Tips on Maintaining Professionalism on Social Media

As there are now a lot of professionals turning to Social Media for furthering their careers, they need to establish ground rules else they may be damaging their careers.

To maintain a sense of professionalism in a place where almost everything goes, here are a few things to keep in mind.

You have boundaries. Knowing that you are now using your professional and personal spaces interchangeably, you still need to define your boundaries. It's important to be careful with what you say and you need to learn proper online etiquette.

All eyes are on you. Before sending out that tweet or pressing that "publish" button, know that everyone is watching. Everything is documented within the internet. Even if you decide to delete it, it still manages its way into hard drives. Make sure to look at your posts from different perspectives. What would your colleagues think if they saw your post? What about your boss? Potential Employer?

Imitate People You Respect. This goes for online and offline. It is important to maintain a respectable character online as it is offline. Imitating people that you respect is one way of earning your own. Aside from that, you also need to respect others online. Respect begets respect.

Tweet only when sober. Things might easily pour out after a few drinks. However, it's one thing that you don't want to be doing. It's the same as waking up in the morning with a huge hangover and a short memory lapse.

Dialog with your employer. Keeping tabs on one's self is one way of improving one's self. By dialoging with your employer, you also get the sense of what is acceptable behavior...for him that is.

Social media networks are places where a simple mistake can ruin a reputation. So make sure you keep on policing yourself.

Making the Most of your Facebook Fan pages

If you have been working online to promote your local business, chances are, you already have a Facebook page. Facebook has hundreds of millions of active users and it's the perfect venue for searching potential customers.

Once you've created your own Facebook fan page, what then? To help you with that, here's a list of tips to guide you with your Facebook pages.

Give them Free stuff!

I'm not talking about expensive stuff. You have to entice your potential customers to be a fan of your page. What better way than to offer something for free? Again, it doesn't have to be expensive. You have to convince them to liking your page in the first place.

Keep updating

A common mistake that people make is that when they set up their page, they expect it to take off by itself. It's like planting a seed and entrusting everything to nature to make it grow. Just like watering a seed, you need to keep updating your content. Give your readers a reason to come back to your page.

Establish a relationship

Remember that your fans are people as well. Create an environment where interaction will be easier between you and your potential customers or clients. Get to know them. Remember that you're in a social network so it's only logical for you to socialize.

Sneak Previews

Similar to giving away free stuff, give your visitors an incentive for being loyal readers. If you're planning on launching something big, give them a sneak peak to what you have going. This will encourage more loyalty from your fans.

Another way of making sure that you're getting the most out of your internet is by checking out your customers. Who knows, you might find some strategy that will be very useful to you.

Social Media Marketing: Facebook Part 1

Part 1: How to set up your new businesse Facebook account correctly.

Alex Panagiotopoulos of Freelance MD explains basic Facebook functions for physicians in cosmetic medicine in part 1 of a multi-part training videos.

The focus of this video is on buiding Facebook pages for cosmetic medical practices but these tips and techniques work equally well for any business.

Plastic surgeons, dermatologists, laser clinics, medical spas, skin clinics and laser centers will all benefit from learning about the newest social media marketing tactics and strategies. Facebook is growing and your cosmetic medical practice can benefit from it's growth.

Social Media Marketing: Facebook Part 2

Part 2: How to set up your new Facebook business account correctly.

Alex Panagiotopoulos of Freelance MD explains basic Facebook functions for businesses looking to leverage Facebook's avalance of traffic for local business.

Plastic surgeons, dermatologists, laser clinics, medical spas, skin clinics and laser centers are learning about the newest local search and social media marketing tactics and strategies.

Plastic Surgeons On Twitter

Via KevinMD:

This issue has come up before, most recently when the New England Journal of Medicine asked whether doctors should friend their patients on Facebook.

Pediatrician Bryan Vartabedian looks further at the issue, and sees it fraught with potential risk.

He points out that sharing privileged information requires written consent. But what if the patient initiates the conversation? Some attorneys say that can imply consent, but the laws in this area are not yet clear.

Also, every communication between doctor and patient needs to be documented. Dr. Vartabedian notes that “the documentation on most social platforms isn’t detailed enough for other medical professionals or auditors to follow what’s gone on between you and your caregiver [and] let’s not forget that Twitter has a habit of disappearing after a couple of weeks.”

And perhaps most concerning is the privacy issue. When someone shares personal medical information in a public forum, like Twitter or a Facebook page, it has to potential to get indexed by search engines, making it permanent on the web.

There’s tremendous potential for doctors to better use Twitter and Facebook to interact with patients. By guiding patients to reputable sources of medical information, for instance.

But social media isn’t mature enough for doctors to provide personal medical advice to patients. Yet.