Pinterest as a marketing tool

My wife and I recently (and successfully) had our kitchen and bathrooms remodeled. It wouldn’t have been possible without Pinterest.

For the uninitiated, Pinterest is a wildly popular social media site that allows users to find, share, and organize images called "pins." Pinterest launched in September 2010, and today it has more than 70 million active users. It’s one of the fastest-growing social media sites in history, and it ranks as one of the Top 50 most-visited websites in the United States.

In a previous column about Pinterest, I mentioned several reasons why it’s important for your medical practice. More than 80% of Pinterest users are female, and, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, women make 80% of health care decisions for their families. Therefore, Pinterest could be a persuasive marketing tool for physicians looking to expand their practices. Pinterest also can be an effective platform to share patient stories, to introduce your practice and staff to the public, and to show before and after images of medical procedures.

New research from Vision Critical, the world’s leading provider of Insight Communities, discovered a surprising new finding about Pinterest (published in the July-August 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review).

The researchers examined "showrooming," a phenomenon whereby shoppers visit actual stores to examine merchandise before purchasing it online. They say the threat is so intense to brick-and-mortar stores that at least one merchant has begun charging people to browse in his store! Their research, however, shows much less of a threat. Of the 3,000 social media users they surveyed, only 26% reported "regularly engaging in showrooming."

What they found more surprising was that 41% of respondents said that practice "reverse showrooming;" that is, they browse online first then purchase the product in a store. That’s exactly what my wife did when choosing and purchasing our new furniture, lighting fixtures, wallpaper, paint, and more.

This led me to contemplate how "reverse showrooming" might help a physician market his or her medical practice. First, understand that Pinterest relies on aspirational messaging. Marketers use images that tap into our desires, wants, and dreams. Pinterest typically represents our idealized selves – the fashion-forward woman, the perfect garden wedding, the sublime oceanfront hotel room. Pinterest is about the version of you that you want to become. The you with flawless skin, lustrous hair, and smooth thighs.

Pinterest can be a powerful marketing tool for dermatologists, particularly cosmetic dermatologists. Consider the Pinterest customer base: Data show that 83% of Pinterest users are female and 45% are aged 35-54 years. Consumers turn to Pinterest largely for fashion and beauty, DIY projects, home design, inspiration, education, humor, and product recommendations. In fact, Pinterest has become the No. 1 traffic driver to websites of women’s lifestyle magazines.

You can use Pinterest to drive traffic to your office website, where people can book appointments or buy products online. Although no formal data exist for physician referrals from Pinterest, the study showed that the social-to-sale purchasing power was 17% for hair and beauty products and women’s and men’s apparel.

How can Pinterest help you market your practice and encourage "pinners" to "reverse showroom" into your office? Let’s use the example of a cosmetic surgeon who is seeking to expand her patient base and promote her organic skincare product line.

Pinterest users are more likely to purchase items that are easy to find. So, if they’re looking for an organic sunscreen, and they click through the Pinterest image the doctor posted and land on her website where they can buy it, then they’ll be more apt to do so. Research shows that the likelihood of a purchase increases by an additional 34% when there are existing reviews and recommendations for the product, and 30% when there are product details provided.

Pins don’t have to be strictly medical; consider more purely social boards that relate to your specialty, such as the following examples:

Family practice doctors could use Pinterest for wellness promotion, with boards for spreading happiness, healthy recipes, and habits of healthy families. Oncologists could use Pinterest to share inspirational patient testimonials, best foods for chemotherapy patients, and support for caregivers. Ob.gyns could use Pinterest as an outreach tool for expectant and new moms with boards for breast-feeding tutorials, fashionable maternity clothing, and cool baby gear.

Pinterest has proven to deliver value to businesses. With the above recommendations, you can quickly and cost-effectively add this platform to your marketing and patient relationship efforts.

Dr. Jeffrey Benabio is a partner physician in the department of dermatology of the Southern California Permanente Group in San Diego and a volunteer clinical assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Benabio is @Dermdoc on Twitter.

My wife and I recently (and successfully) had our kitchen and bathrooms remodeled. It wouldn’t have been possible without Pinterest.

For the uninitiated, Pinterest is a wildly popular social media site that allows users to find, share, and organize images called "pins." Pinterest launched in September 2010, and today it has more than 70 million active users. It’s one of the fastest-growing social media sites in history, and it ranks as one of the Top 50 most-visited websites in the United States.

In a previous column about Pinterest, I mentioned several reasons why it’s important for your medical practice. More than 80% of Pinterest users are female, and, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, women make 80% of health care decisions for their families. Therefore, Pinterest could be a persuasive marketing tool for physicians looking to expand their practices. Pinterest also can be an effective platform to share patient stories, to introduce your practice and staff to the public, and to show before and after images of medical procedures.

New research from Vision Critical, the world’s leading provider of Insight Communities, discovered a surprising new finding about Pinterest (published in the July-August 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review).

The researchers examined "showrooming," a phenomenon whereby shoppers visit actual stores to examine merchandise before purchasing it online. They say the threat is so intense to brick-and-mortar stores that at least one merchant has begun charging people to browse in his store! Their research, however, shows much less of a threat. Of the 3,000 social media users they surveyed, only 26% reported "regularly engaging in showrooming."

What they found more surprising was that 41% of respondents said that practice "reverse showrooming;" that is, they browse online first then purchase the product in a store. That’s exactly what my wife did when choosing and purchasing our new furniture, lighting fixtures, wallpaper, paint, and more.

This led me to contemplate how "reverse showrooming" might help a physician market his or her medical practice. First, understand that Pinterest relies on aspirational messaging. Marketers use images that tap into our desires, wants, and dreams. Pinterest typically represents our idealized selves – the fashion-forward woman, the perfect garden wedding, the sublime oceanfront hotel room. Pinterest is about the version of you that you want to become. The you with flawless skin, lustrous hair, and smooth thighs.

Pinterest can be a powerful marketing tool for dermatologists, particularly cosmetic dermatologists. Consider the Pinterest customer base: Data show that 83% of Pinterest users are female and 45% are aged 35-54 years. Consumers turn to Pinterest largely for fashion and beauty, DIY projects, home design, inspiration, education, humor, and product recommendations. In fact, Pinterest has become the No. 1 traffic driver to websites of women’s lifestyle magazines.

You can use Pinterest to drive traffic to your office website, where people can book appointments or buy products online. Although no formal data exist for physician referrals from Pinterest, the study showed that the social-to-sale purchasing power was 17% for hair and beauty products and women’s and men’s apparel.

How can Pinterest help you market your practice and encourage "pinners" to "reverse showroom" into your office? Let’s use the example of a cosmetic surgeon who is seeking to expand her patient base and promote her organic skincare product line.

Pinterest users are more likely to purchase items that are easy to find. So, if they’re looking for an organic sunscreen, and they click through the Pinterest image the doctor posted and land on her website where they can buy it, then they’ll be more apt to do so. Research shows that the likelihood of a purchase increases by an additional 34% when there are existing reviews and recommendations for the product, and 30% when there are product details provided.

Pins don’t have to be strictly medical; consider more purely social boards that relate to your specialty, such as the following examples:

Family practice doctors could use Pinterest for wellness promotion, with boards for spreading happiness, healthy recipes, and habits of healthy families. Oncologists could use Pinterest to share inspirational patient testimonials, best foods for chemotherapy patients, and support for caregivers. Ob.gyns could use Pinterest as an outreach tool for expectant and new moms with boards for breast-feeding tutorials, fashionable maternity clothing, and cool baby gear.

Pinterest has proven to deliver value to businesses. With the above recommendations, you can quickly and cost-effectively add this platform to your marketing and patient relationship efforts.

Dr. Jeffrey Benabio is a partner physician in the department of dermatology of the Southern California Permanente Group in San Diego and a volunteer clinical assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Benabio is @Dermdoc on Twitter.

My wife and I recently (and successfully) had our kitchen and bathrooms remodeled. It wouldn’t have been possible without Pinterest.

For the uninitiated, Pinterest is a wildly popular social media site that allows users to find, share, and organize images called "pins." Pinterest launched in September 2010, and today it has more than 70 million active users. It’s one of the fastest-growing social media sites in history, and it ranks as one of the Top 50 most-visited websites in the United States.

In a previous column about Pinterest, I mentioned several reasons why it’s important for your medical practice. More than 80% of Pinterest users are female, and, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, women make 80% of health care decisions for their families. Therefore, Pinterest could be a persuasive marketing tool for physicians looking to expand their practices. Pinterest also can be an effective platform to share patient stories, to introduce your practice and staff to the public, and to show before and after images of medical procedures.

New research from Vision Critical, the world’s leading provider of Insight Communities, discovered a surprising new finding about Pinterest (published in the July-August 2013 issue of Harvard Business Review).

The researchers examined "showrooming," a phenomenon whereby shoppers visit actual stores to examine merchandise before purchasing it online. They say the threat is so intense to brick-and-mortar stores that at least one merchant has begun charging people to browse in his store! Their research, however, shows much less of a threat. Of the 3,000 social media users they surveyed, only 26% reported "regularly engaging in showrooming."

What they found more surprising was that 41% of respondents said that practice "reverse showrooming;" that is, they browse online first then purchase the product in a store. That’s exactly what my wife did when choosing and purchasing our new furniture, lighting fixtures, wallpaper, paint, and more.

This led me to contemplate how "reverse showrooming" might help a physician market his or her medical practice. First, understand that Pinterest relies on aspirational messaging. Marketers use images that tap into our desires, wants, and dreams. Pinterest typically represents our idealized selves – the fashion-forward woman, the perfect garden wedding, the sublime oceanfront hotel room. Pinterest is about the version of you that you want to become. The you with flawless skin, lustrous hair, and smooth thighs.

Pinterest can be a powerful marketing tool for dermatologists, particularly cosmetic dermatologists. Consider the Pinterest customer base: Data show that 83% of Pinterest users are female and 45% are aged 35-54 years. Consumers turn to Pinterest largely for fashion and beauty, DIY projects, home design, inspiration, education, humor, and product recommendations. In fact, Pinterest has become the No. 1 traffic driver to websites of women’s lifestyle magazines.

You can use Pinterest to drive traffic to your office website, where people can book appointments or buy products online. Although no formal data exist for physician referrals from Pinterest, the study showed that the social-to-sale purchasing power was 17% for hair and beauty products and women’s and men’s apparel.

How can Pinterest help you market your practice and encourage "pinners" to "reverse showroom" into your office? Let’s use the example of a cosmetic surgeon who is seeking to expand her patient base and promote her organic skincare product line.

Pinterest users are more likely to purchase items that are easy to find. So, if they’re looking for an organic sunscreen, and they click through the Pinterest image the doctor posted and land on her website where they can buy it, then they’ll be more apt to do so. Research shows that the likelihood of a purchase increases by an additional 34% when there are existing reviews and recommendations for the product, and 30% when there are product details provided.

Pins don’t have to be strictly medical; consider more purely social boards that relate to your specialty, such as the following examples:

Family practice doctors could use Pinterest for wellness promotion, with boards for spreading happiness, healthy recipes, and habits of healthy families. Oncologists could use Pinterest to share inspirational patient testimonials, best foods for chemotherapy patients, and support for caregivers. Ob.gyns could use Pinterest as an outreach tool for expectant and new moms with boards for breast-feeding tutorials, fashionable maternity clothing, and cool baby gear.

Pinterest has proven to deliver value to businesses. With the above recommendations, you can quickly and cost-effectively add this platform to your marketing and patient relationship efforts.

Dr. Jeffrey Benabio is a partner physician in the department of dermatology of the Southern California Permanente Group in San Diego and a volunteer clinical assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Benabio is @Dermdoc on Twitter.