Founder and CEO of Uptown Creation Chris Cozzolino, PharmD joins the Quality Corner Show to talk about how pharmacies should optimize social media strategies with Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts.
Cozzolino talks about which social media channels can have the biggest impact in optimizing your online presence and the importance of promoting a pharmacist's healthcare expertise. He also stresses that taking a leap and moving past your comfort zone can be helpful in producing content that reaches a wider audience.
Founder and CEO of Uptown Creation Chris Cozzolino, PharmD joins the Quality Corner Show to talk about how pharmacies should optimize social media strategies with Podcast Host Nick Dorich, PharmD, PQS Associate Director of Pharmacy Accounts.
Cozzolino talks about which social media channels can have the biggest impact in optimizing your online presence and the importance of promoting a pharmacist's healthcare expertise. He also stresses that taking a leap and moving past your comfort zone can be helpful in producing content that reaches a wider audience.
00:00:01:02 - 00:00:35:13
Chris Cozzolino
And the thing that I that I always say to pharmacists is that I don't want to say that it's our duty to create content, but to some extent there's going to be people creating content no matter what. And a lot of times they're not going to be they're not going to be health care providers. And so when you think about the content that your patients are consuming, actually being able to have some say in that by having a voice, I think is something that all health care providers should kind of strive for to have an impact just because there's going to be somebody that your patients are consuming content from.
00:00:35:15 - 00:00:42:20
Chris
And the more professional that can be and accurate, the better.
00:00:42:22 - 00:01:07:23
Intro
Welcome to the Pharmacy Quality Solutions Quality corner show where quality measurement leads to better patient outcomes. This show will be your go to source for all things related to quality improvement and medication use and health care. We will hit on trending topics as they relate to performance measurements and find common ground for payers and practitioners. We will discuss how the EQUIPP platform can help you with your performance goals.
00:01:08:00 - 00:01:29:11
Intro
We will also make sure to keep you up to date on pharmacy quality news. Please note that the topics discussed are based on the information available at the date and time of reporting. Information or guidelines are updated periodically and we will always recommend that our listeners research and review any guidelines that are newly published. Buckle up and put your thinking cap on.
00:01:29:13 - 00:01:44:24
Intro
The Quality Corner show starts now.
00:01:45:01 - 00:02:09:10
Nick Dorich
Hello Quality Corner Show listeners. Welcome to the PQS podcast, where we focus on medication, use, quality improvement and how we can utilize pharmacists to improve patient health outcomes. I'm your host, Nick Dorich. We all know that pharmacists are referenced as the most accessible health care provider. However, as noted by myself and some of our prior guest on the show, that statement may be a little bit misleading.
00:02:09:11 - 00:02:33:01
Nick
Now, let me explain what I mean by that. The pharmacy, as in the physical building, based on the geographic maps, that may be the most common or most accessible site for health care services. However, the availability of the pharmacist or the pharmacy technicians on site, those that are actually providing patient care services, they may not be as available as the pharmacy is open.
00:02:33:03 - 00:02:57:21
Nick
Not every pharmacy is open when patients want to or preferred receive their services or when they're out of their work hours. And of course, not all pharmacists are trained and developed in the same way. For example, while most pharmacists at this point are trained to provide immunizations or test and treat services, not all are trained and some may be trained but not provide those services because different rules, regulations or availability of products in their pharmacy.
00:02:57:23 - 00:03:24:03
Nick
So how pharmacists and pharmacists differentiate themselves, that can be a key opportunity to further the profession of pharmacy, the market ability and financial standing of the pharmacy and of course can increase the patient interest and trust in what the pharmacy provides. So in this day and age, we cannot avoid that social media has a disproportionate impact on how people read, watch and learn about the world around us.
00:03:24:08 - 00:03:53:02
Nick
This does include how people interact with health care, with health care providers, and what they understand about their own health. For that reason, at the Quality Corner Show, we really wanted to cover emerging forms of social media and how pharmacies and pharmacist can elevate their presence to outreach to current and prospective patients. So for today's episode, we brought in a special guest, someone that until recently I had only communicated to over several years through social media platforms.
00:03:53:02 - 00:04:05:00
Nick
And this finally gave me a reason to contact him via the good old email. But today's guest is Chris Cosentino, co-founder and CEO of Uptown Creation. Chris, welcome to the show and how are you doing today?
00:04:05:02 - 00:04:14:23
Chris
Thanks for having me. Nick I'm doing I'm doing well today. It's a good morning and I'm excited to talk about my favorite topic, social media and social media strategies.
00:04:15:00 - 00:04:31:00
Nick
Excellent. Well, Chris, I'm not going to I'm not going to spoil it. I'll let you explain it for everybody here on the show. Before we begin, we need to know who you are. Audience needs to know who you are. So can you give us a little bit about, you know, your background, your background in health care, but then what it is you do now and uptown creation.
00:04:31:01 - 00:05:06:18
Chris
Yeah. So I went to pharmacy school at the University of Iowa. I graduated in 2020 and kind of since then I've done some MTM roles as a pharmacist. But my main role is kind of the founder of a social media marketing company with an emphasis on kind of B2B services. So, you know, since I've graduated pharmacy school and even during pharmacy school, I was kind of in the trenches of social media tactics from growing Instagram accounts, growing LinkedIn presences and creating content as well as YouTube and kind of everything in between.
00:05:06:18 - 00:05:15:10
Chris
So really where I sit and what my happy place is, is really in the trenches of the tactics of social media marketing.
00:05:15:12 - 00:05:40:02
Nick
Excellent. So when it comes to we've had we've had pharmacists on this show previously with nontraditional roles. Your role as someone in the social media market is this may be the most nontraditional role for a pharmacist, but, you know, we as pharmacists have a great skill set and there's a lot of great things that we can do. However, we don't, I don't think this is out of line to say we don't possess every skill set.
00:05:40:05 - 00:05:56:09
Nick
And sometimes it takes us working with other professionals to really maximize what we do and promote it to patients. And this is why I have a real interest in the things that that you do at Uptown Creation. And you are a pharmacist, but you've really tailored your skill set to doing something more broad than that. You work with health care professionals.
00:05:56:09 - 00:06:11:15
Nick
But you said, as you mentioned, a lot of your focus focus at up down creation is B-to-B business to business. So you're going to be doing a lot of work with not just health care, but with other operations. So I think that's going to be really interesting. And of course, we're going to talk about how we communicate to the general public as well.
00:06:11:21 - 00:06:21:18
Nick
So, Chris, you you are you have your farm day. You've been through that experience as a pharmacist, but you're doing something completely now for for now and at this point in your career, correct?
00:06:21:20 - 00:06:23:16
Chris
Yeah, exactly.
00:06:23:18 - 00:06:34:21
Nick
All right. Well, folks, we're going to go ahead and get into our questions with Chris here in just a moment. But before we do that, we have to hear a quick message from my teammates at Pcas.
00:06:34:23 - 00:06:59:11
Breakdown
Now it's time for the breakdown as quality corner show host little as three main topic questions. Our guest will have a chance to respond and there will be some discussion. To summarize the key points. This process will repeat for the second and third questions, which will wrap up the primary content for this the 14th. After that, it's next in on a closing summary, usually containing a bonus question.
Now that we have the start of the process, let's jump into the questions.
00:07:06:13 - 00:07:28:03
Nick
All right, Chris, we're ready to begin with the Questions for today's podcast. So we're recording this. It's August 2023. And, you know, throughout the last we'll say it last 15 years or so, there's been different phases, different waxes and wanes as social media platforms that are particularly new, some that are the old guard that have been really been around.
00:07:28:08 - 00:07:45:06
Nick
But, you know, as it relates this and as it relates to pharmacy, can you talk to us about, you know, what are some of the new social media platforms that pharmacies, as we'll say, a business as the brick and mortar business, but then pharmacists as individual practitioners or providers or content creators, you know, what should we be leveraging?
00:07:45:06 - 00:07:53:20
Nick
The way that I think about this is, you know, hey, if you got to use one, maybe two social media platforms, what are those go to ones that that folks should be leveraging.
00:07:53:22 - 00:08:23:14
Chris
Yeah. And I think before I jump into the exact platforms, I just want to tee it up as the opportunity that pharmacists have for social media really is a great one. And I didn't even really realize it until after pharmacy school. And looking back at how I was more comfortable public speaking and explaining topics, the pharmacy school and pharmacists in general are really good at taking really complex problems and issues and simplifying them, and that's what we do every single day.
00:08:23:16 - 00:08:50:20
Chris
And it's kind of second nature to us because it's part of our job and our role. But that is really a superpower when it comes to social media as being able to take something that's really complex, simplify it, and be able to convey that to the general public. And I think that social media gives you the opportunity to be able to amplify that message and whatever expertise you have as a pharmacist or as a pharmacy, being able to, you know, amplify that message.
00:08:50:21 - 00:09:13:13
Chris
So with that being said, I think always the number one platform for pharmacies and pharmacists is going to be LinkedIn. That's going to be more from a professional standpoint, but you're also able to do some cool things from a brick and mortar standpoint. The really powerful thing about LinkedIn is that you can actually kind of handpick people that you want to interact with.
00:09:13:15 - 00:09:34:09
Chris
And so being able to literally search your zip code and, you know, the ten mile radius around it, not only can you find other professionals in your area, you can find everybody that's on LinkedIn in that area. And that very well might be some of your current patients and some of your future patients that you might be able to have an impact on.
00:09:34:11 - 00:10:11:10
Chris
So I think from a brick and mortar pharmacy standpoint of marketing, being able to cultivate an audience that's very local, since so many brick and mortar pharmacies are kind of regionally located outside of that, I think choosing the platform kind of matters what you're most comfortable with. Long form YouTube is going to be an excellent place to distribute content, not only because it kind of houses their content, but also their algorithm is just so good at feeding information to people that are looking for it.
00:10:11:11 - 00:10:37:24
Chris
So if you are kind of a pharmacy that's wanting to create a social media marketing strategy, being able to create educational videos, publishing those on YouTube, knowing that you can share those with your own patients and it can kind of act as a resource internally, but also, you know, people all over the country and the world are then able to search those videos and get whatever benefit comes from them.
00:10:38:01 - 00:11:05:07
Nick
Excellent. So while we're here and while we're on this topic, I'll ask about a couple of, I guess, forums or maybe even platforms that are a little bit newer just to be direct upon upon this. And even as I was preparing this episode and thinking about the questions, there is a part of me that says, you know, hey, these these particular platforms are modes of social media are for perhaps the younger generations, which maybe aren't necessarily the patients that we're trying to target that are most prominent in the pharmacy.
00:11:05:09 - 00:11:24:16
Nick
But, you know, family connections are the things that attack other things like that can still be an important. So, you know, when it comes to a pharmacy, when it comes to emerging social media, really the popular ones seem to be, you know, tick tock. And then whether it's on on Facebook or Instagram, that meta family, you know, reels or stories being that short form video.
00:11:24:18 - 00:11:35:15
Nick
Is that something that pharmacy should look at playing in or is that something where, hey, maybe that's not necessarily where they're going to be really promoting to their typical patient or consumer base?
00:11:35:17 - 00:11:54:03
Chris
So I think that that's a place that you can have a bigger impact outside of kind of what your regional brick and mortar location might be. And I think that a huge trend that we've seen just in social media in the last even five years is the difference between like a company and then the leaders of that company.
00:11:54:03 - 00:12:27:16
Chris
So being able to have an executive presence, executive presence is all over the place. If you are kind of the founder, the CEO, president, any kind of VP level or above, being able to have your own individual social media presence on top of the company presence amplifies the message greatly. So I think that the beautiful thing about TikTok, the meta family YouTube shorts, is that it is kind of these short reels that you can put on a lot of different platforms and be able to see an impact on.
00:12:27:18 - 00:12:51:07
Chris
The reason why I didn't leave with Tik Tok is because their algorithm is very unique in the sense of it's less search based and more it feeds it to the people that have an interest in something which is obviously beneficial from a distribution standpoint. But if you're trying to target very specific individuals, it might not be the go to strategy.
00:12:51:13 - 00:13:20:09
Chris
The answer is always going to be doing both. And I think that if I was the owner of a pharmacy, being able to have the videos that I create as well as the other pharmacists at my pharmacy, I would segment that content into like very educational about, you know, the disease states that I'm most passionate about supplementation, things like that, and then do that from an individual or personal account on all of those platforms.
00:13:20:09 - 00:13:37:12
Chris
LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, because individuals are always going to get more organic distribution of content than brick and mortar or companies are going to just because you can put a name, a face to it. People resonate with people more than kind of a company with a name.
00:13:37:14 - 00:14:03:12
Nick
Yeah, So it's a great call out and I'll look to summarize it for folks here very, very briefly, thinking one thing about how you promote on social media or what you share on social media, some platforms are better suited to focusing on and outreaching to the people that are in your area. So, you know, if you're a pharmacy that's located and we'll say Iowa City, you know, reaching patients or consumers in Portland, Oregon, may not necessarily help drive your business.
00:14:03:12 - 00:14:25:21
Nick
Right. It may help you go viral in Portland, Oregon. But if that doesn't lend itself to actually promoting your business and getting people coming in the doors and asking your pharmacies about getting service X, Y, Z, it's not lending itself necessarily to any real improvement for your for your status. So like a lot of things in life, think, think local and focus on that local aspect before going into a more broad application.
00:14:25:23 - 00:14:48:18
Nick
Chris I'll move us to our next question and we've talked a little bit about what platforms we should be using and a little bit of the why. But let's talk about the message or how you craft and prepare that message. Are there major do's and do nots of current social media platforms to maximize engagement? And we could have a conversation, frankly, just for for probably an hour long.
00:14:48:20 - 00:14:57:16
Nick
We could probably have a longform discussion on on YouTube about this, but we're going to try to keep it short here, maybe. What are the couple of highlights that you think about that pharmacists should think about?
00:14:57:20 - 00:15:40:15
Chris
Yeah, I think the punch line of everything is to get to the point as quick as possible. Brevity is a superpower when it comes to social media, especially with some of the shorter form content being able to kind of the format that people always talk about is a story offer or call to action. So having a hook that really draws somebody in kind of summarizes what's about to be talked about in either a longer post with words or a longer or shorter ticktock, then having kind of the story or whatever the body of that message is, and then ending it with a call to action or an offer, usually a call to action, just even could be, you know, asking for somebody opinion and getting them to comment and leave engagement. Or it could be as aggressive as, you know, come into the pharmacy and we'll give you X, Y, and Z at cost or for free. So being brief and to the point with whatever you're trying to share is going to be your superpower.
00:16:03:04 - 00:16:30:17
Chris
The other concept, I think, is especially with written being able to make very short and choppy sentences. The reason being people are consuming more and more on mobile, but also attention spans and everything. So, you know, we know all about keeping things at a lower reading level, lower grade reading level. That applies to social media. So we're already ahead of the game in terms of creating patient resources.
00:16:30:19 - 00:17:01:23
Chris
But being able to take that to social media will serve you very well. If I had to create a strategy, what I would recommend would be, you know, like I said before, segmenting the company and the business and the brick and mortar pharmacy from the individuals, then from an individual standpoint, what I would be doing is, you know, making posts on LinkedIn that might be a higher level and be able to engage with professionals around my area.
00:17:02:00 - 00:17:31:09
Chris
I would probably even create a podcast and try to talk to, you know, physicians and all levels of practitioners in and around my area. Just so if you do start distributing content, these are going to be names that people might see. You might be talking to their primary care provider and if they see that, they might be introduced now to you and say, Hey, I want to go to Catalino Pharmacy because I heard this guy talk and you know, it seems like he really cares about people.
00:17:31:11 - 00:18:01:11
Chris
I think that that's a very local strategy that can perform really well because you're taking kind of these these key thought leaders and people in a specific area that might not have distribution everywhere, but you can get that local kind of involvement. Then from there, I would take some of that content and post that on the company page to be able to, you know, kind of make the most out of the time that you're spending.
00:18:01:13 - 00:18:30:08
Chris
Every pharmacist is going to be extremely busy, especially in a community setting. So any way that you can make it so you can have an impact, but do it in kind of a smart way. I think that and so this isn't my strategy. This is stealing from Gary Vaynerchuk, but having a pillar of content, like a podcast where you're able to have, you know, 30 to 45 minutes of content, but then you can clip that up, you can take the most viral moment, so to speak, 30 seconds.
00:18:30:10 - 00:18:44:06
Chris
And now from taking 30 to 45 minutes of your time and whatever preparation was involved, now you have, you know, 100 pieces of content. Maybe when you take the transcripts and create written posts as well as video.
00:18:44:08 - 00:19:17:15
Nick
So, Chris, if I'm hearing you right about this, the major do or any kind of social media post video, etc., keep it short, give people a hook and create the call to action. Right. So you need to have those short form parts that are going to really grab attention and bring people in and then direct them or redirect them to either, you know, your physical location as the pharmacy point out, what services you're offering or how friendly the staff is, what that may be, or information about, you know, new vaccines.
00:19:17:15 - 00:19:30:19
Nick
But you need to redo that. The focus of the social media isn't necessarily the views that you're getting on a social media post, but the action that it creates by getting the people to go to your website to look at the service or to show into the pharmacy. Is that is that a correct summary here?
00:19:30:21 - 00:19:49:12
Chris
Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a great way of putting it. And, you know, people always struggle with what type of content to create. I think that reaching out to other thought leaders and practitioners in your area is a great way to kind of do an interview, but then talk about whatever disease state they might specialize in or be passionate about.
00:19:49:14 - 00:20:10:14
Chris
I think another way is if you start getting a lot of questions at the pharmacy about something specific Semaglutide for example, there was tons of social media buzz about that. And the thing that I that I always say to pharmacist is that I don't want to say that it's our duty to create content, but to some extent there's going to be people creating content no matter what.
00:20:10:14 - 00:20:35:14
Chris
And a lot of times they're not going to be they're not going to be health care providers. And so when you think about the content that your patients are consuming, actually being able to have some say in that by having a voice, I think is something that all healthcare providers should kind of strive for to have an impact just because there's going to be somebody that your patients are consuming content from.
00:20:35:16 - 00:20:44:22
Chris
And the more professional that can be and accurate, the better. So I'll just kind of leave that thought with everybody.
00:20:44:24 - 00:21:01:06
Nick
Yeah. Chris I could not have said it better myself, and that was part of the point I wanted to make sure we that we get to and you beat me to the punch on it just naturally. And that part of the description. So with that will, I'll move to our next and final big question or topic for this conversation.
00:21:01:08 - 00:21:19:13
Nick
And we've talked about how pharmacists in the pharmacy how they can really push or, you know, promote create, you know, social media. But there's also an aspect of how we as pharmacists can better use social media for our own learning and education before we leave. To that, make sure I want to make sure we touch on that aspect of it.
00:21:19:13 - 00:21:50:24
Nick
So, you know, for a pharmacist or pharmacy team, how can we best utilize social media platforms to improve our own education and understanding? Part of this may be, hey, how do we, you know, better understand clinical guidelines, But I think to your prior comments, how can we also better understand what patients are seeing and learning on social media so that we can either, you know, double down on those education pieces or perhaps correct some of the things that they may be learning on social media that are not quite so?
00:21:50:24 - 00:21:54:16
Nick
Right. So where would you point or what would you call out to pharmacists in that regard?
00:21:54:20 - 00:22:14:06
Chris
Yeah, I think that step number one is kind of searching topics that your patient population might also be searching just so you can kind of see what they're seeing. Chances are they're going to Google the most basic way of explaining something and they're probably going to click something on the first page, and that's where at least they're going to start.
00:22:14:08 - 00:22:55:06
Chris
So knowing just the basics of that and seeing that firsthand, I think is important. Just to understand what a patient coming to you with a question might have as background knowledge. I think also then finding content creators that are both within pharmacy, but then overall, somebody that comes to mind is Andrew Huberman. I know that a lot of people listen to his podcast, so even if you listen to his podcast or just look at kind of the show notes or the headlines of things, it's probably likely that in some way, shape or form, whether it's listening to that podcast directly or seeing clips of it, patients that are interested in specific topics are going to
00:22:55:06 - 00:23:21:24
Chris
be consuming that content in one way or another. I think it's also important to look at kind of the I think misinformation is a strong word, but but people that put things out that may not be as studied and researched, being able to also consume that content to see what barriers might exist as you're talking to patients about different topics.
00:23:22:01 - 00:23:48:15
Chris
So just to kind of summarize that is using Google, TikTok, all the platforms to kind of search topics and then consuming some of that yourself. So that goes kind of from a learning what our patients are seeing, but then learning for ourselves. I think that again, finding kind of the people that are talking about topics that you do trust, there's a lot of great physicians that create content all over the place.
00:23:48:15 - 00:24:20:06
Chris
There's a lot of great pharmacists that create content all over the place that specialize in certain areas. I think that another way is being able to start discussions about certain topics. LinkedIn is great for that, especially if you have somewhat of a connection. Base doesn't need to be a ton of people, but just any pharmacists in your network being able to put a thought out there and start a conversation about guidelines and or look at the conversations that are happening about current hot topics on platforms like LinkedIn.
00:24:20:08 - 00:24:37:07
Chris
I mean, Reddit's another place that has subgroups of health care providers that talk about all different types of things, and then Facebook groups as well. Obviously you need to take everything with a grain of salt, but I think those are great places to be able to collaborate with peers when.
00:24:37:07 - 00:25:03:06
Speaker 3
It comes to these items.
Nick
Chris And I've gone through some of those same experiences myself with social media where I may follow creators or news sources or other groups or I don't necessarily agree or even like if these groups for these people necessarily, but I think of in a way, it's very similar to motivational interviewing, right? So we all know that process when it comes to patient care and you need to be able to hear them and understand that message.
00:25:03:06 - 00:25:28:13
Nick
And I think when it comes to social media, we need to see and hear if we don't have access to if we're not reviewing some of that content and putting ourselves in the patient's shoes or thinking through, we're never going to be able to have a good interaction and to perhaps counteract that misinformation that they may be hearing from other sources, or we may not have that context to really to have that patient understand it, have their ears, eyes mind open to that message.
00:25:28:13 - 00:25:51:23
Nick
So, yeah, there are some, I guess, pluses and minuses as it goes to social media. There's a lot of good information, some that's not so great, but we all need to consider it as we as we work with patients or work with local businesses for these opportunities. Before we go, Chris, one final question for you. And just even thinking about it, and you talk about LinkedIn and some of the activity that's there, So I'm going to take the opportunity to ask, you know, the question that's here.
00:25:52:00 - 00:26:11:01
Nick
When it comes to having a social media, you know, presence and doing those sort of things, just being on social media and and scrolling and hitting the like button that enough to drive engagement or do we need to be doing kind of, you know, other other things besides just, you know, scrolling through? Do we need to be adding comments, Do we need to be starting our own conversations?
00:26:11:03 - 00:26:16:22
Nick
This is kind of last, last minute question that I'm springing on you here, but something that came to mind that I'd like to see if we can address.
00:26:16:24 - 00:26:37:02
Chris
Yeah, I think it comes back to what everybody's comfort level is. I think, I mean, in an ideal world you could put infinite time and resources in the social media and you could comment on every post that exists and give you $0.02. But we live in a world of limited resources, limited time to being able to make the most out of what you do have.
00:26:37:02 - 00:26:57:22
Chris
And what I would just encourage everybody to do is get a little bit outside of your comfort zone. There's probably a lot of people listening here that haven't made a post on social media in years, and I would encourage them to kind of get out of that comfort zone and try something. You could even do that behind kind of the guise of a business.
00:26:57:24 - 00:27:17:05
Chris
And that's a lot might be a lot easier for the people that are kind of most skittish about social media and, you know, not wanting to step on any toes, put the wrong thing out there. What I can tell you, though, is that you're not going to put the wrong thing out there. You're probably way too in your head, especially if it's something that's going to benefit a patient.
00:27:17:07 - 00:27:43:24
Chris
You're thinking of it as a health care provider, but when you really think about the resources that the average patient is receiving, anything is better than nothing. And I think that even being able to create a YouTube video that you keep private on YouTube, but then you're able to send to the patients that raise certain questions or that you think you might not have heard everything as you were spewing counseling information to them.
00:27:44:01 - 00:28:09:15
Chris
I think that pharmacists should do things more like texting the video to patients so they have a resource that they're able to kind of go back on. And I think that's kind of some of the archaic ness of pharmacies in general is not leveraging kind of what I would call the 21st century way of distributing information and making sure that patients and people are actually consuming it.
00:28:09:17 - 00:28:24:16
Nick
I think I've referenced this phrase on the show before, but it's and a lot of people miss this quote it or say a phrase that I don't think is what they really mean. A lot of people will often say that you need to work smarter, not harder. And I hate that phrase because we should always be working hard.
00:28:24:18 - 00:28:47:13
Nick
But it's we should be working smarter, not more. And that's really one of the things that I think about social media is, you know, when you're having those one on one interactions with customers or patients, those are good, but you're relying on just 1 to 1 person or person communication. Whereas with social media, it's one person that can be out treating outreaching to many ones of people's at that at one time.
00:28:47:13 - 00:29:12:24
Nick
If you have the right message and if you have a good understanding of your local community. So yeah, working smarter through that use of social media and not necessarily having to work more for that purpose. All right. Well, Chris, I appreciate the conversation here today. And this this for me was a really fun episode. You know, you know, me personally in the area that I do some social media promotions for things outside of pharmacy and outside of my my day job here at Dixie.
00:29:12:24 - 00:29:42:17
Nick
So this is a really interesting conversation for me to have in an area where, hey, we do see that there are a lot of pharmacies that are getting engaged and becoming involved with this, or they may work for companies that are doing so. But it's an area where I would also still encourage folks that, hey, we probably can step up a little bit more and do things a little bit differently for the betterment of our patients, but also for us and how we are positioned as health care providers, especially at a time when pharmacists are providing new and more clinical services than than ever before.
00:29:42:22 - 00:30:07:18
Nick
So there's definitely some aspect of patient understanding, patient care and patient trust that we need to get over to fully activate the true potential of pharmacy. And I do think that social media plays a key role in this. As we talk today, I'll highlight a couple of the key points when it comes to what social media platforms that pharmacist or pharmacy should be using, really focus on those ones that are going to be a local and applicable for for you, your pharmacy, for your business.
00:30:07:24 - 00:30:22:14
Nick
So things like LinkedIn and Google and some of the search engines, they are going to be really great for focusing on your local area or your local zip code when it comes to creating a message, you really need to have really need to have a hook in with the story and a call to action really being the key point.
00:30:22:19 - 00:30:40:00
Speaker 3
And then when it comes to understanding content, you really need to look at those that are promoting content and have content that that you like, but also having an understanding on some of those message that that may be counter to that or maybe coming from a different point of view because we need to be able to understand really all viewpoints of that.
00:30:40:02 - 00:30:57:12
Nick
So Chris, a lot of great information and when we get to the end, we'll make sure that you can share some information where people can find out about you and your business and where they can outreach if they want to go deeper than this. This was an introductory level conversation, a one on one class, if you will. But folks can certainly talk with with you in uptown creation for more information.
00:30:57:12 - 00:31:02:20
Nick
But before we do that, we have to get into a couple of last minute questions. So are you ready for this?
00:31:02:22 - 00:31:04:01
Chris
I am.
00:31:04:03 - 00:31:09:04
Nick
All right. So, Chris, first question, Are you a morning person or a night owl?
00:31:09:06 - 00:31:12:07
Chris
Yeah, I am definitely a night owl.
00:31:12:09 - 00:31:16:08
Nick
What do you mean by that? Like, what is what is the usual bedtime? If there is one?
00:31:16:10 - 00:31:26:13
Chris
Yeah. So my usual bedtime is probably midnight to 2 a.m. and then my ideal start of work is usually around like 930 to 10 a.m..
00:31:26:15 - 00:31:44:16
Nick
Okay, so we're catching it pretty early in the day here. So apologies for that. But hey, it's how the schedules work out. Next question. Do you prefer to read the book or watch the movie slash TV series? I've had to edit that question since a lot of books are now becoming a multi-part TV series, but do you prefer the book or the movie slash TV series?
00:31:44:16 - 00:31:48:21
Nick
And if you have any particular ones you'd like to call out, we'd like to hear it.
00:31:48:23 - 00:32:06:22
Chris
Yeah, I'm going to cheat and say read the cliff notes. But. But the TV series is probably where I would lead to. My favorite TV series of all time is Silicon Valley on HBO. And that's probably what I rewatch over and over again, the most.
00:32:06:24 - 00:32:23:20
Nick
Since you've known. I also love that show, and I've been considering a rewatch of it maybe not the last season, but definitely the first couple of seasons and you might have got me spurned on to to start that. Rewatch your next question. What is your recommendation for a healthy life?
00:32:23:22 - 00:32:38:17
Chris
Yeah, I think that movement is key and being able to get movement in on a regular basis, that's me just kind of trying to take my own advice and training for a marathon right now and I'm trying to move more than ever.
00:32:38:19 - 00:32:41:16
Nick
Excellent. Have you run a marathon before or is this one your first?
00:32:41:18 - 00:32:46:13
Chris
I have not. This is my first marathon. I did a half marathon last year and I'm doing the full thing.
00:32:46:15 - 00:33:03:03
Nick
Excellent. There was a point in my life, Chris, where I wanted to run a full. I did a half and realized and all the training for it and it said, Hey, that that's enough. Not for me. So good for you. And then final question here. What is one goal, personal or professional, that you are currently working towards?
00:33:03:05 - 00:33:18:18
Chris
Yeah, I mean, we touched on Marathon. I think other than that, continuing to to grow my company is where kind of all my focus is on right now and just trying to impact as many people as possible.
00:33:18:20 - 00:33:34:15
Nick
Excellent Well Chris with that, that's a perfect transition here to our final question, I referenced that it was going to happen. It was going to be coming. So if people do want to get in touch with you about up down creation, you know what you do there. And and you know how they can better use social media and that sort of thing.
00:33:34:17 - 00:33:38:02
Nick
You know, where can they find up down creation and how can they contact you?
00:33:38:04 - 00:34:02:03
Chris
Yeah. And you kind of you kind of started the absurd by saying, this isn't my traditional target market, so to speak. And I just want to reiterate that. So you don't think by contacting me, I'm going to give you some crazy sales pitch? This is kind of what I'm most passionate about, is being able to take what my professional knowledge is and translate it into pharmacy and health care and making all of those resources available to people.
00:34:02:03 - 00:34:22:22
Chris
So I'd love for people to reach out to me on LinkedIn, contact me by email, and, you know, set up a time to chat, even if you just want to talk through what your current social media strategy is or create one from scratch, I'd be happy to, you know, kind of do a no cost consultation and share all the knowledge that I have with, you and your audience.
00:34:22:24 - 00:34:45:06
Nick
Excellent. Well, Chris, with that, we have wrapped up for today's episode. And Chris, we thank you for joining. This was a real pleasure for me. Again, you and I have been in contact for a number of years. Going back actually, the way Chris and I got connected was Chris was an original participant in, I think the first peak as Trend report, someone as a student pharmacist that was that was interested.
00:34:45:08 - 00:35:04:17
Nick
And then you and I just got connected via social media. So this was actually a real treat for me to get to have this opportunity. So Chris, thank you. Great to actually produce something together as collaborators here. So we thank you for being on the show and for our audience. We thank you for joining us on today's episode and we hope you listen to our next episode of The Quality Corner Show.
00:35:04:19 - 00:35:08:23
Nick
But before we go, we have one final message from the PQS team.
00:35:09:00 - 00:35:30:13
Outro
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00:35:30:15 - 00:35:52:20
Outro
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