WHAT EVERY PHYSICIAN NEEDS TO KNOW:

INTRO TO SOCIAL MEDIA & THE WEB

1 SOCIAL NETWORKS

most commonly used

• Facebook– a social network that allows users to create profiles, upload photos and video, send messages, and keep in touch with friends, family, and colleagues.

• LinkedIn– a business-oriented social network. LinkedIn is to your professional contacts what Facebook is to your friends. Think of it as your professional Facebook page.

1 SOCIAL NETWORKS

most commonly used

(Continued)• Google+ – Google’s version of Facebook. The focus is not on sharing

with a mass group of friends, but on targeted sharing with groups.• Twitter– a platform that allows users to share 140-character long

messages called “tweets.” Users can follow each other as a way of subscribing to each other’s messages.

2 SOCIAL NETWORKS

for photo sharing

• Instagram– a smartphone app that lets users take photos and videos, apply filters, and share those photos on Instagram and other social networks, like Facebook or Twitter.

• Pinterest – a pinboard-style photo sharing website that enables users to “pin” images from around the web to create theme-based image collections. Users can browse other pinboards for inspiration, “re-pin” images, or “like” photos.

2 SOCIAL NETWORKS

for photo sharing(Continued)• Tumblr – a microblogging platform and social network that allows

users to post multimedia and other content to a short-form blog.• Flickr – a social network that allows users to store and share photos

online.• Snapchat – a photo and video sharing service for smartphones. Users

send images to a select group of recipients, and after a set amount of time, the “snaps” can no longer be viewed.

3 SOCIAL NETWORKS for video sharing

• YouTube– a video-sharing website on which users can upload, share, and view videos. It is the second most popular search engine next to Google.

• Vimeo – a video sharing service, similar to YouTube. Vimeo user videos are often more artistic, and the service does not allow commercial video content.

• Vine– a video sharing service through which users can upload videos no longer than six seconds each. Owned by Twitter.

3 SOCIAL NETWORKS for video sharing

• Periscope– an interactive video streaming app owned by Twitter. Its live-streaming feature allows users to create their own broadcasting station to share live videos and have video conversations through their smartphone. Broadcasts are only available on the app for 24 hours.

• Twitch – a social video platform catered to the video gaming industry. It hosts live and video on demand for members to gather to watch and talk about video games. Members include game developers, publishers, media outlets, casual content creaters, and more.

4 REVIEW SITES for health care providers

• Yelp – a social network and local search website that provides users with a platform to review, rate, and discuss local businesses and services.

• Healthgrades – a health care rating site that allows users to “research, compare and connect with physicians and other healthcare professionals.”

• RateMDs – a health care rating site that provides “reviews and ratings on everything from cleanliness of hospital and care center facilities and amenities, to physician knowledge, as well as giving patients the ability to share their own personal experiences.”

4 REVIEW SITES for health care providers

(Continued)• Vitals — a physician review site that claims to have “over 1 million doctor,

dentist and medical facility profiles and over 5 million doctor ratings and reviews.”

• ZocDoc – an online service that allows patients to view a physician’s schedule and make appointments. The site also provides information on the physicians’ specialties, range of services, office locations, photographs, education, and user-submitted reviews.

5 WEB TERMS TO KNOW

• Hashtag– words or phrases prefixed with the symbol “#,” which is used on social media as a way to annotate a message and make it more easily searchable. Hashtags are commonly used to show that a post is related to an event or an online or cultural trend.

• Meme– content such as an image or video that is paired with text in a humorous or creative manner and is widely spread across the internet.

• Blog– short for ‘web log,’ a blog is a discussion or informational site consisting of discrete entries, called ‘posts,’ that acts as an online, personal journal for an individual writer.

5(Continued)• Googlecache – as Google crawls the web to index sites, it takes

snapshots of each page as a back up in case the current page is not available. These pages become part of Google’s cache. A user who clicks on a link that says “cached” will see a previous version of the site. Even if you succeed in removing information from a website, the Google cache copy may still exist for weeks and allow Google users to see the deleted information.

WEB TERMS TO KNOW

5 WEB TERMS TO KNOW

(Continued)• Searchengineoptimization(SEO) – a strategy for ensuring that anyone

typing your name or your practice name into a search engine will find you at the top of the search engine results page. SEO techniques include link building, content optimization, and creating specific meta tags and page titles.

• Trolls – digital bullies who create conflict in online communities by starting arguments and posting inflammatory or off-topic messages. Trolls deliberately attempt to upset other users, provoke an emotional response, or disrupt normal on-topic discussion.

7 PROTECTION FOR A NEW ERA OF

MEDICINEABOUTTMLT:With more than 18,000 physicians in its care, Texas Medical Liability Trust (TMLT) provides malpractice insurance and related products to physicians. Our purpose is to make a positive impact on the quality of health care for patients by educating, protecting, and defending physicians. www.tmlt.org

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