Social media: Commit yourself to video

Q. How can I use YouTube to educate and grow?

A. When most providers think of harnessing the power of social media, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn should come to the forefront. However, have you considered how YouTube can help to educate your patients and staff, as well as aid in your growth?

You don't have to be a professional to create a great video. I encourage you to spend some time looking at videos in our industry to get ideas. Here are some ideas:

• Employee of the month. Interview the employee. Emphasize your appreciation, what they add to the company and how they stood out.

• Customer testimonials. Nothing says it better than a satisfied patient. Make it easy for your patients and have a short list of questions that do not sound rehearsed.

• Training. YouTube is an exceptional tool for both internal and external training. New employee orientation? Check! Updating patients on the status of competitive bidding? Check! Helping promote CPAP compliance? Check!

• Promotions. There is nothing like making a quick video weekly and distributing it through all of your social media channels to connect with a patient eye-to-eye and describe what is going on this week at your organization.

• Local events. Many providers are active in their community. If you are participating in a cook-off, benefit walk/run, etc. get a quick video together!

Keep the videos short—under 90 seconds to keep the attention of the viewer. Also, look for related videos from manufacturers and see what you can learn from their titles, descriptions and tags. This helps to allow greater distribution.

Dave Bargmann is a social media consultant with Duckridge Advisors. He can be reached at dbargmann@live.com.