Facebook pages for Psychiatrists

[Ceke2002]

Anyone have one? What sort of things do you include in it? I might be helping my Psychiatrist out with a bit of a project (emphasis on the word 'might'). I'm assuming he's already aware of whatever medico-legal things need to be taken into consideration, I've already looked up RANZCP's best practice recommendations for use of social media, just wanted to get some more ideas from actual Doctors with Facebook pages - like is it better to have an actual picture of yourself as the profile pic on a professional page, or is it acceptable to have other images? That sort of thing.

Thanks in advance.

edited to add: Please also check my response below, where I address any concerns about boundary violations and/or dual relationships. When I say 'bit of a project', I don't mean I'll be doing the actual project myself.

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[notdeadyet]

Can't help you with that. I couldn't think of any reason to have a Facebook page intended for patients. It's just not that useful for attracting new clients (that's the feature of a webpage). Facebook pages for businesses are mainly helpful for loyalty-based marketing, and that's largely a non-issue in psychiatry; we don't (or shouldn't) be having a major portion of our business be driven by upselling our current clients.

I'm a little puzzled that a psychiatrist is having a patient help him/her out with a personal endeavor like setting up a Facebook page (either for private or professional reasons). That's pushing boundaries a bit. I realize you're fond of your psychiatrist, Ceke, and are very happy with your care. It might be more of a boundary violation in the U.S. than down your way. It just strikes me as a bit odd.

 

[Ceke2002]

Can't help you with that. I couldn't think of any reason to have a Facebook page intended for patients. It's just not that useful for attracting new clients (that's the feature of a webpage). Facebook pages for businesses are mainly helpful for loyalty-based marketing, and that's largely a non-issue in psychiatry; we don't (or shouldn't) be having a major portion of our business be driven by upselling our current clients.

I'm a little puzzled that a psychiatrist is having a patient help him/her out with a personal endeavor like setting up a Facebook page (either for private or professional reasons). That's pushing boundaries a bit. I realize you're fond of your psychiatrist, Ceke, and are very happy with your care. It might be more of a boundary violation in the U.S. than down your way. It just strikes me as a bit odd.

Sorry I should have made it a bit clearer, he hasn't asked me, I've offered. He may or may not accept. I've helped him out with some basic computer stuff before, security settings, that sort of thing, when we've had time at the end of a session, but yeah nothing's that's actually crossed into a dual relationship type deal. If he does accept it'd be more like, okay if we've got a spare few minutes at the end of a session, here's how you set up a page, go here, click this, check this box etc etc, this is some stuff you might want to include, job done. Yeah I'm not actually going to be running the page for him, or anything. I mean I know we have an implict trust with one another, but that'd definitely be pushing things a step too far, so no worries there. But thanks for double checking, all boundaries are well and truly intact.

I suppose this is less promotion (his wait list is full, I don't think he needs to promote himself) and more just dividing his online presence into private and professional format. Like I said I just made the offer to help, he may or may not take me up on it.

 

[birchswing]

The only psychiatrists I know with public Facebook pages are ones who have them public by mistake or inattention. It's actually rather surprising that so many people have public Facebook pages when it seems fairly clear that they intend not to.

 

[Frazier]

Not at that stage yet, but I can 100% picture myself having a practice specific facebook page... Not for posting personal pictures or random status updates, but rather interesting articles/pieces that I feel others might be interested in/benefit from.

Content more like "tips on maintaining good sleep hygiene" instead of "Guy pranks girlfriend, you won't believe what happens next..." or "Political anything".

It is simply another medium to reach a potentially broader selection of people in more convenient ways. ("What was that article my psychiatrist recommended that I check out? Damn, I forget." vs. "Ok here's a link to that article he recommended.")

 

[Ceke2002]

The only psychiatrists I know with public Facebook pages are ones who have them public by mistake or inattention. It's actually rather surprising that so many people have public Facebook pages when it seems fairly clear that they intend not to.

Oh yeah, absolutely. I have a couple of friends in medical residency in the UK who I've had to pull aside, metaphorically speaking, and say 'Oi, you might wanna consider checking your privacy settings a bit more'.

 

[Ceke2002]

Not at that stage yet, but I can 100% picture myself having a practice specific facebook page... Not for posting personal pictures or random status updates, but rather interesting articles/pieces that I feel others might be interested in/benefit from.

Content more like "tips on maintaining good sleep hygiene" instead of "Guy pranks girlfriend, you won't believe what happens next..." or "Political anything".

It is simply another medium to reach a potentially broader selection of people in more convenient ways. ("What was that article my psychiatrist recommended that I check out? Damn, I forget." vs. "Ok here's a link to that article he recommended.")

Thanks This was the sort of angle I was thinking of, more 'check out this article on maintaining a healthy mind/body balance' rather than 'Hey check out my personal holiday snaps'. He's not very tech savvy, but like I said this would be more like me just giving him a quick 'how to' with setting things up, maybe some basic advice on what he might consider including on the page (if he decides to set one up), only if doing so doesn't interfere with the actual session itself, and that's about it (not like I'll be making special trips to the clinic, or working on things for him from home, or stars forbid we're gonna start popping around to each other's houses on the weekend to go through the latest design or content updates - yeah, no, it aint gonna be happening like that, not a chance ). But yeah your thinking does seem to line up with mine, which is good to know, because obviously not being a Doctor myself I just wanted to double check I was on the right track.

He might turn down my offer anyway, and I understand he may be ethically bound to do so, but I'm just the sort of person that feels morally obligated to at least offer to help out if and when I can, within reason of course.

 

[Ceke2002]

I realize you're fond of your psychiatrist, Ceke,...

I just noticed this part. Yeah, not 'that' fond . I mean you know there's fond and then there's 'fond' Sorry, I know you weren't insinuating anything yourself, I'm just making sure people know which side of the river my tent is pitched on, so to speak.

 

[nitemagi]

I have a very basic one for my practice. I just post things related to my blog, and occasional links via twitter. It's part of the idea of having a public profile. People will look for info everywhere. You can choose how you control that image.

 

[Ceke2002]

I have a very basic one for my practice. I just post things related to my blog, and occasional links via twitter. It's part of the idea of having a public profile. People will look for info everywhere. You can choose how you control that image.

*nods* Yep, that's pretty much the root of my offer of help here, less promotion and more tightening up of image control/security, especially if certain people are looking for info (which they will invariably do). Cheers.

 

[notdeadyet]

Not at that stage yet, but I can 100% picture myself having a practice specific facebook page... Not for posting personal pictures or random status updates, but rather interesting articles/pieces that I feel others might be interested in/benefit from.

Content more like "tips on maintaining good sleep hygiene" instead of "Guy pranks girlfriend, you won't believe what happens next..." or "Political anything".

It is simply another medium to reach a potentially broader selection of people in more convenient ways. ("What was that article my psychiatrist recommended that I check out? Damn, I forget." vs. "Ok here's a link to that article he recommended.")

I think this kind of use made more sense before Wordpress and all the rest. You can serve this same function from your website where you will have better reach and more control.

 

[notdeadyet]

I just noticed this part. Yeah, not 'that' fond . I mean you know there's fond and then there's 'fond' Sorry, I know you weren't insinuating anything yourself, I'm just making sure people know which side of the river my tent is pitched on, so to speak.

No worries, and you're right I wasn't insinuating. I just want that you obviously speak very highly of your psychiatrist.

 

[F0nzie]

I added a Facebook page to our site when I made it 2 years ago. Not sure where I was going with that but it's still there lol.

 

[Ceke2002]

No worries, and you're right I wasn't insinuating. I just want that you obviously speak very highly of your psychiatrist.

I speak highly of anyone who deserves to be spoken highly of, and that would include many members of this forum as well

 

[Ceke2002]

I added a Facebook page to our site when I made it 2 years ago. Not sure where I was going with that but it's still there lol.

You did a good job on your site, I didn't see the Facebook page, but the site looked great - plus you got good search engine ranking as well, which is a lot harder to do than what it was when I was designing web pages.