Hi Lindsay,

I’m working with a group of financial planners and we have to get everything approved through their compliance department.  This is just an added step but not something that can’t be overcome.  

The first step I took was to look at their documentation on Social Media.  This gave me a clear outline on what we could and could not do.  

Here is a good example for you to look through. http://www.fragassoadvisors.com

Good luck,

Brian

@designedsocialm Thanks Brian. It seems like many of the financial advisors I speak with have written off the idea of social media without spending time looking into exactly what they can and cannot do. 

Thanks for the link, I will check it  out!

I’m so glad I joined this group this morning. You guys are the best.

Seize the day and make it extraordinary!!

@gregorybuford Agree with you entirely Greg, most dentists/physicians have not been exposed to social media in any meaningful way and most query the usefulness of blogs, tweeting etc. If it is possible to identify someone in the practice who buys into the social media marketing environment that could be a start. Helping them to understand how relationship marketing, which in itself is essential to their practice, taken to an online forum,is merely an extension of what they probably do each day.
Looking at how others have put this together, identifying good Facebook pages, and a great blog on a website which patients engage with, is a great idea.

@gregorybuford Thanks for sharing your experience! You’re right that many view it with skepticism. I think it is important to present relevant case studies that show how they can use it. 
Unfortunately, many businesses (not just physicians) use social media purely as a way to advertise their products and services. It isn’t the right way to create engagement and won’t provide any real results.

To the comment above, I strongly disagree with any medical society trying to limit what we can and cannot do on social media.  The problem is that many practitioners simply don’t know how to effectively use SM and so the “cure” is to provide education on how this can be an extremely effective resource for patient education and empowerment.  Instead, like many like governing bodies, they feel the need to limit everyone based upon a few, limited negative outcomes from a minority. 

I use Social Media as an extremely effective arm of my branding and marketing campaign.  But I am careful to not look like I am selling.  Instead, I am educating.  And that is a big difference.

@lindsayhunt

Timely question! I have done some consulting w/docs on SM, and currently work with a local hospital on their SM campaigns.

I just spoke to the Maine Bar Association on lawyers and SM.

In addition, I’m writing a quick start guide for Financial Advisors (FAs).

A friend of mine who’s an FA just dropped off his company’s SM policy. I literally LOL’d when I read it.

You can be on LinkedIn, but you can only use the firms email. You can request a connection. You can neither give nor receive recommendations. You can’t update your status. You can’t add anything to your bio THAT ISN’T ON YOUR BUSINESS CARD!!

The part that made me laugh out loud was that you could join groups, but you couldn’t participate in conversations. Can you imagine if they sent their FAs into networking events with the same instructions?!?

This is either going to be the shortest quick start guide ever or the toughest to write.

In all these industries, docs, lawyers and FAs need to check with their compliance departments first. There is a good reason for this. All we can hope for is that the compliance departments start looking at managing risk, rather than avoiding it entirely.

Right now I recommend these professions look to blogging and online videos to increase their online visibility and establish their credibility.

Good point to comment on! Doctors are part of our daily life and so is social media so why not integrate both? I agree @pollyb of doctors of old age having no time and exposure to social media. However, i have my uncle’s own charity hospital for which we have recently started FB campaign. We are eyeing to post health tips, medical news and resources on how to avoid diseases, how to quit smoking etc. to promote our page. As a hospital/doctor page on fb, you can always share content with fans regarding awareness of some of dangerous diseases like cancer, diabetics etc. And you can also share tips on how they can avoid it. Short of long, what you do at hospital by charging patients, you need to do on FB free of cost to build a successful FB campaign! 

@lindsayhunt @gregorybuford @hajohn1102 @rich-brooks @abigailgorton

Thanks everyone for all of these great ideas! I’ve been enjoying following along and reading this thread. 

There is a CPA and attorney named Sandy Botkin.

I don’t know if he practices as either. He worked for the IRS and he promotes

tax avoidance which is the duty of every citizen, to pay no more than it due.

Here is a link to one of his many sites ~ http://thetaxshark.com/botkin-bio.html

Seize the day and make it extraordinary!!

IRS Circular 230 Disclosure: As required by U.S. Treasury Regulations, you are hereby advised that any written tax advice contained in this communication was not written or intended to be used (and cannot be used) by any taxpayer for the purpose of avoiding penalties that may be imposed under the U.S. Internal Revenue Code.