Google +: A Refreshing Chapter In Social Media

While hesitant to try yet another Social Media platform, I have left thousands of Facebook fans behind for Google + (and so should you...)!

I know, I know, another social media platform is about all you need to read about these days. From Facebook to Twitter to Pinterest to Instagram to Foursquare, it always seems as if there is another "latest" and "greatest" social media platform to pay attention to. But, trust me when I say this, I think Google + is THE one to pay attention to. And here are some reasons why:

1) Google is the largest search engine on the planet: from a networking aspect, using Google + only helps your efforts. Google is putting a lot of time and energy into building Google + into the very best social media platform. As such, they are giving a lot of weight to Google + from an SEO perspective. If you are looking to help your brand (whatever that is) than jump on board to Google +.

2) Facebook is CLOSED, while Google + is OPEN: Yes, you can certainly have many different Facebook accounts and manage all of those pages, but why not choose Google + and have just one account. Google + allows you to post information and messages to certain circles or even make anything you want public.

3) Google + Circles make managing ALL of your friends, family, colleagues and associates super easy: just choose one circle or multiple circles for anyone, the choice is yours. By utilizing the Circles approach, managing any and all of your “audience” becomes super easy and intuitive.

4) Follow people, like Twitter, but have more options for connecting: Twitter is fine to catch quick tidbits here and there, but with the restricted 140 character limit, you certainly are limited in how you connect. Why not choose Google + and follow just like you do on Twitter but also have as much room and space to post, reply and share!

5) Google + is very visual: much of the information shared on Google + are photos and videos and this makes sense given how well we communicate with YouTube and even Pinterest. We all get the sense that the future of online interactions is through videos and Google + makes sharing videos back and forth a cinch.

6) Google Hangouts are great for quick (or long) video chats: want to have a weekly discussion group with your patients or host a cooking class, utilize Google + Hangouts and you will see how easy it is to connect with whoever you want to by video.

7) You are likely using something on Google, so.....: most of us have Gmail accounts, search the internet through Google, use YouTube or some other Google app on a daily basis. By having a Google + account, you can easily and seamlessly share information, message and broadcast anything on the internet in the simplest of ways. Google + is intuitive and to me feels so much better than Facebook or Twitter ever did.

There are plenty of other reasons to start a Google + account. From what I can gather by who is active on Google + right now, this is the social media platform of the future.

A personal request: I am trying to form a physician’s Google + Circle--one where we can share back and forth and communicate with each other on this platform. I would love it if you Followed me and let me know that you are interested in joining. I am hoping to use Google + to host physician Hangouts where we can get to know each other better.

If interested, check out my Google + page: https://plus.google.com/u/0/105805860750647129686/about/p/pub

I would love to hear your feedback and comments about how you are utilizing social media and what you think about Google +!

What is your favorite social media platform and why?

What challenges do you face utilizing the plethora of Social Media Platforms?

Pam Wible's Using Youtube To Promote Ideal Medical Care

Dr. Pam Wible's casting a long shadow by using Youtube to get her message out about community design and involvement with healthcare's many issues.

Here are some of Pams videos.

Click to read more ...

How To Manage - Or Save - Your Online Reputation

Controling your professional reputation as a physician.

Dr. Julie Silver recently posted about my colleague, Rusty Shelton’s comment, “Your reputation is what Google says it is.”  She asked me to provide some guidelines for managing your online reputation. The first thing you need to do is research: What is that reputation now? Rusty calls that part of your “Online Brand Audit.”

What comes up on the first page when you Google Your Name or Business? You want it to be:

1. Positive

2. An accurate representation of your brand, including the image and attributes you want people to associate with you and your business.

3. Likely to resonate with your target audience(s)

Rusty suggests you put yourself in the shoes—or mind—of a New York Times reporter or TV talk show producer. I might add a conference organizer. When they’re looking for a trusted source or a speaker and find you on Google, what will they see first? How about if they Google your name?

• Will they see videos?
• How do these represent you?

If the first video they see if a six year old interview when you were first getting your feet wet, you might want to find a way to get other videos to show up sooner than this one.

So, how do you manage your reputation online and shift what people see?

1. Respond graciously to a poor review, indicating that you strive for patient/customer satisfaction, you’re so sorry they had a bad experience and you’d like to make it up to them by x. Of course, if there are any legal implications, check with your attorney first.

2. Ask happy patients, clients and customers to write positive reviews. They can review your business or practice at sites like RateMDs, Yelp and Yahoo! Local, Healthgrades, Angie’s List and Vitals. Never have anyone write a “fake” review. There are legal implications in addition to the moral one.

3. Blog: The more you blog, the more you create content on your website, so that your own website and blog posts tend to come up on the first page.

4. Add videos on your blog and website and use appropriate keywords to help these videos place in search engines.

5. Blog for high profile sites: If you blog for Psychology Today, WebMD or the Huffington Post, you’re likely to have those posts come up high in search engine results—a nice credibility bump for you and it gives you control of what people see.

6. Be sure to claim your listings on search sites such as Google Local, Yahoo local, etc.

7. Note any Facebook photos of you posted by friends and relatives. You should be able to at least “untag” yourself in photos. You may also want to request them to be taken down.

8. Put your best videos on YouTube and tag them with keywords. YouTube videos tend to rank high.

9. If you find something that doesn’t represent your brand or image, see if the person is willing to take it down, replace it or fix it. It may not be as heinous as a bad review, but it could be something that no longer represents you.

Searching online for the phone number of a very reputable and conscientious literary agent I know, I was shocked to see her name come up next to some un-complimentary remarks in a Google listing of a website that rates agents and editors and “outs” the bad guys.

When I clicked on the actual page, it looked fine—so it just “appeared” she had a bad reputation because of the way the website’s listing came up (some issue with title tags, I assume). I immediately e-mailed her to let her know about the issue. She did know and was working with the website owner to fix that misleading information.

So, if you see something bad, don’t panic. Even if you can’t get it taken down, you can work on these other strategies to drive it to a lower ranked page. Take control of your online reputation today.

Here are some additional resources on the subject:

New York Times Article   Mashable Post

Here's a free webinar for physicians on protecting your reputation