IT ADVISER

How to scoop up social media posts that extol your virtues

New Facebook feature allows reposting of glowing testimonials.

By Joe Dysart

Ophthalmology social media managers are jazzed about a new Facebook feature that allows anyone to scoop up flattering content from public posts and repost it on websites, blogs and other social networks.

Dubbed “embedded posts,” physicians and other professionals have eyed this new capability as an easy way to quickly collect a number of glowing testimonials and then repost that content in as many other Web environments and social networks as possible.

Embedded posts “make it possible for people to bring the most compelling, timely public posts from Facebook to the rest of the Web,” says Dave Capra, a software engineer at Facebook.

Adds Jeffrey Gold, MD, of Liberty Vision in Hamden, Conn.: “We collect testimonials and feedback from all of our patients as part of our post-surgical follow up process. My marketing person uses them plus an image of the patient for Facebook, and we get a nice response from that.”

BEYOND POSTS

The new feature also enables ophthalmology practices to repost positive reports about them that appear on the Facebook pages of national and local news organizations.

Each embedded post retains the look and feel of Facebook, which many marketers believe adds credibility to any testimonial because viewers typically see the embed as a spontaneous endorsement from the original poster, not a paid endorsement.

Plus, embedded posts include any images and video the original post feature, a boon to ophthalmologists looking to spice up their websites and blogs with free multimedia. The new capability also makes it easier for ophthalmology practice managers to update their websites and blogs daily without paying a Web designer.

SCOOPING UP POSTS

In practice, scooping up an embedded Facebook post is as easy as clicking on the globe icon in the top right corner, indicating the post is public. With the click, a line of code appears, which the user then copies and pastes to the desired website or blog.

While the technique is familiar to anyone who has designed the most basic of websites, newbies can still get in on the act. Essentially, they can copy the code for as many embedded posts as they like, then e-mail that code to their Web designer for placement.

Of course, as soon as you start embedding snippets of Facebook, you’ll have to expect that a good deal of Facebook comes with it. Every embedded post you place on your website, for example, also offers access to all the other comments, likes and shares associated with that post. (You can access this information by clicking the “See More” link included in every embedded post you place on your website.)

So, before your web designer embeds a friendly Facebook testimonial about your practice, someone will need to double-check the testimonial to ensure it has no negative comments about your practice associated with it.

TWO-WAY STREET

Embedding Facebook posts on your web properties also means you’ll be offering your audience the ability to post Facebook likes and comments from your sites and share the content of your embedded post on Facebook. Plus, people will be able to “follow” the person whose post you embed and receive new posts from that original creator in her or his Facebook stream.

One concern: While Facebook embeds are currently ad-free, many worry that Facebook may soon run advertising wherever it’s embedded posts appear. That would mean Facebook could run advertising on your website if you embed posts from Facebook.

“It’s not out of the question to imagine that a video embedded post on your Web page could also show Facebook’s 15-second ads,” says Christopher S. Penn, vice president at Shift Communications, a press relations agency. “The 15-second ad format is obviously targeted for running on Instagram properties (Facebook owns Instagram), but it could just as easily run on Facebook’s properties as well.”

With the move to offer embedded content, Facebook joins a number of other social networks — Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Quora — that make it easy to share and embed their content anywhere across the Web. OM

Jeffrey Gold, MD, medical director, Liberty Vision, regularly uses testimonials to promote his practice on the Web.

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan (www.joedysart.com). His e-mail: joe@joedysart.com.