For today’s post, I have an interview with Dr. Seth Kaplan. Dr. Kaplan posted what I thought was a great response on SOAPM regarding Facebook, so I asked him if he would answer a few questions regarding his Facebook presence and how he is using it to leverage his practice.
I know the answer to this already, but for the benefits of the readers of PediatricInc, tell me how you feel about your Facebook presence.
I absolutely love my facebook presence.
Why do you like it so much?
Unlike my website, which is relatively static and I don’t have an easy way of updating, Facebook can be updated with up to the minute breaking news if need be.
More importantly, it’s been an outstanding educational portal for my practice, allowing me to present information about topics that I just don’t have time to cover during well visits.
Plus, when patients ask about an issue that I don’t have information at my fingertips for them, I can use my Facebook page to get info out once I find it and have that information benefit hundreds of people instead of just that one patient.
Plus, my patients absolutely love getting all the info (although the number of “likes” and comments may be small and vary, patients are constantly bringing up things I’ve posted when they are in the office, mostly to thank me for bringing the information up.
My patients also tend to be big cheerleaders for my practice and for my “outside of the office” accomplishments.
Can you give me an example?
I just got my act together and wrote my first blog post (See http://www.meandmydoctor.com/2012/07/first-amendment-right-of-physicians-and.html). When I linked the post to my practice page, I got a ton of likes and support.
Where do you find material for your practice’s Facebook page?
Finding material for the page is easy, thanks to Dr. Stuppy, and the We are Pediatricians Facebook page. In addition, many of us have our practices linked to each other and beg, borrow and steal articles. A couple of Twitter feeds are also extremely useful for finding good information to post (Nemours, Parents Magazine, NPR health, my local childrens hospital.)
What would you say to people that that don’t want to put themselves out there online because they might get a negative comment from a patient?
Overall, I’ve found that the benefits of a Facebook presence far outweigh the occasional difficult statement/comment.
Why do you have a Facebook presence?
My patients/parents are there, and this has been an outstanding way to communicate with and teach them when they are not in the office.
Dr. Kaplan is a contributor to the Survivor Pediatrics Blog. You can check out his practice’s Facebook page by visiting this link
I'm a practice administrator at a Pediatric office located in the western suburbs of Chicago. I write mostly about running a small business that happens to be a medical practice.
PediatricInc 
Pediatricians are doctors that work exclusively with infants, children, and teenagers. These doctors handle everything from basic routine care. Childrens dentist
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