Get social during a winter storm–Part 1

[This is the first post of a multi-post series on using Twitter and Facebook in your practice.]

6:30am – Fall out of bed, rouse kids, get everyone's clothes ready, pack lunches. 

7:00 - Open the front door to get newspaper, greeted with a stinging wind and face full of snow.  “Oh, boy, are the school buses running, will school start on-time, will work be open?  Traffic will be crazy this morning, and I’ll probably have to do the work of that new guy from Florida because there is no way he’ll be able get out of his driveway without hurting someone.”

7:15 – “Hmm, is the doctor open?  They never answer the phone before 7:45, I’ll call later.” 

7:50 – You call doctor while the car is warming up, but get a busy signal.   

8:05 – You're late for work because you’re stuck in traffic.   You notice on your cell phone that the doctor’s office called when you were avoiding the dope that got stuck in the left lane.  “Really?  You call me while I’m driving in this crazy traffic?”

And so the phone tag begins.

When bad weather strikes, call volume to the office goes up.  Even if you stay open, patients check in to see if you’re open, if you’ll be closing early, and when you’ll be closing.  Or maybe they thought you’d be closed, so they are calling to reschedule.  Whatever the reason for the call, it’s a stress for everyone.

Have you considered using Twitter and Facebook to let your patients know if you’re open or closed during a weather event?  I’ll present ideas on using these social media in ways patients and staff will appreciate. 

I’ll start by explaining how you could use Twitter and Facebook, explain how it is different from email and phone calls, and finally how it can augment standard phone calls and email notifications.

Setting the stage

Prior to any weather events, you’ll want set up your Twitter/Facebook account(s).  In a later post I’ll discuss this in more detail.  Next you’ll want to educate patients and staff that you have a Twitter/Facebook page and that they can reference it for open/close updates.  Be sure to include links to your Twitter/Facebook pages on your website home page so patients and staff can easily find them.  Include an explanation that they should click those links for open/close updates.  Also consider adding it to your phone answering system or answering service.

The day of the storm

The day of the weather event, go to your Twitter/Facebook page and make a quick post, such as, “Our office is open today (February 14, 2012).  For local weather and traffic information you can follow this link: [insert your link(s) of choice]”.  Or if closed, “Our office is closed today due to snow.  If you have an appointment today, we will call you to reschedule.  If you have not been contacted by 11am, please call our office at XXX-XXX-XXXX.”

Linking your Twitter and Facebook accounts allow you to post to one, and have it appear on both.  So you can tweet your closure and it will automatically appear on your Facebook page, and vice versa.

In the next post we’ll look at how using Twitter and Facebook are different from email and phone calls.