Saturday, February 12th, 2011
If you’ve been using Facebook for at least six months, you should be well aware that Facebook is an ever-evolving, ever-changing work-in-progress. This can be frustrating to many people, as it seems just when we get used to how something works, Facebook changes it up on us.
This week, we saw some major changes for Facebook Pages. These Pages are the business pages we all use to manage our practices’ social media presences. The exciting thing about these new changes is that Facebook has addressed many of the most common frustrations we, as administrators, have voiced.
I cannot tell you how many times I have been asked why a practice manager cannot post comments to their practice’s Page as “themselves”, and vice versa, why they can’t post outside their Page as the “practice”. Now we can! Facebook has given us the power to switch back and forth between our personal identity and our Page identity, wherever we are on Facebook. You can do this by clicking on the “Account” button in the upper right-hand corner of any Facebook page, once you are logged in. A box will pop-up showing all the Pages you manage. If you want to post a comment on another Page, as your veterinary practice, simply click the “switch” button for that Page.
This will create some unique networking opportunities for veterinary practices. If you work closely with a local emergency practice, you will now be able to post comments directly on one another’s Pages on behalf of your practice. You can also network directly with pet insurance companies… your local news stations… anyone and/or any company that has a presence on Facebook Pages. There are exciting opportunities with this new change!
Want to comment on your practice’s Page as “yourself”? Now, you can! On your practice’s Page, go to “edit page”, then go to “settings”. You will find you can change to “yourself” and make personal posts and comments that will show up as YOU. This is invaluable to veterinarians who may be managing their practice’s Facebook Page. You can now continue to generate posts as the “practice”, but if a client posts a medical question, you can change the settings and answer the question as “yourself”, the veterinarian, then switch back to posting as the “practice”.
If you haven’t already, go ahead and take the tour of the new Facebook Pages at the top of your practice’s Page. This will show you all the new changes and answer your many questions:) Do you have ideas about how these changes can enhance marketing your practice? Please post your ideas in the comments section of this article!
Tags: administrators, Facebook for veterinarians, social media for veterinarians, social media management, veterinary practice Facebook Pages
