Social Media Professional: Winning Social Media for Practice Success

Have you ever played the telephone game? One person whispers a message to an adjacent person in a group. The communiqué is passed along until the last player reveals the message to everyone. Inevitably, and this has apparently been studied by academic types, the final version of the message varies significantly, sometimes almost unrecognizably, from the start. “Mary is wearing a green dress to the dance with Bill.” morphs into “Mary wore a green dress while dancing with Phil.” I fear veterinarians have literally been playing the telephone game with our clients. We’ve been relying on outdated and outmoded telephone conversations, faxes, and mail while the rest of the world whisks away at the speed of electrons. We pass information slowly by word-of-mouth, often creating confused conversations and mixed messages while politicians move millions with 140 characters and Millennials modify their life by memes. It’s time veterinarians get serious about winning social media for practice success. It’s time to hang up the phone and tap that app ...