Lessons learned from 4 years of communicating to veterinarians and

producers in Ontario

Melanie Barham DVM, PMP

Animal Health Laboratory, University of Guelph

June 13, 2018

Intro, who am I

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• About OAHN communications

• Observations of veterinarians and producers

• Measuring success/failure

• Tools we have tried

• What’s on the horizon?

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Types of communications:Vet reportProducer reportPodcastSocial mediaMailing listNewsletters

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Observe the audience in their natural habitat

Veterinarians in the wild: how do they like to be communicated to?2 main points: 1. It depends on the sector, and the veterinarian group. Veterinarians working on different species behave differently. Potentially because their practice is built differently, potentially different personality types.

e.g., swine vets and poultry vets in general love data. Equine vets and bovine vets in general prefer case studies and info from peers.

2. Remember what you are competing with: billing, client call backs, client calls, clinic needs. Family, hobbies, dinner, lunches etc.

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How do producers want to be communicated with?

Producers: how do they like to be communicated to?

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Polls everywhere questions

To participate:

Use your smartphone or laptop to visit

www.PollEv.com/melaniebarha264

or

Text 37607 with the message MELANIEBARHA264

https://www.realagriculture.com/2016/07/farmers-love-and-rely-on-mobile-phones-even-more-than-the-general-public/

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Are you where your audience is?

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Focus groups of bovine vets: found that vets are different by age. Good thing we got a wide focus group!

Conclusions from bovine focus groups, and learning from vets in each sector:60 and up set prefer to print reports, and read them in their office or after hours still using smart phonesNeed to keep their behaviors in mind with colour use (printer ink a concern for those interested in printing!). Podcasts appear to be used in all age groups. As smart phone screens get larger, use increases in older professionals.

In general, mid career vets prefer a mixture- many will read on a table after hours, and use smart phones on the go. Like both written and podcasts.

In general younger vets prefer video media, images, and read most content on the go on tablets or smart phones. Remember they are juggling career, family, hobbies etc, so multi-tasking is king.

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Remember white space, images, and stories

Written design should include white space and no small fonts, sans serifUse photos, infographics, videosBe concise, figure out reading time/viewing timeYour WHOLE audience is short on attention span, and timeVideos for all demographics must also be short <1 minute

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“Can I use this information right now?”

All are looking for information they can use to inform decisionsWant to be informed of current eventsEmerging threats are important to themThey aren’t taking the time and don’t have access to journals as much as we do in academia/labThey are not able to take the time to traul the internet for facts

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Would your audience want to read this after a 14 hour day?

Is this material written/presented in a way they can easily digest, in short enough format, and in an engaging manner?

If not, how can it be?

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How do I cater to everyone without burning out?

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How do I make sure my staff won’t chase me with a pitchfork?

Use species knowledge to your advantageMake materials that transfer easily to different mediaPodcasts and videos CAN be time savers

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Use your knowledge to save you time

Leverage weakness into strength

Use species knowledge to your advantage bovine vets don’t like text heavy docs do short cases for them. Poultry vets like data show your data tables that you use to make articlesMake materials that transfer easily to different media do work ONCE, not THRICEPodcasts and videos CAN be time savers if they will use and love podcasts and videos, consider doing casual podcasts and videos (quick and easy, way faster than written reports)

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Modular material: how do I use what I’ve got?

Most of you are vets- you are already great at making do without and finding amazing solutions

Labnotes read to turn into a podcastNewsletter articles turn into lab notesInfographics clip them up to turn into social media posts, or newsletter insertsQuick tips social media tipsPower point presentations save cools slides as images for social media tips

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Social tips

Social media:

Make things EASILY shareabledisease alertsTake pdfs and turn them into jpegs (google convert pdf to jpeg)Post 3 times per day if possibleKeep text short, always include a photo/news linkCan be more fun, less formal

Remember a growing trend is for millenials to double up on tasks. If they are on Facebook/Twitter, they have a few minutes, and they are RECEPTIVE to learning. Growing trend is away from listservs, and into Facebook groups.

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Infographics

Free tools: Canva, powerpoint, PiktochartIcons: noun project

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Video

OAHN YouTube channel

Involve the right experts early to story board Does NOT have to be as professional as you think depends on your toneCan be casual conversations as well as more formalMost people watch videos without sound, particularly if on social media annotateLess than a minute best

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Video set up

• Digital video camera (Canon EOS Rebel T6) -$400

• Tripod - $60

• Clip on mic - $100

• Lighting set - $100

• Video editing software- Powerdirector ~$80

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The audience decides in the

first 3 seconds

to commit or leave

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It is ok to be fun sometimes, especially if you have really dry

information to share

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Podcasting tips

Podcasting: an easyish way to get a report doneLess formalEasy to call up professionalsLike everything else, MUST publish consistentlyList on iTunes, Google play storeAnnual hosting quite cheapCan also post webinars here, as well as vlogs if you desireHave fun, treat it like a conversationBest to stay under 30 minutes

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Podcasting set up

• Laptop- variable

• Audacity editing software - Free

• Podcasting mic - $120

• Portable Digital recorder - $80

• Podbean fees - $10/mth

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Some great tools

Editing audio

• Audacity

• iMovie

Editing video

• iMovie on phone/tablet

• Shotcut

Mailing lists

• MailChimp

• Constant Contact

• ConvertKit

Social media managers

• Hootsuite

• Buffer

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Consolidating information sources

• Google alerts

• Twitter search by hashtag

• Google sheets

• Listservs

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Dr. Belinda the vet (drbelindathevet.com)Snapchat

Dr. Andy Roark (drandyroark.com)Videos and blogs

Dr. Jon and Dr. Chris (interventional radiologists)Vlog about interventional radiology

Independent veterinary pathology YouTube

I Heart Histo- Histology (Facebook and Twitter)

Moms with a DVM Facebook group

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But where? When?

How in the heck do we track these things?Google analyticsShortened linksPdfs vs htmlPodcastsMetrics- cutting the wheat from the chaff

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What’s next?

Open telephone calls, webinars, etcRecording lecturesHow to use instagram and newer social media effectively?Citizen science, mapping

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Thank you to the OAHN team!

OMAFRA co-leads: Christa Arsenault, Jocelyn Jansen, Alison Moore, Jim Fairles, Maureen Anderson, Csaba Varga, Alexandra Reid, Wael Haddad

AHL pathologist leads: Murray Hazlett, Josepha DeLay, Kris Ruotsalo, Marg Stalker, Maria Spinato, Andrew Brooks, Marina Brash, Emily Martin

OAHN Comms Administrator: Mike Deane

Executive committee for OAHN: Leslie Woodcock, Grant Maxie, Cathy Furness, Heather Harrison, Suzanne Conquer, Jim Fairles

Open telephone calls, webinars, etcRecording lecturesHow to use instagram and newer social media effectively?Citizen science, mapping

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Website www.oahn.caTwitter @OntAnHealthNetFacebook @OntarioAnimalHealthNetworkPodcasts www.oahn.podbean.com

Aim of communication tools: provide quality information to veterinarians and producers in Ontario to make better animal health decisions

What is OAHN

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