143 Days

143 days before I embarked on this great adventure, I sat with Mrs RCS and explained to her that I wanted to do the crazy thing and set up my own business. It took 143 days to get everything in place, and now I find myself 143 days after the event.

What have I achieved?

My god where do I start?! I have overachieved in some areas and strangely missed in other key areas, but on the whole I have had a pretty good start;

• Launched a new Aesthetics product
• Implemented a software system
• Built an iPad App
• Rebranded a company
• 3 Articles in Aesthetic Industry Press
• Speaker at ASAPs and FACE
• Created the Practice Transformations Pathway
• Implemented the Practice Transformations Principles in a Harley St Practice

So, what have I learnt?

Well Terry, I have learnt so much in the last 143 days its scary, but so enlightening!

I started RCS Consulting with a vision of bringing the archaic business processes inherent in the Medical Aesthetics Industry in to at least the 19th Century. This is a challenge, and one that needs to be an industry wide change, not just one or two businesses at a time.

• No matter how hard I try, I will never, ever escape software development projects
• Doing your own accounts and expenses is a massive ball-ache
• Blue Oceans are better than Red Seas
• Don't take on clients that aren't ready for you
• My gut feelings are scarily accurate
• Some people are more generous than you would ever have imagined
• Some people are just pricks
• I love Innovation!

With these learnings I have split the company in two; we have RCS Business Consulting Services Ltd, which is the consultancy arm and Practice Transformations, which is the Practice Improvement Product.

The idea to "productise" the service came from a guy called Daniel Priestley and his "Key Person of Influence" Seminar. (www.keypersonofinfluence.com).




The basic premise of this is that in any industry the main industry changing decisions are made by a few key influencers at the core. I consider myself to be one of those in Medical Aesthetics, so I listened intently as he gave some really interesting steps to maximise your influence. I'm not going to steal his thunder, but I am going to his next Central London Seminar on 23rd June. See you there!

Who have I learnt from?

I am going to take this opportunity to big up a couple of people, Brad Waldron and Steve Esler.

I met Brad through Worthing Rugby Club, and my gut said "There is something about this guy.....", so I did what any self respecting nosey bastard would do and I googled him. Turns out that Brad is the Director of Intelligent Inspirations (www.intelligentinspiration.com), and has worked with some real heavy hitters and was a great help to me in formulating the strategy and plan for Practice Transformations. Without Brad it would have taken me much longer to realise the solution to the problem - the client, NOT the Dr is at the heart of the process and improving the experience they have MUST be the focus of the business.......

.....and he gave me some awesome presentation skills training.

Steve is a great friend of mine - and whilst I can't divulge too much as to what I have learnt, suffice to say that Steve Esler's name will go down in history (beneath mine of course) as the guy who changed Medical Aesthetics forever. Watch this space

What would I change?

Nothing. I would keep it all as it has been a whirlwind experience and every day is a School day. Even the rubbish days when I mistakenly took on a project that I knew would move me in a direction that I didn't want to go, I learnt a lot about Stakeholder management. 


The Practice Transformations process is quite a difficult one for some practices to endure - many Dr's believe that their problems lie with their staff, when the reality is that THEY are the real cause.

Communicating that is a challenge in itself, but one that must be overcome in order for the process to embed and for the business to grow. It takes a big pair of balls to do it, which is why there are not many consultants who do.


"And I know what I have to do now. I gotta keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise. Who knows what the tide could bring."

What will I achieve in the next 143 days?

This is a MASSIVE phase in the development of RCS Consulting and The Practice Transformations products.

We are attending the FACE Exhibition and Conference at the Royal College of Physicians on 15/16/17th June and I will be speaking about Practice Transformations at the FACE of the clinic session 1145 on the Saturday.

There is much going on.........

When Clients Attack!

Does this sound familiar?

You are engaged to work on a project and deliver value to a customer. But as you get stuck in the original brief changes, and then changes again, and again, and again. The customer says "this is priority now", and you go down that direction only to be told that it isn't priority and you should have been doing what you were hired to do.

The guys implementing are stretched and your calls for review meetings get ignored or bounced, and because the progress isn't obvious the team start to
wonder what you actually do.

Every fibre of your being is telling you to hit the brakes on this and force an exception; this project is failing. Yet you are a professional and you will see this job through.

Your an idiot.

You were hired without the full support of the management team, they don't know why your there and have conflicting priorities.

You can't win.

So what do you do?

You must walk away. This is a destructive project, and while you may have some successes the overall objective will never be reached. If as a consultant your job is to listen an add value, listen to yourself, and add value by not continuing to take the fee and provide good advice by articulating why you are not willing to continue.

I despise failure, but it is a painful process necessary in order for us to grow personally, professionally and learn. You don't become a poor consultant overnight, you just chose the wrong customer. Just like in Medical Aesthetics, patient selection is a key factor in a successful treatment choosing the right customer is a key factor in a projects success.

Don't beat yourself up, just accept it, learn and move on. Show me a consultant who hasn't got it wrong and I'll show you a liar.

Goal Setting – the key to success?

At RCS Towers Friday is a sacred day, as it is thebeginning of the week. Yep, you heard me; we start our working week with twodays off so hands up if you want to work for RCS. On this most sacred of dayswe begin with a practise that has served me well for the last Ten years and Ican say will transform your life and business if used well. Indeed cleverpeople, you have guessed – Goal setting.

We use goal setting routinely to help in all of ourplanning phases, as goals are simply objectives; things I will achieve for thecustomer, for myself, for my colleagues and for my family.

So what is goal setting?

A quick Google search and the business world will quicklytell you that the best useable method for goal setting is SMART;

·        Specific

·        Measureable

·        Achievable

·        Realistic

·        Timebound

This is a worthy method, but it doesn’t work for mebecause it sets too many limitations. We dream big as children, and nothing isimpossible. So why as adults do we believe that “Realistic and Achievable” arethe limits of our capabilities?  Thecorporate world should simply say what it means, “In corporations we like youto set goals, but don’t be too lofty, we don’t want you to get ideas above yourstation”.

Call me an eternal optimist and unrealistic dreamer, butI saw through this and very soon afterwards discovered the definition of goalsetting still used by us at RCS;

“A committeddecision to reach a predeterminedspecific goal, combined with a burningdesire, followed by immediate,massive action repeated consistently for as long as it takes until your goal is reached“.

The author of this quote isone of the most successful people in his generation, an Athlete, an Actor, a Businessman,a Politician, and Multi-Millionaire. I’ll tell you who it is at the end, butlet’s look again at the key phrases used in this definition;

·        Committed Decision

·        Specific Goal

·        Burning Desire

·        Immediate MASSIVEAction

·        RepeatedConsistently

·        For as long asit takes

They are powerful words when you think about it, andactually quite obvious as every day we decide to do something, we set anobjective, we act and repeat until it is done.

So if this is the case, why do we fail? Why do weprocrastinate? Why do some people achieve great success and others do not? Whyare there so many self-help books?

All men are NOT created equal, and the ability to set, andachieve goals is what separates us.

Why isgoal setting so effective?

Goal setting focuses the subconscious mind on the task inhand and enables us to apply our considerable resourcefulness to achieving it.The old adage of winners never quit and quitters never win underpins ourphilosophy of success.

Whatis the difference between success and failure?

A Committed Decision

Do you CHOOSEto fail because you DECIDE TO STOPtrying to succeed? I believe this is the case, it took me four years to get RCSConsulting off the ground, and it began on this scrap of paper in January 2008after an impromtu goal setting session in a car park in Crystal Palace.

I had had enough of the life of a Sales Representativeand was listening to an audiobook of “Tony Robbins – Awaken the Giant Within”;I remember driving Mrs RCS crazy with my constant regurgitation of “a decisionis not a decision unless you act”, which she felt was pretty obvious and otherhighly clichéd soundbites.

But that’s the real point isn’t it? It doesn’t matter ifit is a cliché or not, or you know you should, unless you COMMIT to the decision and act they’re still only words. Maybehandwriting lessons would have helped, but cut a guy some slack - I was writingon the steering wheel. It wasn’t moving.

ASpecific Goal

So let’s assume that you have made a Committed Decisionto your first specific goal, which should actually be to goal set, grab a nicepaper and pen, and write down the following headings;

·        Career

·        Family

·        Adventure

·        Contribution

Now write down 10SPECIFIC GOALS under each heading, and let your mind soar, in this life weare constrained only by ourselves so really go for it. I write down Orbit theEarth and Climb Everest under adventure every goal setting day.

Next thing is to RANKYOUR GOALS in order of importance to you on a scale of 1 to 10. In theexample from 2008 I wrote that an MBA was less important to me than the respectof the industry and my customers, I still don’t have an MBA because it is nolonger relevant, but respect always is.

BurningDesire

Everyone has to do things that bore the pants off them,while I cast my mind back to the last instalment of the Twilight Series andimmediately my motivation to do anything other than scream is lost. However,your new goal MUST be worth the effort, this MUST become a magnificentobsession and if your enthusiasm to achieve it needs to be mustered then reviewits importance. Which would you rather have, infectious enthusiasm or a politeshrug?

What’s the point of working hard to learn how to dance ifyou hate dancing? You’ll quit and feel like you have failed, when all you didwas choose the wrong goal. I want to climb Everest, but I don’t have a burningdesire to do it – my friend Tarka L’Herpiniere did, and he has now summited 3times! In fact he should probably be writing this.

TakeIMMEDIATE and MASSIVE ACTION

I love this bit, Immediate and Massive action, nottomorrow but NOW. Medical Aesthetics is packed full of business owner operatorsand its great. The simple fact that you are reading this means that the streakof entrepreneurship runs deep in you and you know how to get things done. Butsometimes the burst of enthusiasm does wane and we need a little kick. I justthink “I must move this rock now and it must move a long way”; often this is inthe “Think and Plan” stage of our planning process and gets us a good headstart.

RepeatedConsistently

Now, this is the real challenge isn’t? Going to the Gym,dieting, learning a language or instrument this is the phase of goal settingthat you WILL fall down on, because we are creatures of habit, and our defaulthabits is to make excuses to not do things. If you’ve been not doing things formost of your life it’s going to be a tough habit to break!  Apparently it takes 30 days for habit formingactivities to embed themselves and probably five minutes to break them, andoften we take on too much in one go. Change your life and habits one at a time,and train yourself to succeed and achieve your goals.

Remember the final part - for as long as it takes. It took me four years to achieve the goalsI wrote in Crystal Palace, and as Tarks will tell you, climbing Everest isn’tsomething you can just decide to do on a Tuesday afternoon and squeeze in afterthe gym, (well you can, you’ll just die a slow painful death, which is kind of theultimate failure).

So, who is the genius who set your humble RCS on his wayto independence, and becomes the strange focus on a Friday morning?

Albert Einstein? Vince Lombardi? Richard Branson?

Nope.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, unbelievably.  

Arnie arrived in the USA from Austria and simply wrotehis goals for the year on index cards. He looked at it every day, and made aconscious effort to achieve them. By the time he was 30 he was a Millionaire,long before his Hollywood Movie days.

So take your time, focus on what you want to achieve, besure you want it and enjoy the ride.

If Arnold can do it, why can’t you?

I’ll be back.

RCS Consulting in Paris

So, a last minute decision to attend the International Masters Course in Aging Skin, or IMCAS for short. Why? Well firstly I needed to be where my customers are and keep my profile raised. Secondly, I absolutely love Paris and any opportunity to get a night out in that city should be taken with both hands.

Early Start

I love the Deco touches around Paris

The beautiful dining room of L'Train Blu. Many a Grand Tour began from this room

Lobster C'est Delicioux

The Harley Aesthetics team in deep conversation

Raffi - Gentleman Buffoon

Dr Sach Mohan

Dr Sach Mohan again

Who brought Dom to the party?

VIP Rooms - Always awesome

My ride home - I wish!

12 hrs in Paris = a broken man

Same again next year!!!

Effective planning and Rugby.

Whathas Rugby got to do with Medical Aesthetics? I’ll find a tenuous link, butfirstly I would like to share some ideas on how you can get the most out ofyour Social Networks.

Iam going to make a big assumption; that if you currently use Twitter, Facebook,LinkedIN or have seen the film “The Social Network” you know what Social Mediais.  If you are part of the “I don’t doFacebook” gang, then you are missing out on  what is the largest and most sophisticatedword of mouth marketing tool that has ever existed.

Iasked one of my customers recently why they haven’t followed my advice and implementedhis Social Media Marketing Plan;

“BecauseI thought by now we would all be talking about something else”. He said

Hedidn’t care, so why should you? 

Becausethis is where your patients are and Facebook alone is one massive marketingopportunity, it really is huge!

Justthink about the numbers for a moment;

Facebook

·        Est1BNusers by Jan 2012

·        UKis the 3^rd biggest Facebook audience after the US and Indonesia

·        1million new UK users sign up to the site each month

·        Womenbetween 35-54 fastest growing segment

·        50%of UK users logging in every day

·        Theaverage session time spent on a social network in January 2011 was 22 minutes

Twitter

175 million registeredTwitter users. How many of these are regular users is unclear, but the numberof Tweets per day has rocketed to 95 million – an increase of 250% over 2010

LinkedIN

LinkedIn has grown by animpressive 100% from 2010 it now has over 100million users across the globe. 

Wehaven’t even started with Wikipedia yet.

Exciting things numbers,especially those preceded by a Pound sign, but this is not a Social Mediastatistics blog, sowhat can do about it? How can you convert a presence on Face/Twitter/In to an increase inpatient numbers?

Andwe'll get to that too, but let’s focus on the two most relevant tools; Twitterand Facebook.

Firstlya word of caution;  let's just wind backa little and look at what Facebook and Twitter are NOT to your customers;

1.They are NOT ways of bombarding advertising

2.They are NOT ways to air dirty laundry

3.They are NOT ways of telling them about your ski trip

Itis very easy to unwittingly alienate people on Twitter. Just think of yourselfhiring a nice consultant, me perhaps. We link up on Twitter and I bombard youwith tweets of me enjoying a debonair lifestyle and not working. Suddenly, youwill become keenly focussed on the fee and not the quality of my work. Yourpatients would react in the same way. A nice way of thinking about it isexplored in…… The concept of a Cocktail Party; If you wouldn’t talk about it inan intimate gathering, don’t tweet it.

SocialMedia is the MEDIUM, Facebook and Twitter are the TOOLS, the mechanism for youto use to ENGAGE with your patients. It is still a patient at the end ofthe day, and you still need to have an objective and a plan to acquire them.

However,before you start think about how much time you have to dedicate to this. You needto be disciplined and commit at least 2-5 hours per week to be consistent withyour efforts and not be a flash in the pan.

Also,and quite boringly if you are employed or are a contractor check thatorganisations policy on the use of Social Networking. Some are quiterestrictive, and it would be a shame to have to shut down after 25 hrs of work.

Social NetworkingObjectives

ASocial Networking objective would fit into one of the following categories, andideally move through them in order;

1.Initiate Interaction

2.Develop Relationships

3.Foster Loyalty

4.Develop Advocacy

Conveniently,these also fit very nicely into the lifecycle of an Aesthetic Patient. Once inthe clinic you engage and interact, develop them into a long term patient andeventual advocate and evangelist.

Let’sfocus on some detail

Initiate Interaction

Bylooking at the numbers we don’t need to worry, the tipping point has beenreached and online social interaction will continue to grow, so focus onquality of your engagement.

Tryto keep Twitter “blasts” (group messages and offers) to a minimum, as it is agreat way to burnout your followers and ensure you get unfollowed. This is evenmore important if you have just started, and would probably be more effectiveas an email marketing campaign.

Thinkabout relevant content for your patients, I will shoot the Social Media “Guru”who said that the optimum number of Tweets was 20 per day; Mrs RCS would claim Idon’t have 20 relevant comments in me.

Ibet I regret saying that.

Itmust be relevant for your followers and clients.

Focusfor this week is to set up the technology and begin to understand how it allworks.

Week1; Goals and Objectives

1.    Setup your clinic with a Twitter Account or Facebook Fan Page

2.    Connectwith your family and friends, familiarise yourself with your chosen tool

3.    Goto https://support.twitter.com/groups/ or facebook.com/pages and read up

4.    Ifyou haven’t been asking clients for email/Twitter details now is the time tostart

Develop Relationships

Sowe’re off and running, you have used up your close networks patience and now itis time to bring in the punters. So start Tweeting, build your onlinereputation and ask a lot of questions. Relevant questions that will engage youand others in your network, such as “Who would be interested in….” Don’t forgetto put in the Hashtags (i.e #RCSConsulting) and keep as a single word (i.e#croydonfacelift)

Alsobe genuine, tweeting or beginning Facebook threads about subjects you’re notinterested in will come through very clearly as an uncomfortable fit.

Focusfor this week is to become familiar with content, and begin to engage your keyclients and penetrate their networks,

Week2; Goals and Objectives

1.    Continuewith your daily Tweet/Facebook Status Updates

2.    Fullycomplete the biographies and get a nice headshot or clinic photo

3.    Pickand add 25-50 people in the sector who are Industry thought leaders who you maywant to retweet or quote.

4.    Searchfor 10-20 targeted people to add this week

Foster Loyalty

Bythis point your network should be growing quite nicely, you will have the hangof interaction and all of the Technorati that you need to be on the way tobecoming a Social Ninja!

Nowyou can begin to really use the power of Social Networking (because you have anetwork) and look at building loyalty. Personally I love Facebook campaignsbecause they are very effective for increasing your network, and especially inAesthetics you can track the very easily. Here’s a few to give a try, or youcan create your own loyalty campaign, it’s quite easy.

X%Treatment discount for next 20 Facebook “likes”

Bringa friend and get X

Nextpatient to call and book gets free X

ReTweetand win an iPhone 4S (I’m a sucker for those)

Youget the idea

Week3; Goals and Objectives

1.    Continuewith your daily Tweet/Facebook Status Updates

2.    Searchfor 10-20 targeted people to add this week

3.    Targetwith 2 campaigns to drive a few patients through the door

4.    Makesure you track new clients and how they heard of you

Develop advocacy

The Holy Grail of any business, not just socialnetworking, is how to get your clients selling you and your service, and here Ithrow it open to the esteemed readership of Body Language(and no I am notcopping out!).

Developing advocacy happens as much in the clinic and isdependent on all aspects of your business.

You have been successful in using social networking toreach out and engage with your patients, they have come into your clinic andyou want them to rave about the experience.

The only way you will find out is with a patientsatisfaction survey, and actually ask them why the like you. It is a CQCrequirement to survey patients, but go further - you want to know WHY they think you're awesome and keep coming back toyou. Generally it should be because you have the right skillset, provideexcellent treatments and your marketing planning is effective.

Why don't you use Facebook and Twitter as the tools toask for testimonials and feedback, people often give them if you ask for them -and this can work if you use Facebook and Twitter as Customer Service tools aswell! 

In your fourth week continue with your dailyTweet/Facebook status updates; search for 10-20 targeted people to add thisweek and start to bring in the Key Opinion Leaders and industry big cheesesinto your network. We're very approachable!!

Now, for me in clinic practices are very much like Rugby- think of your Clinical Skills as your Forwards, the bedrock of the clinic. Ifyou have a weak forward pack, you won't succeed because you'll never have theball; if your clinical skills are poor you won't succeed because you will notgenerate patient advocacy.

The backs are your marketing, the flamboyant glory boys,who will take all of the credit for your highly successful clinic because theybring in the patients.

Forwards win Rugby matches, backs determine by how many.Clinical skills and strong marketing will provide success,

I told you it was tenuous. See you at FACE!!

The Social Scene

*Originally published in Cosmetic News Feb 2012*

Conversations around Social Networking generally go something like this;

Dr - "I heard Social Media is important, I need to get with this"

RCS - It really depends on what you want to achieve.

Dr - "I mean it's the future, isn't it?"

RCS - It's become a major communications channel, and is very useful for increasing brand awareness

Dr - "Times are tough, and need my business to grow"

RCS - That is your real need right there, Social Media is a tool that can help

Dr – “Great, how do I build a network really quickly? Will it take long?”

This is an ace conversation to have, and as part of a coordinated approach to customer communications, and Social Media should play a factor as part of your 2012 marketing plan.

However, the reality is that for the majority of small businesses in the Medical Aesthetics Sector, Social Media Tools are something that "is important and I'll get around to it". We know that they are important, but why? How do use them? What do I do? How long will it take?

Well, it's 2012 and Facebook launched in 2004, 8 years is an aeon ago in technological terms, and a large amount on information on the Web on the myriad of reasons why a business should engage in Social Networking. A quick Google Search will provide you with hours of bedtime reading, and the purpose of this article is to show you The How and help to cut down on the time needed to translate “the Why to the How”

I have done the work and provided 10 simple activities that will get you up and running, or a “0-60 Plan”. There are many, many ways to skin a Cat, and my prescribed activities are by no means the only way, but if you want 2012 to be the "Year I finally get my head around Social Networking", you have to start somewhere.

Well, somewhere is here with a few ideas to get you going.

Getting Started.

Before you launch headlong into this, take a step back and think. Have you really identified the WHY you need your to use Social Media?

Like my conversation at the beginning of the article, the real need here was to grow the business, which means using Social Media as a means to ENGAGE and CONNECT with YOUR PATIENTS.

A Social Networking objective would fit into one of the following categories, and ideally move through them in order;

1. Initiate Interaction

2. Develop Relationships

3. Foster Loyalty

4. Develop Advocacy

Conveniently, these also fit very nicely into the Acquire – Retain – Return lifecycle of an Aesthetic Patient.

You Initiate Interaction in the Acquisition phase through outbound marketing

Once in the clinic develop the relationship and encourage Retention through loyalty and finally encourage them to be a long term Returning patient, advocate and eventual evangelist.

Activity One – Thorough Planning and Goals

•          Think through

•          Know what your goals are

    Are you trying to acquire patients?

    Are you looking to communicate with existing patients?

    Are you looking to raise your profile within the industry?

Take your time, as your answers to these questions will inform you and make sure that your efforts are consistent. Once you know what your goals are, you will be able to measure the effectiveness of your efforts and ensure you choose the right tools for the job.

The Tools of the trade

OK, so you know what the objective is, now we need to choose the network and medium. I would start with the one of the following;

    Blog - The WeBlog, great if you have a lot to say, but can be time consuming to write original content

    Website - The humble website, being useful since 1995. Don’t overcomplicate matters and add the Blog page to your website. www.blogger.com is a good simple one to use, if you want something a little more advanced www.wordpress.com is your weapon of choice. Both integrated nicely with websites.

    Twitter - Amazing how much you can squeeze into 140 characters, great for quick comments to connections and simplicity itself to set up. Can be quite fun too!!

    Facebook – You’ve heard of it because it is huge Massive. The sheer scale of Facebook is astonishing, this is where your patients live – let’s just look at the numbers for a minute;

                Estimated 1BN users by Jan 2012

                The UK is the 3^rd biggest Facebook audience after the US and Indonesia

                1 million new UK users sign up to the site each month

                Women between 35-54 fastest growing segment

                50% of UK users logging in every day

    LinkedIN - Awesome tool for building business credibility and a great online CV.

Activity Two  -  Choose 1 or 2 Networks, and base on this criteria;

·         Are you currently using it "socially"?

o    It is much quicker to build a network if you already have one!

·         Are you familiar with the technology?

o    It is far less time consuming if you know the shortcuts and etiquette

·         Can anyone close help you?

o    If you don't know what #ff means, ask someone you know who is active on the network (or tweet @rcsconsulting)

If you are stuck, go with Twitter, Facebook, Blogger. Simple and effective.

Go to their homepages, set up your accounts. Twitter is a very straightforward process, Facebook is a little more complicated as you need to set up on Facebook pages, not a Facebook Page. Confusing, but the helpful chaps at

Your Window to the world, the Biography and Image

Before we can start inviting people to connect, you need to let them know who you are.

I love the fact that Social Networking etiquette allows us to blur the boundaries between work and life, we are human, so allow yourself to have some fun. Be professional and consider what you want your patients to see about you; even Alan Sugar is funny on Twitter. Remember that people buy from people, just ask Mr Branson.

Activity Three – Look at some of your colleagues bios and get some decent images of yourself (RCSConsulting practice what you preach)

Begin building your network.

Things should have been pretty simple so far, and you’ll have spent 5-6 hrs depending on your skill level. You now know what you want to achieve, you have your accounts, nice photo of you looking professional and imperious, and now are ready to start building your network.

Start safely and invite family and friends onto Facebook, and ask for honest feedback people who you trust and implement it. Personally I prefer Twitter; I find it much more fun than Facebook as it is a constant stream of noise and wonderful conversation, so I have linked Twitter to my Facebook page (more on that later).

Activity Four – Invite people you know and trust first, then open up to the wolves.

Work Smarter - Link them together

A big benefit of using a number of tools or channels is that you can often do it without having to duplicate your efforts. You don’t need to post on Twitter, and then Facebook and then LinkedIN for example. By putting #IN on a Twitter post will automatically update it on your LinkedIN status. But you knew that didn’t you, as you are becoming a serious Networking Ninja.

That being said, let me save you hours of strife – recent changes made to Facebook now mean that you can’t add your blog feed into Facebook pages.

This is clearly not helpful as you will need to copy and paste into Facebook, and I have voiced my displeasure to Mr Zuckerberg. However Twitter links with Facebook very easily and vice versa, just look for Twitter in Facebook Apps.

Activity Five – Link Facebook to Twitter and LinkedIN

Start Being Social!

Yep, no hiding anymore – you now actually have to start writing original comedy, or insightful business musings that will have the world rubbing its chin in a collective “hmmm”. Maybe, or just think about your identified goals and objectives, as what you write is linked directly to your audience. Be yourself and comment on your interests, if you hate Motor Racing, don’t try to be an authority on it.

Activity Six - Be honest in your choice of topics

Invite the thought leaders

The other stupendous thing with Social Networking is the amount expert opinion there is to be found, and you are your patients expert. Align yourself with the industry leaders and people you admire and you never know you might get airtime with them.

Also now choose and invite your top 20% patients with a personal invite and message.

These are crucial in establishing your credibility with your patients, and moving them towards loyalty and evangelism

Start developing relationships

If you haven’t gathered by now I am a fan of Twitter – it makes Connecting and engaging with your new network very easy indeed!. Like all things in life, you get what you give, so be generous with your time and network.

Here are some tactics I have used to grow and connect with my network;

•          Thank people for following you

•          ReTweet interesting updates

•          Engage in activity and discussions

•          Use #ff every Friday to recommend your favourite “Tweep” to your followers.

Activity Seven –Engage fully!

Measurement Tools to use

Tracking you efforts is quite straightforward and again, links to your goals and objectives. Don’t get too carried away with followers and friend numbers, what you should track are the ones you influence and can work with to grow the business and spread the word.

Good tool to use is www.klout.com, which uses complicated algorithms to tell you how important you are and Will tell you if you are on the right track.

Activity Eight – Measure your success with patients.

Be consistent with your efforts and don’t overdo the “me”

It is very easy to unwittingly alienate people on Twitter.

Just think of yourself hiring a nice consultant, me perhaps. We link up on Twitter and I bombard you with tweets of me enjoying a debonair lifestyle and not working. Suddenly, you will become keenly focused on the fee and not the quality of my work. Your patients would react in the same way. A nice way of thinking about it is the concept of a Cocktail Party; if you meet Mr or Mrs BIG I AM, how do you react?

If you feel uncomfortable talking about it in an intimate gathering, don’t tweet it.

Social Media is the MEDIUM, Facebook and Twitter are the TOOLS, the mechanism for you to use to ENGAGE with your patients. It is still a patient at the end of the day, and you still need to have an objective and a plan to acquire them.

However, before you start think about how much time you have to dedicate to this. You need to be disciplined and commit at least 2-5 hours per week to be consistent with your efforts and not be a flash in the pan.

Also, and quite boringly if you are employed or are a contractor check that organisations policy on the use of Social Networking. Some are quite restrictive, and it would be a shame to have to shut down after a few days

Activity Nine – Have fun, enjoy exploring the Twitterverse and Facebook pages

Activity Ten  - Feedback is a gift, let me know what you think of this article @rcsconsulting!! (providing expert tweetments).