Social Media

1. Social Media • WCVM Writing Tools Workshop for Research Summer Students Thursday, June 13, 2013

2. Social Media | WCVM • Western College of Veterinary Medicine • Twitter: @WCVMToday, @EHRFHorseHealth, @VetTopics • Facebook: WCVM alumni, WCVM prevet students, WCVM Today, One Health Leadership Experience. • Flickr: WCVMToday • YouTube: TheWCVM • Podcasting

3. Social Media | Dr. Chan • Dr. Melodie Chan (WCVM ’02)Genetics Business Lead and Manager, Veterinary Services, Cattle Division, Zoetis Canada • Regular Twitter user (@LilCowDoc) • melodie.chan@zoetis.com

4. Social Media | Dr. Creelman • Dr. Cody Creelman (WCVM ’11)Veterinary Animal Health Services (VAHS), Airdrie, Alberta • Regular Twitter user (@VetPracticeVAHS, @CodyCreelman) • vahs.net | CodyC@vahs.net • www.facebook.com/VeterinaryAgriHealthServices

5. Social Media | Dr. Chan • General rule of thumb: • Facebook: For people you know. • Twitter: For people you would like to know. • LinkedIn: For people you work with. • Pinterest: For people who like the same things.

6. Social Media | Dr. Chan • Food animal production: Twitter delivers fast and easy to read information. • Equine: Large number of horse people are females (ages 45-55). Facebook is the best platform. • Small animal: Twitter and Facebook • Research/academics: Twitter

7. Social Media | Dr. Chan • Q. Why are you involved with social media? • Proactive in getting the right information out based on science and fact. • Be part of the conversation, be a trusted information source. • Provide people with the facts so they can think critically. They may not agree with the science, but at least they have access to it. • Great way to understand what our audience is thinking. • Challenges veterinarians to continually improve status quo.

8. Social Media | Dr. Chan • Q. Why are you involved with social media? (cont’d) • Maintain/improve consumer confidence — food production, animal husbandry practices. • Urban/rural divide, fear of the unknown contributing to miscommunication, misunderstanding. • “The more we can be transparent and increase our approachability, the more we can contribute to understanding where our food comes from.”

9. Social Media | Dr. Creelman • Q. Why are you involved with social media? • Effective means of advertising: Social media is still new among producers, but chance favours early adopters. • Advocacy for agriculture industry: Openness, transparency, education to combat misinformation. • Customer service: Efficient means of client education. More interaction with owners, manager and employees of farms that we deal with.

10. Social Media | Dr. Creelman • Q. Why are you involved with social media? (cont’d) • Student awareness: Connections for fourth-year rotations, externships, job opportunities. • Personal education: Improving our knowledge base. • Community: “Through social media, a new form of comradery has developed.”

11. Social Media | Dr. Chan • Q. Why do you take time to be involved with social media? • Twitter: Availability of information at your fingertips. • “Tweeporters”: Tweeting information from conferences — return the favour. • Contributing to the larger “Twittersphere” community. • People appreciate the effort: “thank yous” from followers.

12. Social Media | Dr. Chan • Q. How does social media benefit your job/practice? • As Zoetis technical services veterinarian: bringing information to the industry (vets, producers, industry). • As private practitioner: Well positioned to provide fact-based information relating to animal agriculture. • Applicable information: not information read off a fact sheet. • Helps establish credibility within agriculture community as a reliable information source. • Keeps internal audience informed. Gives Zoetis a human voice.

13. Social Media | Dr. Chan • Q. Any examples of linking with key people through social media? • “Virtual” meetings with veterinarians, producers and others in agriculture industry: Expanding network of contacts. • New acquaintances: Looks them up on Twitter. • Fun to look for “Tweeps” at conferences and meetings. • Reciprocal relationships: I help you, you help me. • Use Twitter to ask collective group of people for information.

14. Social Media | Dr. Creelman • Q. Any examples of linking with key people through social media? • VAHS: becoming well known across veterinary/agriculture communities that are connected to social media. • Producer groups and media: Contacted VAHS for articles, involvement in stories, conferences. • Helps to market VAHS’ services to potential clients, creates more followers, draws more people to VAHS site. • Web site analytics: Local, global visitors interested in what we do.

15. Social Media | Dr. Chan • Q. What works? • Twitter handle: Pick one that’s concise and easy to remember. • Describe yourself well in your profile. • Keep tweet length to 120 characters or less (to allow for RTs and comments). • Tweeting photos: Good way to draw in people. • Tweet links to relevant articles that are easy to read on mobile devices.

16. Social Media | Dr. Chan • Q. What works? • Write stand-alone messages that don’t require followers to read several tweets in a row for context. • Ask questions and respond to tweets to engage others. • If you start a tweet with “@____,” only people who follow both you and the other person will see your tweet. • #FF: Follow Fridays. Great way to promote people to follow or to thank people who have helped you over the week. • Occasional personal tweet: Makes yourself appear human.

17. Social Media | Dr. Creelman • Q. What works? • Content is KING: Without fresh content, you slip into oblivion. • “If you are not going to commit, then don’t even bother. If you aren’t going to bother, then you will be left behind. • Be creative, innovative, curious and not afraid to fail. • “Yes, I think I sound stupid when I hear my own voice talking about a certain disease or case or what have you, but I have committed to promoting my business, so I have to try.”

18. Social Media | Dr. Chan • Dr. Chan’s final words of advice: • You control how much information you share — both personally and professionally. If you don’t want to share it, don’t! • Once you put your tweet out there, you can’t take it back. Maintain professionalism with any social media communications that you engage in.

19. Social Media | Questions?