Is social media worth it for doctors?
Doctors, social media is here to stay, but is a social media presence beneficial to a doctor and his or her medical practice? Is the return on what is invested to gain traction for a social media account real and substantial? According to Dr. Vandna Jerath, Dr. Robert Zaid, Dr. Russell Faust, Dr. Natasha Burgert and Dr. Kurt Frederick, it is.
Here are the results these doctors experienced as a result of using social media:
- “As many as a third of my patients are coming from social media,” Jerath said.
(Source: 9News) Tweet This Quote - ”[Social media] has really allowed me to show patients transparency and build credibility and build a bond with them before they even step in the door,” Jerath said.
(Source: 9News) Tweet This Quote - “[Dr. Zaid] estimates that his “digital footprint” — his online presence — adds $125,000 to his annual practice revenue.”
(Source: Physicians Practice) Tweet This Quote - “The percent of new patients reporting that they “found” [Dr. Faust] online now varies between 30 percent and 50 percent.” (Source: Physicans Practice) Tweet This Quote
- “…My [social media] ROI runs into the thousands of percent return!” – Dr. Faust
(Source: Physicians Practice) Tweet This Quote - “Social media helps practices grow their patient volume at a reduced cost.”
(Source: Physicians Practice) Tweet This Quote - “As more practices “get engaged” it will become evident that there is tremendous ROI with social media in healthcare.”
(Source: Physicians Practice) Tweet This Quote - “Out of 40,000 active patients, 13,000 are signed up for the online practice. That’s jaw-dropping around the country.”
(Source: Statesman.com) Tweet This Quote - “I average 1 new patient family per week who came because of our social media presence (equals $140k added income per year)” – Dr. Burgert
(Source: KevinMD.com) Tweet This Quote - “Investing time in relevant and complete posts actually saves me time in the long run.” -Dr. Burgert
(Source: KevinMD.com) Tweet This Quote
More research still needs to be done to more specifically quantify the ROI a doctor and his or her medical practice can expect as a result of participating on social media sites. Nevertheless, these results serve as powerful anecdotal evidence that consistently sharing content and interacting with others on social media networks can be significantly beneficial in a variety of ways.
So, how many doctors are actually leveraging social media sites? As stated in our previous post (Social media for doctors: tools we prescribe for achieving efficiency), recent surveys have indicated that the majority of doctors are using sites like Facebook and Twitter professionally and personally. Healthcare IT News reported that, “Nearly 65 percent of doctors have used at least one social media site to support their professional practice” and QuantiaMD published that nearly 90 percent of doctors have used at least one social media site for personal purposes.
There are risks involved for doctors on social media sites, but the recent rapid rate of social media adoption by physicians seems to suggest that the benefits outweigh the risks, which the anecdotal evidence that we discovered seems to support.
Doctors who have used social media: What benefits/drawbacks have you experienced?
Doctors who have not used social media: Why have you not participated on social media sites?
Patients: Do you think doctors should be present on social media sites? Why?
Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
To the health of medical practices and their patients,
The CadenceMed Team
Sources & related articles
Studies show uptick in doc social media use
Nearly all U.S. doctors are now on social media
Social Media in Healthcare: Measuring Your ROI
Doctor: Social media can help create bond with patients
Doctor heads to social media to find patients
How social media has changed my medical practice
Physicians, Risk and Opportunity in the Digital Age
Dr. Vandna Jerath’s medical practice
Dr. Robert Zaid’s medical practice
Dr. Russell Faust’s medical practice
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
To be clear my quote referred to the number of our patients who have adopted our website as their preferred method of interacting with our office. Hard for us to calculate how much personel time that has saved us, but suspect is huge. How's that for ROI. Now to add click to chat functionality to the website- that would be cool! Kurt Frederick
Thank you for clarifying Dr. Frederick. Yes, there are so many avenues that doctors can take these days to make their practice more efficient and enhance patient satisfaction. It\’s good to hear you are among those doctors who are on board.
Evidence is there. Doctors using social media successfully are there. There is a direct correlation between doctors who are not active online and whose practices are going under.
Please note the following errors in your post. Dr. Faust’s first name is Russell, not Richard. Thanks.
Thank you Christina. We've made the revision. We apologize for that error.