Richard Winters MD

Proven strategies to help you become a more effective leader.

A Physician Advertising on Twitter is Exposed. The Sordid Details.

Here I sit, drenched in flop sweat.
I have been discovered.


It is true. I—a physician—promoted some tweets on Twitter.

And more important: Am I any different than those drug reps I block from my department and whom others hide under tables to ignore?

Read on, brave reader, I will reveal the sordid details.

How it all started.

A few months ago, I wrote a blog about the disruption of health care. I posted it in our hospital’s medical staff newsletter and received positive feedback. I felt good about this post and had spent a good amount of time writing and editing it. I wanted to share it. I wanted to hear what other people thought.

My blog site, RichardWinters.com, at that time was getting about 20 visits each day (I have a big family). So I decided that I would submit the blog as a guest post to a high traffic medical blog.

I was turned down by one blog with a polite form letter, and the other said that it was a great post (and could I also write about my experience as an executive coach for physician leaders). Then they forgot me, and it was not published.

So I published the blog on my own site. It was retweeted by 3 people and favorited by 1 with a daily traffic spike on my blog of 40 visitors.


And I asked myself:

  • Am I writing a diary or am I writing about ideas that I want to share? No, I am not writing a diary. That would be far more interesting and have at least as many retweets.
  • How do I reach those who don’t follow me? (other than writing daily for years and slowly building an audience) I like my Twitter friends, but we are sort of an open but remote community of emergency physicians. I’d like to reach more physicians in specialties outside our own.
  • What if I promoted the post on Twitter? If nobody responded, the message would be clear: Either I stink as a writer (only good writers get retweets and followers—a known twitter #fact) or promoting a tweet is just so dang narcissistically creepy that it’s more repulsive than following Jenny MacCarthy (not to be confused with Jenny McCarthy).

So I trialed a promoted tweet on Twitter. And here were the results:

Physician Promoted Tweet Results Graph

The post went from:

  • 3 retweets to 53 retweets
  • 1 favorite to 31 favorites
  • 40 visits per day to 250 visits per day

I also gained 111 followers.
(These numbers are higher since I turned off the ad.)

What were the criteria for the sponsored tweet?

It was shown:

  • only to people who don’t follow me
  • to Twitterers with similar interests
  • only in the US
  • to all platforms (even Blackberry)
  • men and women

Other details?

  • 6.13% of those who were shown the ad retweeted, replied or followed me (known as engagement)
  • the cost per engagement was $0.45

Was it worth it?

  • I picked up a couple more coaching clients. They are physician leaders in senior health care positions.
  • I was offered an opportunity to guest blog at one of the sites that initially said no. (they may yet again forget me)
  • I was contacted by a professor at the University where I got my MBA.
  • I had some nice conversations with new Twitter friends.
  • I have an opportunity to learn from bigger group of Twitter friends.
  • I have a deeper understanding of one more small facet of social media.
  • I got no complaints. (though perhaps my Twitter HCAHPS survey will reveal something different)

Will I advertise on Twitter again?

Yes.

Social media provides physicians an opportunity to learn, teach, and lead health care. It provides an opportunity to connect for greater impact. I want to understand it deeply and also help others understand it.

I think it’s important that the tweets I promote:

  • are honest about what is beyond the clicked link.
  • link to the same content that I already blog (i.e. social rss).
  • are educational (and perhaps a bit entertaining).

Will I advertise this blog post with a promoted tweet?

Yes.

I will promote it as two different tweets. A randomized A/B experiment to see how different titles affect engagement rates.

1. How a physician used Twitter ads to increase followers, retweets and favorites for a blog post. My experience: [link]

2. A physician advertising on Twitter is exposed. The sordid details. My confession: [link]

If you want to hear about:

  • the head-to-head results of the new ads
  • the results of promoting my twitter username
  • more details of costs and the most effective devices/platforms
  • insight as to how to get a bigger result for a lower cost








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Also, be sure to read Movin’ Meat’s blog. He is a much smarter writer than I and a good friend. ← Paid for (unknowingly) by beer at annual ACEP conferences