Using Social Media to Promote Your Medical Practice

Using Pinterest to promote your practice may sound counterintuitive, but practice-management consultant Audrey "Christie" McLaughlin says it has value for some practices. Practices need to reach their target population where they are most active online, says McLaughlin, and for younger women, Pinterest is very popular. Interested practices should set up a business Pinterest board, and start pinning health-related physical activities, for example. McLaughlin says don't forget this is about having fun! Your pins could be about seasonal allergies, 10K fun-runs, breast cancer fundraisers, you name it. Outside sources are good to pin too: think WebMD, the Diabetes Foundation, or the CDC.

To promote flu shots, one of the practices that McLaughlin advises pinned a picture of a bouquet of dum-dum suckers, with a syringe stuck inside. The caption said: "Even Dum-Dums Get the Flu Shot." The picture was shared over 1,500 times on Pinterest, and garnered 25 local "likes" and 100 new e-newsletter sign-ups. "I mean it's just little gems like that, whether you are on Pinterest, Facebook, or Twitter, that cause people to notice what you are doing with your page," says McLaughlin.