charges Dropped <b>...</b>
In a stunning development in the Anna Nicole Smith drug trial, a judge in Los Angeles Thursday dropped all charges against Smith's former confidant and attorney Howard K. Stern. Judge Robert Terry told the court that there was no ...
Putting our Accessibility Heads Together - openSUSE <b>News</b>
Categories. Announcements Build Service Derivatives Distribution Education Event Calendar Events Infrastructure Marketing People of openSUSE Project Sneak Peeks Uncategorized Weekly News Wiki ...
Helen Thomas Joins Falls Church <b>News</b>-Press | ARLnow.com
Former White House correspondent Helen Thomas has come out of a seven-month retirement to write a column for the Falls Church News-Press. Thomas was a.
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BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: Anna Nicole Bombshell -- All Charges Dropped <b>...</b>
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Putting our Accessibility Heads Together - openSUSE <b>News</b>
Categories. Announcements Build Service Derivatives Distribution Education Event Calendar Events Infrastructure Marketing People of openSUSE Project Sneak Peeks Uncategorized Weekly News Wiki ...
Helen Thomas Joins Falls Church <b>News</b>-Press | ARLnow.com
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surface encounters macomb mi
BREAKING <b>NEWS</b>: Anna Nicole Bombshell -- All Charges Dropped <b>...</b>
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Putting our Accessibility Heads Together - openSUSE <b>News</b>
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Helen Thomas Joins Falls Church <b>News</b>-Press | ARLnow.com
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