Simplify Your Social Media Life With HootSuite

I have wholeheartedly embraced social media to build my therapy practice and to educate the public on important emotional health and family relationship topics. Technology and social media have allowed me to grow my private practice free of managed care during difficult economic times. Facebook is the #2 referral source to my private practice website, topped only by Google. A common  challenge for private practice therapists is learning to effectively manage social networks in a way that maximizes their time and draws people to their practice.

People often ask how I stay on top of posting and interacting regularly on my social media networks. Just to give you an idea, I manage  3 Twitter accounts, 8 Facebook pages/profiles, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Ping.fm, 3 Ning accounts. One of my favorite social network management systems is HootSuite, a social media dashboard. Although I can't manage all of my accounts from HootSuite, I can manage the largest networks. I pay only $5.99 per month which includes the ability to add one "team member" to can access and manage my social network accounts.

Here's a list of social networks that you can manage from Hootsuite:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Foursquare
• Ping.fm
• WordPress
• MySpace
• Mixi

I'm hoping they'll add Facebook groups, StumbleUpon, and Pinterest very soon.

Here's my 5 minute tutorial walk through of HootSuite's basic functions so you can see the dashboard, functions, and how easy it is to use.

Here are some of the reasons I like HootSuite:

1) Save drafts

You can save drafts of updates, posts, links, etc. to post at a later time, or to repost which saves time.

2) Schedule posts

If you find an article link , quote, or other resource that you want to share on any or all of your social media networks, you can schedule a post in the future by setting the day and time. You can set aside a certain amount of time every week and schedule your posts for the week on all of your networks.

3) Interact directly from the dashboard

Not only can you post updates, photos, links, etc. for HootSuite, you can interact, comment, "like", retweet, and many other options on several networks from one place. You don't have to login to each site separately which saves time.

4) Selectively post to networks

You can send or schedule an update to specific social media pages and not to others. For example, one of my Facebook Pages is a "Music/Band" page for my performing and songwriting. I post more music related links, stories, etc. there and I don't post those on my  private practice Facebook page. You can select which updates to send to each social network depending on the interests of your audience on any specific account.

5) Add team members

HootSuite allows you to add team members to your accounts to help manage your social media. I recently added a team member to assist me. The dashboard shows which team member responded to certain social media posts so you can track the other member's interaction and avoid duplicating responses.

How do you manage your social media networks to build your therapy practice?

Why Social Media Matters to Therapists

You're in the mental health field because you want to make a difference and make a living, right? Technology and new media now allow therapists to educate and interact with worldwide audience and to talk directly to ideal clients...for free. Take a look at these recent statistics from the top social media sites:

1. There are 750 million active users (Facebook.com)
2. 200 million Tweets go out daily on Twitter (Twitter.com)
3. Over 400 billion YouTube videos videos are viewed each day (YouTube.com)

Of the 750 million Facebook users, half log into the site daily. This is great news for therapists in private practice because you now have access to thousands of your ideal clients. Can they find you? Do you have a Facebook "Page" for your therapy practice? (I'll be posting soon about the difference between a Facebook profile and a page). It's a great way to share resources, articles, and provide information about your practice and the issues that matter to you and your clients.

How about Twitter or YouTube? Can your ideal clients find you there? Are you tweeting about your specialty areas or your services? Do you have a video introducing yourself and your practice on YouTube? Think about it. Your potential clients are on the internet looking for mental health information and services. If you're feeling overwhelmed by these suggestions, never fear! I'll be walking you through effective and efficient ways to use social media sites to build your practice as the weeks go on. Keep in mind that social media sites are additional forums for building referral sources and networking, a place to talk with people.

So, why are so many therapists reluctant to embrace social media? Fears regarding breaches of confidentiality and the potential dual relationships are common concerns, however, there are ways to set up social media accounts so you're not mixing personal and professional information and relationships. In upcoming posts I'll suggest ways to utilize social media in an ethical way that helps you do a better job at educating on topics you're passionate about and using it in a way that builds your private practice.

Do you have questions, concerns, or fears about using social media to build your therapy practice? I'd love to discuss them so please post comments below.

photo credit: :: nany mata.