The Pros and Cons of Being on Social Media

According to Caitlin DeWilde, DVM, owner of The Social DVM, LLC, the pros of promoting your veterinary practice on social media far outweighs the cons.

"So, the pros and cons of being a veterinarian on social media. Obviously, I think there are a lot of pros to doing it. So, pros being obviously we have a great opportunity to #1 educate our clients—and that's something that as a professional we have an obligation to do, right. To keep the public in the community informed on public health issues. But of course educating our clients is ultimately going to lead them to be better pet owners, and healthier pets. So, that's a huge pro in my opinion. Of course there's the added bonus of getting a little bit more exposure, and accessibility, ultimately building that bond. So, letting your clients know, like, and trust you, that's what Dr. Dave Nichol always says. That's what people want, they want to know, like, and trust you and social media gives us the opportunity to cultivate that relationship and build those 3 things 365 days a year, when we otherwise might only see them 1day a year in our exam room.

So, the con side, I'll admit there's a few, but the biggest 1 being the time and the energy it takes, what to post, when to post, actually sitting down and making the posts, and then of course just monitoring that to make sure you're not missing anything, you know you're not getting any feedback that needs addressed, and those kind of things. But overall I think the pros far outweigh the cons."