Social Media Tips For Independent OTs: & Linkedin Link to other industry bloggers, try to make connections so that you can help promote each other. Blogging Facts A few OT related

Social Media Tips For Independent OTs: Blogs, Facebook,Twitter & Linkedinwww.inclusion.me.uk© Inclusion.Me Ltd 2015 ®

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“Content is King” Bill Gates

“Social media is like ancient Egypt:

writing on things and worshipping cats”

George Takei

Social Media noun:Websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking

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Today we’re surrounded by a growing number of social media sites and not only is it difficult to know which will suit our business aims, but it can also be a challenge to determine the right tone and content in order to attract the attention we’re looking for. A successful social media marketing campaign requires a shift in mindset from ‘what does my business need?’ to ‘what does my customer need?’. You can’t just simply go around pushing something down people’s throats...social media is called social for a reason; it’s part of our everyday life and part of the way most of us now regularly interact with the world we live in. If every time you spoke to someone they tried to sell you something, you’d stop listening; social media is exactly the same.

We’ve picked up some tips from marketing professionals over the past few years...one of the most important is to remember the following 3 steps which should prove invaluable when thinking about using social media as a way of helping to promote your services:

Matthew Box: My Experiences Of Using Social Media For Marketing

Occupational Therapy

Engagement: Always the first rung on the ladder, and very rarely achieved through sustained self-promotion. Gain the attention of your audience and you are ready to move on to the next step.

Awareness: Building awareness is an essential part of the journey to someone wanting to use your services. Plant the seed, all the while subtly nurturing it so that your followers subconsciously take note of your brand. I personally think that us OTs don’t trumpet how good we are enough. Don’t forget to also mention some of the positive feedback you receive from clients!

Trust: Although it can take time to cultivate, it will give you such an enviably strong advantage over your competition that the time you invest in pursuit will be well worth it.

Matthew Box: Independent OT & Director Inclusion.Me Ltd

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Contact Matthew on 01892 704065 or email [email protected]

to see how Inclusion.Me can help you develop as

an independent OT!

This guide is designed to act as an aide for OTs considering setting out into independent practice or using social media. It is by no means an exhaustive rule book and Inclusion.Me Ltd does not accept any responsibility for the use of the information contained within this guide, or for any omissions.

Disclaimer

Social Media Goals

Award winning independent Housing & Independence Occupational Therapy services

Contact us today to enquire about joining

our team of expert housing OTs!

a: Inclusion.Me Ltd Calverley House, 55 Calverley Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent TN1 2TU

t: 01892 704065 w: www.inclusion.me.uk e: [email protected]

: @inclusionme

For more information regarding our full range of independent OT services visit www.inclusion.me.uk

“ The Rolls Royce OT Service”

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I am an independent OT and run the website www.otexpert.co.uk.

I have a professional Twitter and Facebook account which I find incredibly useful to keep me up to date with the OT world and to let others know what I’m up to.

I have to admit that at first, I didn’t really know what Twitter was about but I’ve gradually become a big fan and find it invaluable on a professional level. I follow and have a lot of followers who are qualified OTs, OT students or OT lecturers in addition to many other interesting people of all kinds of professions and organisations.

If I ever have a question, all I need to do is ‘tweet’ it and I usually get at least a few people responding with their advice.

A really good Twitter ‘chatroom’ is held every Tuesday night between 8-9pm. It’s held by @OTalk_ where a group of OTs (and anyone else interested) get together and discuss a particular topic.

Facebook is also useful, although I don’t use it as much. Pinterest is another good site which is mainly the use of photographs/images and there are some great OT networks on there.

I’d definitely recommend having a look and getting to know Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and others if you haven’t already. You can either dip in and out or get completely addicted!

www.otexpert.co.uk

Nicola McMullen-Klein: My Social Media Experiences

“It was Twitter which led me to find Inclusion.Me as I saw a tweet from

Matthew advertising some work in my area, so it’s also

a good tool for getting business.“


We asked 40 Independent OTs how they market themselves and these were the top 5 answers (with the 3 most important & beneficial highlighted in green):

1. Word Of Mouth (100%)

2. Networking (100%)

3. Website (80%)

4. Linkedin (80%)

5. Email marketing (30%)

Marketing

Surprisingly only a quarter of respondent OTs used social Media (Twitter & Facebook) with far less using Mailchimp (under 10%) and with a similarly negligible number considering joint marketing.

Inclusion Tip: Embracing any form of free marketing and advertising is a must for someone working for themselves and OT is no exception. Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and Mailchimp are all free and if used properly they can make a huge difference to the way you portray your brand and services. More than half the population of the UK use 1 form of social media; if you’re not using them to build stronger relationships with your customers or to recruit new clients, you’re missing out. It’s FREE marketing…invest a bit of time in understanding how they could help you and get using them!

Want to find out see some more tips from OTs in independent practice? Why not have a look at our FREE “Starting Out” guide!

“The internet has become such an integral part of everyday life that

there is barely a business that doesn’t have at

least some kind of web presence”8.

Want to see some more

tips from OTs in independent

practice - why not have

a look at our FREE

“Starting Out” guide!

“Make sure you really understand how

your customers communicate & use this information to help guide

your marketing plans”

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What is blogging?Blogging is the practice of keeping an online journal and it’s an extremely popular method of publishing news, information, opinions and content. It’s incredibly easy to get started, whether for a personal or business reason. Have a look at free sites such as WordPress or Blogger to get started.

Advantages to blogging• You can reach a worldwide audience of 1.5 billion people online.

• Builds credibility for you and your services.

• Brand awareness – indirectly advertise your business.

• Helps to build useful relationships and contacts.

• Instantly deliver your message online.

• Great way of staying up-to-date with your CPD!

• Adds a personal touch to your website.

• It will help you improve your page ranking on Google!

Blogs

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Hubspot research reports that companies with a blog have 55% more visitors and 97% more links to their website!

Type of content to post

• Topical content/opinions/advice

• Write for the web, brighten up your posts, use royalty free images and keep them concise.

• Don’t re-report recent news; add your own angle or opinion on what this means.

• Link to other industry bloggers, try to make connections so that you can help promote each other.

Blogging Facts

A few OT related blogs:

• www.inclusion.me.uk/news

• www.lindasdailylivingskills.com/2012/05/super-long-list-of-all-ot-blogs-i-know.html

• www.missawesomeness.com

• www.otexpert.co.uk

• www.frederickroad.blogspot.co.uk

• www.baotcot.wordpress.com

• www.otalk.co.uk

Join the team at Inclusion.Me to benefit from a range of services aimed at helping OTs in private practice improve their service delivery & build their income. For further details visit:

www.inclusion.me.uk/professionals_portal



: @inclusionme

Contact Inclusion.Me today for more details on our range of professional support services including an OT tailored T&Cs pack along with various associate & affiliate benefits packages

Are You Looking To Build Your OT Private Practice?


The Basics...

• Tweet: A message sent via Twitter. It has a character limit of 140 characters but can contain links and images.

• Retweet (RT): A repeated tweet. To repost something that’s already in the Twitter stream. Usually preceded by ‘RT’ and ‘@[username]’, to give credit to the original poster.

• Direct message: A message sent directly to another Twitter user, the message isn’t visible to any of your other followers.

• Hash tag: The ‘#’ sign. The community-driven practice of tagging an individual tweet by using a hash in front of the tag. It allows Twitter users to group tweets by topic, making it easier to search particular conversations using Twitter search.

• MisTweet: A tweet one later regrets. (Hopefully a term we will not need to familiarise ourselves with but be careful!)

Twitter

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• Build excellent customer relations and tackle negative feedback

• Improve industry knowledge from customers, employees, competitors and other industry bodies

• A key traffic driver for your website

• Twitter is a permission led marketing tool, where individuals have opted-in to hear from you

• Twitter is a measurable marketing tool

YOUR GOAL = To establish yourself as an expert in your industry, by creating thoughtful, informative tweets that are read by many!

The art of following

• Ensure you are following a mix of industry professionals, customers and competitors

• Use the Advanced Search options at www.search.twitter.com, if searching for local business use www.nearbytweets.com and input the relevant location and keywords

• Take the time to watch the posts of the people and businesses you are following – get a feel for what is being discussed and what gets retweeted

• Look at the number of followers of the people you follow – the higher the number, the more interesting and influential they probably are so maybe take more of an interest in them

• Take the most influential people you follow, and see who they follow

• Search Twitter for tweets about OT and your industry using hashtags #occupationaltherapy #OTalk #OT

Keep monitoring

• Continuously monitor your company via Advanced Search, respond to any bad press or negative comments

• Monitor your success – track website referrals via the Google Analytics on your website, monitor retweets, replies, direct messages and mentions and there are also bespoke twitter analytics applications, if you want to dig deeper

• Monitor your following to follower ratio as this can put potential followers off...

Remember high numbers of following in comparison to followers plus a high volume of tweets = You’re selling something & people are likely to switch off!

Remember the benefits:

Twitter: Getting started


#OTalk is a weekly Twitter chat, designed to enable discussion about occupational therapy and the broader academic discipline of occupational science.

Chats are organised by four occupational therapists – @gillygorry, @kirstyes, @helen_otuk and @geekyOT, each working in a different clinical area – and facilitated by guest hosts.

* Taken from www.otalk.co.uk

Although informal, Twitter chats provide excellent continuing professional development opportunities, bringing together people who have diverse perspectives and experiences, without requiring you to travel or pay expensive course fees. Everyone is welcome to participate.

www.otalk.co.uk

#OTalk

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Want to join the conversation but new

to Twitter?

https://anzotalk.wordpress.com/chat-hints/

Our thanks to the following OTs for their invaluable help with this guide...

• Matthew Box

• Walter Brazil

• Jen Gash

• Kate Sheehan

• Robert Birmingham

• Ellie Burcher

• Rachel Wilson

• Joanne Blackwell

• Jane Kooner

• Zoe Cocksedge

• Matthew Bourne

• Caroline Pomeroy

• Sarah Cant

• Vivienne Chamberlain

• Claire Miller

• Hannah Snowsill

• Susanna Robinson

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• Take the time to create a brand voice and stick to it

• Use buzzwords and hashtags relevant to your specific industry (ensure you search for the hashtag first to ensure your industry is using it)

• Figure out the most active time of day for your industry and make that your Twitter time

• Ask questions, gather opinions – you may learn something new

• Mix it up – don’t make every tweet about business

• Initiate two-way conversations and be open to questions

• Be consistent and regular

• If you want something retweeted, keep it smaller than 120 characters, so followers can add their own comment

• Use #followfriday…on fridays!

• Tweet and let your followers know when you make updates to your website

• Find out about #OTalk: www.otalkocchats.wordpress.com

• https://business.twitter.com/twitter-101

• Try searching for #ottuesday or #OTuesday

Twitter: Tweet like a pro...


Facebook...Facebook is the fastest growing social media platform in the world. If you decide to use it for your business, you have the potential to market your business to a whole host of people without spending a penny. Some useful Facebook guides to look through:

• https://en-gb.facebook.com/business/overview

• https://www.facebook.com/business/news/5-Tips-for-Using-Facebook-on-Small-Business-Saturday

• www.smarta.com/advice/sales-and-marketing/social-media/getting-your-business-on-facebook/

• www.wikihow.com/Use-Facebook-for-Business-Networking

#OTalk is a great CPD tool and an excellent way

of making connections with other OTs

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Claire Miller: How I use social media as an independent OT

Initially I started a Facebook page to sit alongside my website when I set up as an Independent Occupational Therapist and Trainer. Many business owners choose to link their websites into all social media such as Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook sharing the same content across them all. Having used Facebook for social purposes for some time, and the internet for research purposes for much longer, I felt that the different audiences may expect different content in these varying mediums. My Website is static, factual and sets out what my business does, the parameters for interaction with the user is clearly business. My Business Facebook content shares information about the type of business I provide and useful resources and information which link into my business and other businesses I am associated with, the content has varied formats to appeal to the range of ‘likes’ ranging from local support groups, national services and global innovations, but it is not personal, political or judgemental and since setting it up I have been careful to keep my personal Facebook page closed and private. My Linkedin profile is rather more professional; I treat this as an online CV. I use this to link in with like-minded professionals and to find out more about research and development in practice which links directly and indirectly with my own. As for Twitter, I made a conscious decision not to set up an account. I was concerned that the limited word count could lead to tweets being misinterpreted and I couldn’t see a divide between the professional/ personal or business/pleasure side to its application.

The golden question is ‘what have I earned or learnt from Social Media?’. I have gained the largest contracts via Linkedin, which I spend a limited amount of time using. I have gained the most work via my website which I spend the least time, but the most money on! I earn the least from Facebook, which I input onto for a few minutes on most days. But I have learnt the most from Facebook, not just through the content I have read on there, but also through the articles, reports, memes and ideas I have read and explored elsewhere and which I looked into further before sharing with others on Facebook.

Claire Miller is an Independent Occupational Therapist & Trainer working

across the Midlands & UK promoting Safety, Independence & Wellbeing

at Home, Work & Leisure. For more information contact Tel: 07930 185090

or visit www.otandt.co.uk


Linkedin: Getting started...

Linkedin: Remember the benefits• Efficient and cost effective business networking tool

• Keep track of competitors

• Aids retention of business contacts over time

• Can have a positive effect on your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation – how Google finds you!)

• Great for building industry knowledge, forming industry groups and asking advice

• Free recruitment tool

Your goal = To network with other business/OT professionals and build a powerful network of professional allies.

Linkedin: Connect like a pro• Actively gather recommendations – if you don’t ask you don’t get!

• Join some industry groups and demonstrate your knowledge/learn from other professionals. Some groups worth joining:

– Independent and self-employed Occupational Therapists in the United Kingdom and Ireland

– British Association and College of Occupational Therapists

– Courageous, creative OTs

• Don’t limit yourself to first-degree contacts; branch out to second degree connections (people your connections are connected with) – name the person you both know to aid uptake.

• Link your profile to your social media accounts

• Just like Twitter, update your status with news of interesting projects you are working on.

• Polish your profile: Use a professional photo, use concise info which can be read in 30 seconds, keyword optimise your profile using relevant industry terms (especially in these sections – your earlier job titles, your summary, your status updates, etc)

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Social Media Tips & Tricks:

Use Social Media to promote OT:

• www.cot.co.uk/promote-ot/use-social-media-promote-ot

• www.cot.co.uk/operation-stealth-whatisot

“Keep calm and carry

on…”

“Writing a blog really helps me reflect on my work for CPD”

“Social media can be a great way of connecting

with other OTs… twitter #OTalk”

“The speed and diversity of connections and dialogue can be very carefully shaped to suit my business goals.”

“My personal opinion is avoid facebook, tweet daily and really use Linkedin, the latter allows you to pick and

choose who you wish to communicate with and can really help your business.”

A few online CPD resources/tools:

• www.trammcpd.com/home.html

• www.cot.co.uk/cpd/cpd-ilod-and-hcpc

• www.cpdol.co.uk

• www.otcoach.com

Interactive Healthcare Training offer a wide range of affordable, user friendly online health and social care training courses.

From Safeguarding Adults and Children, through to Dementia Awareness and Equality Diversity & Inclusion; we have a course for your CPD.

Visit us at www.interactivehealthcaretraining.co.uk, or contact us on 01962 877999 and [email protected]

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: @inclusionme

Contact Inclusion.Me today to talk about our independent OT services & to see how we can support you in developing your work within the OT private sector.

More information about our services is available on our website at www.inclusion.me.uk

Inclusion.Me has a team of award winning expert OTs with over 20 years experience in Occupational Therapy & Access.At Inclusion.Me we pride ourselves on the superb value for money of our services but most importantly the happiness and satisfaction of our clients.

Recent clients include Selfridges, Nike, Kent Occupational Therapy Bureau (Paeds & adult services), The City Of London, Guinness Trust, Pinnacle PSG, United House, Mulalleys, Phoenix Community Housing, Staying First Merton, Thanet Council, H&F & RBKC Occupational Therapy departments, Staying First HIA, The European Inn, SC Healthcare, The Salvation Army, LBL Social Services and The Theatre Royal, as well as numerous private clients, case management companies, small & large businesses and adaptation service providers. “Sensible,

knowledgeable & understanding”

© Inclusion.Me Ltd 2015 ®

Documents

Social Media Tips For Independent OTs: & Linkedin Link to other industry bloggers, try to make connections so that you can help promote each other. Blogging Facts A few OT related