And, as this infographic from ASPS suggests, many are turning to plastic surgery to give them what genetics and hours at the gym haven’t. When you consider that the number of arm lifts performed grew 4,378% between 2000 and 2012, it’s clear that brachioplasty is booming.

Of course, images of well-toned celebrities are no substitute for accurate information which is why aesthetic consumers turn to the Internet when they’re considering the procedure. Among the recent questions they’ve asked doctors on RealSelf:

• What is the cost of an arm lift?
• What can I expect in terms of downtime/recovery?
• Incision location: back or inside of arm?
• Is a minimally invasive brachioplasty right for me?

Needless to say, many patients pursue arm lifts as a follow-up procedure after massive weight loss. For them, a brachioplasty is often the culmination of a longer, emotion-laden journey. Having made it through, it’s hardly surprising that more than 8 out of 10 (83%) RealSelf users who have had the procedure say it was worth it.

For others, though, the procedure is less an ending than a beginning. Consider RealSelf user mythreeboys, for example, who had an arm lift just over a month ago and posted the following review of her doctor:

I found him online by searching for PS who work on excessive weight loss patients. So glad I went there! They are very nice and he really wants his patients to have a great outcome. I did interview one other PS but that interview was a hot mess – would have never gone there for any kind of procedure – total waste of time. I will be having Dr. Gelman do my other procedures – TT, BL with Aug, and possible thigh lipo and lift.

For doctors, the takeaway is simple: Farewell, saggy arms; hello, repeat business.

As this infographic from NetBase.com suggests, such “social listening” is especially tricky, in large part, because consumers aren’t sure how they feel about it. They want brands to listen to what they’re saying in social media, except when they don’t, and they want to be serviced without feeling that they’re being spied on:

While there are clearly contradictory trends going on here, the data underscore what we see on a daily basis at RealSelf. Aesthetic consumers want doctors to be accessible but they don’t want them interjecting themselves in conversations uninvited. They want to talk among themselves, sharing their concerns, decision journeys and post-procedure reviews, but they also want doctors to weigh in at appropriate points along the way:

The best way for doctors to connect with these consumers is to participate when they are asked to participate, says Jen Longtin, RealSelf’s director of doctor marketing. We see this most often through Q&As but also through the millions of views of before and after photos provided by RealSelf doctor members. If doctors jump in without an invitation, it appears invasive — like having your mother jump in on a call with your boyfriend.

Ultimately, it comes back to the concept of patient-centric marketing, letting consumers drive the conversation, keeping their needs top of mind and fostering the relationships that follow.

As Lisa Joy Rosner, NetBase’s chief marketing officer, says,

It’s really important that marketers consider these findings when developing social media strategies. The companies that take the time to understand what customers are saying, and engage in a way that considers context and builds relationships, are the ones that will benefit from social listening and engagement.

Doctor Takeaway

Don’t just listen, understand

Unless you’re telepathic, social listening represents the best path toward understanding the needs and concerns of aesthetic consumers. Always consider the context — are they seeking support from other like-minded people or specific insights from an expert? — and if you decide to respond, do so in a non-promotional way that sets the stage for building a relationship rather than making a sale.

]]> http://www.medibeauty.biz/infographic-friday-listen-up-doc-but-dont-be-intrusive/feed/ 0 http://www.medibeauty.biz/more-than-scores-reviews-trump-ratings-for-patients-and-doctors/ http://www.medibeauty.biz/more-than-scores-reviews-trump-ratings-for-patients-and-doctors/#comments Wed, 08 May 2013 16:12:30 +0000 Rob Lovitt http://www.medibeauty.biz/?p=1402

If you’re looking to score well with aesthetic consumers, the folks at PwC’s Health Research Institute (HRI) have a little advice: Stop!

As the Institute notes in a new report, “Scoring Healthcare: Navigating customer experience ratings,” doctors who focus on stars, letter grades and other one-dimensional ratings miss an excellent opportunity to connect with patients, provide better outcomes and build their practices:

Scores are just a starting point on a journey toward higher-quality encounters and better health outcomes. Healthcare companies must look for new opportunities to connect the consumer experience in all aspects of the health journey.

In fact, it’s that “health journey” that separates simple rating systems from the reviews that aesthetic consumers post on sites like RealSelf, where community members often begin chronicling their experiences long before they even choose a provider. Given the “roaring conversation” those stories foster, it’s obvious that other readers put a lot of faith in them.

The PwC report says much the same. According to the report, 48% of survey respondents said they read online reviews, but once they do, 68% of them said that they used the reviews to choose a provider. That, in turn, suggests that doctors who have a better awareness and understanding of reviews reap the benefits that come from increased exposure and the resulting word of mouth.

The report goes on to say that most consumers are looking for reviews from “people like me.” Faced with multiple outlets for online ratings and reviews, they want to know how like-minded consumers made their decisions and chose their providers. On the one hand, that’s hard to discern from simple rating systems; on the other, it’s exactly why RealSelf users can sort reviews by a variety of parameters, including age, weight, gender, etc.

Put it all together and it’s obvious that online health reviews will play a growing role in patient-doctor interactions and that both parties stand to benefit from the trend. As Kelly Barnes, PwC’s U.S. health industries leader, puts it:

Healthcare organizations are increasingly operating in a world in which the voice of the consumer impacts the bottom line, and where customer experience is now a matter of dollars and cents. As consumerism in healthcare gains steam, customer feedback has become a determining factor in the success of health organizations.

Simply put, reviews help consumers determine quality of care, which in turn, can help doctors improve financial performance, market share and reputation.

Facebook’s latest update is further proof that good content is what gets users’ attention.

If you’ve ever found yourself frustrated by Facebook, you’re not alone. Between disappearing posts, questionable conversion rates and a steady stream of platform changes, it’s not surprising that many doctors find the site a mixed blessing at best.

Case in point: The site’s latest update which entails giving users far more flexibility in determining what they see in their News Feeds. Currently being rolled out in stages, the new look is designed to promote more visual storytelling, reduce clutter and provide a more consistent experience across all platforms and devices.

That’s a good thing. But it also means that users can now segment their feeds — by friends, photos, brands they follow, etc. — so they see only the updates they want to see. It also means it’s more important than ever that everything you post is timely, informative and relevant so that it doesn’t get relegated to a “sub-feed” that’s never seen.

Simply put, the right content directed to the right audience is what engages people and what engages people is what gets you increased exposure. And while Facebook’s latest update is clearly designed to capitalize on that, it’s a concept that extends far beyond the confines of site.

In fact, it’s exactly why we encourage doctors to participate in the Q&As on RealSelf. For one thing, doctors who do are providing highly relevant content to a very targeted audience. For another, the more questions they answer, the more engagement they tend to get.

It’s also why it’s so important to maintain a content-rich doctor profile. After all, when a potential patient reads your answer to a question and then clicks on your profile, you want to make sure they find additional content that underscores both your experience and your interest in helping them make an informed decision. Among the things to consider:

• Is there additional content to engage with, such as answers to other questions?
• Are there Before & After photos that they can click through to get a sense of your work?
• Are there reviews to read so they can hear what other patients have to say about their experiences with your practice?

More content, more relevant content, more targeted content — they’re all elements that boost consumer engagement and together they’re the answer to the most important question of all:

Will an aesthetic consumer who clicks on your profile have something to engage with or will she (or he) be left to find another doctor with more content on their profile?

Doctor Takeaway

Providing the right content to the right audience is the key to social success

Whether posting to Facebook or answering questions on RealSelf, you have to commit to being present, helpful and patient-focused. The more effort you put into it, the more you’ll likely be seen; the more you’re seen, better your chances of engaging aesthetic consumers, and the more you engage those consumers, the more likely you’ll turn them into new clients.

Photo Courtesy of Sam Naficy, MD

One stat I shared with plastic surgeons at the ASAPS 2013 meeting in New York City got more attention than all others (and I gave out a bunch of new one’s).

Consumers searching for a doctor on RealSelf rely more on photos than patient reviews. Nearly 7 in 10 of our audience members surveyed indicated that they rely upon photos to choose their doctors, where 4 in 10 rely upon patient reviews and stories.

Watch my quick marketing tip video to get additional background and why you have 7 million reasons to add more photos to RealSelf.

Click here to view the embedded video.

RealSelf”s new RealSelf 100 list honors doctors who are using social media to help aesthetic consumers (and themselves).

There’s no escaping the fact that social media has given aesthetic consumers greater control over their medibeauty decisions but that doesn’t mean doctors can’t play a major role in the process.

In fact, smart doctors recognize that social media enables them to play a larger role than ever by facilitating engagement with consumers in the earliest stages of their purchase journeys. They are what experts refer to as social media influencers and they deserve to be acknowledged for their efforts in helping those consumers gain the confidence they need to make informed aesthetic decisions.

To acknowledge that effort, RealSelf has announced the RealSelf 100, a roster of aesthetic professionals who are successfully using the power of social media to connect and share their insights with consumers. By devoting thousands of hours on RealSelf — by participating in Doctor Q&As, for example — these socially-engaged medical experts support millions of people through important and emotional beauty decisions related to their face, body and smile.

Doctors are incredibly busy and deserve recognition for volunteering significant time helping people get answers to their important questions about cosmetic treatments and personal appearance concerns or goals, says Tom Seery, CEO of RealSelf. The RealSelf 100 represents doctors who harness the power of social media and our community in order to make a positive difference. We see this award as a way for our 3.5 million monthly visitors to express a collective ‘thank you’ for their dedication and support.

As it turns out, those consumers aren’t the only ones who benefit from the dedication and commitment these doctors display. By devoting more time to answering consumers’ questions, RealSelf 100 doctors receive more than 10 times the website visits than the average doctor. In fact, despite representing just 2% of participating doctors, these professionals received 3 out of every 10 clicks to doctor websites last year.

In other words, becoming a social media influencer can have a major influence on your bottom line.

To see the full RealSelf 100 list, visit http://bit.ly/RealSelf100.

Doctor Takeaway

Social media — it’s not just for consumers anymore

Social media is often portrayed as a revolution in that for the first time consumers, not marketers, control how, when and where they want to engage with the brands those marketers are promoting. That can be a challenging concept for tradition-bound providers but it has a major upside as well: Doctors who engage in social media interact with potential patients while those patients are still making up their minds. The result? Greater influence as these doctors establish their expertise and build trust when it matters most.

In social media, choosing the right channel for your message is essential for successful marketing (photo by espensorvik via flickr).

When it comes to social media, all platforms are not created equal. And when it comes to marketing cosmetic surgery and other aesthetic procedures via social media, choosing the wrong one can result in a lot of wasted time, misspent marketing dollars and minimal return on your investment.

Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest — they all boast millions of users yet there’s a good chance they’re not delivering much bang for your social media buck.

The temptation is to view social media along narrow sets of tactics, such as signing up for a Facebook or Twitter account, says Tom Seery, CEO of RealSelf.com. But just because you’re speaking on a social platform doesn’t mean people are listening or engaging.

In a way, such channels are like embassies. By registering your profile, you have a presence but someone else controls the environment. In that light, it’s worth understanding what the major “nations” on social media world are like:

Facebook: With more than 1 billion users, Facebook is simply too big to ignore but it shouldn’t dominate your social media efforts. It’s best used to glean insights into what people care about, to share news and to grow your email list but it’s unlikely to drive much traffic to your website. Maintain a toehold on the site but don’t move in.

Twitter: The sheer torrent of tweets sent (as many as 500 million per day) and limited space (140 characters per message) makes it hard to be heard and impossible to get in-depth information across. Claim your profile so spammers don’t but don’t expect to generate many leads from the channel.

Pinterest: Insanely popular, especially with women, the photo-heavy site is fun for users but potentially risky for doctors because any photos you “pin” can be repinned elsewhere raising liability issues. Furthermore, with 7 out of 10 users making less than $75,000 a year, many are unlikely to get serious about pursuing potentially expensive procedures.

RealSelf: With 3.5 million unique visitors a month, RealSelf is a fraction of the size of the major social networks but it delivers something the larger, general-purpose social networks can’t: An audience that is, by definition, keenly interested in cosmetic surgery and seeking the kind of content that will help them make informed decisions.

As Seery says,

Finding the right social media channel is a function of audience size, your own comfort with accessibility and how consumers prefer to get informed about plastic surgery. When they pass along that information, it ends up generating greater impact than any other form of marketing.

Doctor Takeaways

1. Choose your channels carefully

There’s no denying that millions of potential patients and plenty of other doctors are on Facebook and Twitter but “Everybody’s doing it” is no rationale to spend a big portion of your time or marketing budget on the sites as their conversion rates are poor. Claim your profiles, feed updates to them as appropriate and focus your energies where they’ll produce results.

2. Understand the importance of intent

Your best prospects are people who are already researching aesthetic procedures. They are, in marketing speak, high-intent consumers and it’s important to connect with them before they choose a provider. The folks at Google refer to this stage as the “Zero Moment of Truth” and doctors who wait until consumers are ready to pick up the phone or fill out a form run the risk of being too late.

3. Don’t make decisions based on vanity metrics

Socially savvy doctors are wising up to the reality that the traditional tools of social measurement, such as friends, followers and fan counts, do not measure the value of your audience. Such numbers are easily manipulated — you can buy 1,000 Twitter followers for as little as $10 — but the resulting bump will do more for your ego than it will for your bottom line.

4. Ask about your analytics

Part and parcel of the above, it’s not hard to determine which social networks deliver the most engaged consumers. (They’re the ones who reply to your posts, retweet your Twitter insights, share the content you provide, etc.) Your webmaster or marketing agency should be able to provide you with detailed reports about all of the above; if they don’t or won’t, it may be time to consider choosing another.

Encouraging patients to share their entire aesthetic journey with others provides more value for doctors than traditional post-procedure reviews. (Photo by Brian Smithson via flickr.)

At RealSelf, we often hear from doctors who say they have a hard time convincing patients to post reviews after their procedures. Frankly, we’re not surprised; after all, having completed their aesthetic journey, what incentive is there for a patient to take the time to write a post-procedure report?

Compare that to the non-stop stream of commentary that characterizes the Worth It Ratings section on RealSelf. People start talking about their procedures weeks and months before they actually have them; share their thoughts, fears and concerns throughout their journeys, and then pass on their impressions of their care after the fact.

There are thousands of people who are talking about providers and procedures right now, says Maureen Ezekwugo, EVP Doctor Community. One person starts posting about their situation and others make their decisions based on what they read.

For doctors, those conversations are like word of mouth on steroids. Encouraging potential patients to share their experiences from the beginning gets them speaking on your behalf and gets your name in front of others who are still weighing their options. Simply put, when 42% of patients say they receive most of their information about plastic surgery from social media, you can’t afford not to have a presence there.

None of which is to dismiss the value of post-procedure reviews. The problem is that the usual one-line reviews — “My doctor was great” or “I love my results” — don’t give potential patients the insights they need to make what may be among the biggest decisions of their lives.

Consumers have come to recognize that there are quality differences between providers and stars don’t tell the whole story, says Ezekwugo. If everybody gets 4 or 5 stars, how do they know they’re making the right decision? Increasingly, they look for transparency and authenticity.

And that’s exactly what patient stories provide. In that light, soliciting post-procedure reviews should be where your efforts to encourage conversations end, not where they begin.

Doctor Takeaways

1. Recognize that the conversation is ongoing whether you participate or not

Wishing doctor reviews would just go away is a waste of time. Today’s consumers read online reviews for virtually everything they purchase and doctors need to recognize the importance of those reviews or risk becoming invisible to the masses of prospective patients who read them.

2. Get the conversation going early in the process

It may sound odd to ask a prospective patient to “review” you before they’ve had a procedure but the fact is they’re already doing so when they post updates praising the time a doctor took during a consult or punishing another for not responding to an inquiry. Encouraging them to chronicle their entire journey makes for more informed, more confident patients and better outcomes for all concerned.

3. Get out of the star-rating trap

Asking patients to rate your services implies that it’s “all about you,” which is one reason patients have little incentive to write post-procedure reviews. It isn’t; it’s about them and how they felt about their experience. It’s also about giving back and helping others make good decisions, natural impulses that doctors can encourage with online forms and widgets that facilitate sharing.

4. Get help if you need it

While more doctors now recognize the importance of online reviews, some are justifiably frustrated by the challenge of getting patients to follow through. If that’s a concern, consider using one of the many companies that offer to handle the details of conducting satisfaction surveys, soliciting reviews and spreading them around the web.

Doctors who share their expertise engage attract engaged consumers (photo by krossbow via flickr)

As the owner of a small business, you’ve probably heard of the 4 Ps of marketing: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. It’s a time-honored concept that works well when you’re selling widgets or washing machines but it falls short when your “product” entails a medical service, an emotional decision and the growing influence of social media.

At RealSelf, we believe that the 4 Ps just don’t cut it anymore, which is why we’re launching a new initiative designed to help doctors navigate the ever-evolving world of digital marketing. In this and other posts, we’ll look, not at the 4 Ps but what we’re calling the 5 Cs of Social Healthcare — Content, Conversations, Channels, Code of Conduct and Commitment — and how they can help you engage with aesthetic consumers, gain their trust and grow your practice in these digitally driven times.

Create Content for Patients, not Search Engines

If you build it, will they come?

To hear the mavens of search engine marketing (SEM) tell it, all you have to do to generate new business is have a website, fill it with pages of blog posts and spend a good chunk of your marketing budget buying keywords and banner ads.

If only. The truth is that the cost of SEM can add up much faster than the leads and business it generates. Furthermore, SEM is no way to build a loyal following because, as Sookie Shuen of Tomorrow People writes, SEM standbys like pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns tend to be short-term fixes that are better at attracting window shoppers than potential buyers:

PPC is purely about grabbing the potential customer’s attention without actually developing a lasting relationship with them. It focuses on the attraction stage and neglects to actually nurture and convert the buyer.

So, what’s a doctor to do? Stop throwing money at SEM vendors and start developing the kind of campaign that actually builds brand awareness and long-term value for consumers — and your practice. It’s called content marketing and it’s all about providing the kind of information that gets people’s attention and keeps them coming back.

The problem is that too many doctors interpret that to mean posting self-reverential updates about their practice and in-depth descriptions of specific procedures at the expense of sharing stories that potential patients can actually relate to.

The answer, says Tom Seery of RealSelf, is to provide or enable a steady stream of high quality content (including patient stories and reviews) that helps people get informed and feel empowered to make a decision.

If you build that, they will come.

Doctor Takeaways

1. Skip the self-promotion

Ultimately, you build influence by sharing your expertise, not by touting your name. A page on your website noting your board certifications and accreditations is fine but in your online interactions with aesthetic consumers, keep the focus on their interests and concerns, not how many procedures you’ve performed.

2. Boot the back pages

Generating page after page of generic content about this or that procedure doesn’t do anybody any good. People don’t seek them out; search engines don’t highlight them, and the ROI of producing them is negligible. Focus instead on fewer pages with more personal insights that demonstrate your empathy, expertise and thought leadership.

3. Engage in Q&As

Good content isn’t limited to your practice website. In fact, with more people spending more time on social media, sites like RealSelf offer an unsurpassed way to engage with consumers who are serious about pursuing cosmetic surgery. Engage with them by answering their questions and you establish influence while they’re still trying to decide on a course of action rather than after the fact. This also sets you up well for future consumers as you create the kind of content they’ll likely be searching for.

4. Encourage reviews

The most powerful content of all, says Seery, consists of first-person stories, which is why it’s so important to encourage patients to chronicle their experiences both before and after their procedures. As the steady stream of reviews under RealSelf’s Worth It Ratings shows, potential patients love to read those stories and rely on them as they make their own purchase journeys. In fact, consumers visit patient stories on RealSelf more often than any other pages except Before & After photos — and reviews remain the top reason consumers choose a doctor for a consultation.

5. Keep at it

Unlike PPC, which is best suited for short, targeted campaigns, content marketing requires a consistent, ongoing effort. And while it can be time-consuming, doctors who commit to it — our fifth C, by the way, and the subject of a subsequent post — stand to reap consistent, ongoing benefits.

If you ever needed proof that marketing your practice via the major social networks isn’t worth the time you spend (or the agency fees you pay), this infographic from JumpThru puts the issue in sharp focus. The fact is that even though women dominate Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, they don’t necessarily trust the sites when they’re seeking advice, researching products and services or making purchasing decisions.

Considering that women also account for roughly 90% of all aesthetic procedures that means you can turn off a lot of potential patients by pushing the wrong message at the wrong time in the wrong place.

 So, where should you market your practice? As the folks at JumpThru note, blogs engender more trust and drive more action than any of the three big social networks. It may be a blog on your practice website, contributions you make to other blogs or even answers you provide to questions in online communities.

In fact, many forward-thinking marketers are recognizing that specialized online communities offer a better ROI than Facebook, etc., because the users in them are, by definition, deeply interested in the issue at hand. They’re not looking for fun or entertainment; they’re looking for information they can use to be confident that they’re making the decisions that are right for them.

“Know your audience and where they like to get information,” says social media strategist Peter Shankman. Once you do that, you can save the time and effort you’ve wasted on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest and put it to better use finding the outlet that delivers your message to your target audience.