Myths after surgery: Don’t get your incisions wet!

How many times have you been told not to get your incisions wet?! And while I’m only speaking on behalf of me and my patients, what is so terrible about getting incisions wet? If you don’t get them wet, does that mean it’s better to allow them to get sweaty and grimy after several days of not bathing?!

I think getting incisions wet can be a good thing in the right circumstances. For example, we tell our patients to shower the night after their surgery, as in, later that day. Specifically, we recommend showering and letting antibacterial soap and water run over the incisions. This keeps them clean and washes away any drainage or “sitting” grime. While we’re big fans of showers, we don’t want patients taking baths initially. Compare the two. Showers allow bacteria to wash off the patient. Baths on the other hand result in patients submerging and soaking in their own dirty water! Big difference in which one contributes to infection.

Myths after surgery: You can’t reach your doctor

Since I began practicing, I call our cosmetic patients after surgery. In the process of calling them, they can see my number. That way, they can reach me if necessary. After surgery, patients are scared and don’t always know what to expect.

So I say it’s better for them to have the doctor’s number to reach out for any concerns. Could that be painful with patients calling all the time? I guess it’s possible but most patients don’t call, they text. And thus far, they are respectful of not over-texting. An open line of communication avoids a lot of problems. Because if a patient can’t reach the doctor, they’re more likely to go to the ER. Which is a huge waste of time and money.

Consider the options. Responding to a simple text and allaying a patient’s concerns. Or allowing things to escalate wherein they go to the ER. Then the ER calls you and you have go in to the ER and address an unnecessarily overblown issue that could have been addressed via text. It’s a no brainer.

So when considering who you choose as your doctor, ask if you’ll have easy access to them after surgery. Or will you have to go through multiple layers of bureaucracy… the last thing you want to do while recovering from surgery!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Dispelling two myths after surgery first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Virtual consults are nothing new

The first thing that should be made very clear is that virtual consults are nothing new for us. We’ve always offered them as an option for out-of-town patients but also in-town patients that couldn’t get off of work early enough. The only thing that’s changed now is that virtual consults are the only option during the shelter-in-place.

After the shelter-in-place designation is lifted, we will continue to “push” virtual consults as our preferred method of seeing patients who want to discuss surgery. Yes, that means that the first time we see the patient in person could be the morning of surgery! While that may seem odd to see your surgeon only for the first time the morning of surgery, in the age of social media, there’s more to the story.

The patients that we see in our office virtually or in-person, are rarely seeing us for the first time. Most of our patients have been following us on social media, watching us operate, for months, before their consultation. So it’s not accurate to say they’re seeing us for the first time on the day of surgery. Because even before the virtual consult, they were seeing us operate and interact in our office on social media day in and day out!

Why we charge for virtual consults, just like regular consults

Whether it’s virtual or in-person, the doctor still avails the patient of their time and expertise. Whether it’s in person or not, that fact doesn’t change. So the fee shouldn’t change either. In fact, one could argue that, in the case of virtual consults, the consultation fee is a convenience charge! Because of the virtual consult option, the patient avoids the imposition of asking to leave work early, then driving to the office and searching for parking.

That being said, we did toy with the idea of not charging for virtual consults when this crisis began. We thought it might give people stuck at home something to do. But guess what we found? Just as we made it so easy to book a virtual consult online and not charge for it, it was just as easy for patients not to show up! With a greater than 80% no show rate, we reinstituted consult fees. In other words, those no shows ruined it for everyone!

So we’re back to charging for virtual consults and we’ve had a no show rate of 0%. We also have much more serious patients booking consultations. If you’re considering a cosmetic procedure, click here to check pricing online and then schedule your FaceTime or Skype consult online here!
 

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Yes, we charge for virtual consults first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

This weekend, Dr. Jonathan Kaplan, Founder/CEO of BuildMyBod Health is lecturing on social media and social media influencers at the AACS in Vegas!

BuildMyBod Health: A primer

For those of you not familiar, BuildMyBod Health allows consumers to check pricing on healthcare services that are typically paid out of pocket. They are paid out of pocket because 1) you haven’t met your deductible for a medically necessary service (think colonoscopy, lab test or X-ray) or 2) because the procedure is considered cosmetic and insurance doesn’t cover it anyway. Consumers interested in pricing can visit BuildMyBod.com or download the BuildMyBod iPhone app. Even more user friendly, consumers can utilize the BuildMyBod Price Estimator on a doctor’s website.

Regardless of how you find the doctor, you add procedures or services of interest to your “wishlist.” Then submit your wishlist along with your contact info. After that, you’ll instantly get an email with a breakdown of the costs and the doctor’s contact info. The doctor’s office will also receive your contact info for follow up. By receiving your contact info, the doctor’s office can help you navigate through the healthcare process.

What presentations are on tap at the AACS?!

On Saturday, Dr. Kaplan will speak on utilizing social media influencers in your practice. What’s the difference between influencer pages on Instagram and social media influencers? How can you tell if a social media influencer that wants free product to promote your practice has a legitimate following? Dr. Kaplan will provide the attendees with the tools and knowledge to answer these questions.

If you’re attending the AACS in Vegas, be sure and attend his lecture and panel discussion. It’s not everyday you learn something new!

To check pricing on healthcare services through the BuildMyBod Health platform from a doctor near you, click here. Or to sign up as a provider and offer pricing information to consumers in an automated way and generate leads, click here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Dr.Kaplan speaking at AACS in Vegas this weekend! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Presentation topics at Miami Cosmetic Surgery

While Dr. Kaplan will be speaking on several topics that relate to BuildMyBod Health, his first presentation on Thursday morning is actually related to his day job as a plastic surgeon!

On Thursday, February 20th, he’ll discuss the technique he created, the Single Incision Minimally Invasive (SIMI) neck lift. This is a procedure that reduces the typical number of neck lift incisions from three to one. Most importantly, the two incisions eliminated in this procedure are the two longest and most unsightly. The incisions behind the ears.

He’ll show before and after photos of his own patients and results from his study in the peer-reviewed Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open journal.

Topics relating to price transparency, ie BuildMyBod Health

BuildMyBod Health is a revolutionary platform that takes a critically needed issue – price transparency in healthcare – and makes it more accessible for the consumer, and more palatable for the physician.

Consumers want to know their out of pocket costs for all healthcare services. Either because they’ll be paying out of pocket for a medically necessary service if they haven’t met their deductible or if it’s considered cosmetic. BuildMyBod Health allows the consumer to check pricing through the doctor’s website from the privacy of their mobile phone. In the process of checking pricing, they have to enter their contact info before submitting their “wishlist” of services.

The consumer instantly receives an email with a breakdown of costs delivered to their inbox. And the healthcare provider receives their contact info – a lead for follow up! Dr. Kaplan will show how this kind of give and take can benefit the doctor’s business.

On Thursday afternoon, Dr. Kaplan will talk about turning social media followers into consults. Since physicians are utilizing social media to create content and educate consumers, they want something to show for it! All of that content creation should generate clear, measurable results. Offering the opportunity for the social media follower to check pricing is the easiest way to capture their contact info.

How price transparency grew Dr. Kaplan’s newly purchased practice

Dr. Kaplan will also speak on his experience buying a practice in San Francisco. He will review statistical data on this transaction and how many patients he retained from the previous doctor. But he will also talk about how he used a Price Estimator on his website to grow his email database to over 10,000 potential patients in 6.5 years. And that will improve his valuation for a future sale!

If you’re in the Miami area this weekend and want to get your learn on, click here to register for MCS! And if you’re a healthcare provider that wants to use price transparency to generate leads, click here. And last but not least, if you’re a consumer that wants to check pricing from a doctor near you, click here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Dr. Kaplan speaking at Miami Cosmetic Surgery first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Why buy bots followers and likes?

Why buy fake followers and likes in the first place? If you’re a plastic surgeon like me, there’s seemingly no point in using bots to create fake likes or followers because none of those fake people will ever become real patients!

Even though I have never bought fake engagement via bots and the like, I think the reason others try it has to do with the Instagram algorithm. The idea is that your post will be shown to more real people if it appears that it initially receives a lot of engagement. So if you have a lot of bots and fake followers that immediately like a new post, the hope is that you’d fool Instagram into showing your post to even more real Instagram users. And that would result in more real engagement. This may have been true at one point. But Instagram continues to improve its artificial intelligence to recognize this kind of inauthentic activity.

As an aside, in our practice, we “work” this algorithm in a more legitimate way by utilizing “Like Pods.” These are made up of real people that will initially like and comment on our posts, hoping that will show increased engagement and a resulting greater reach. I don’t know that it leads to a greater reach, however, it is nice to spark engagement from real people. But I digress.

The problem with relying on bots

Now that Instagram is removing those robotic likes and followers, some Instagram accounts are going to lose 100s or 1000s of likes and followers overnight. This could be slightly embarrassing if their “influence” is now called into question. If you go from thousands of likes to 50, followers will realize the discrepancy is due to fake followers and likes.

Increasing engagement with real people

There are ways to increase engagement with real people without having to resort to buying bots. Aside from the Like Pods mentioned above, there are also “giveaways.” These are contests that followers can enter if they like, follow and tell friends about your page.

Sure this could be considered buying someone’s interest but whatever, at least they’re real people that Instagram won’t delete. And keep in mind, after the contest ends, those real followers may unfollow you.

Giveaways are big business for companies that run them. For example, Scott Disick, an adjacent member of the Kardashian clan works with Curated Businesses. As you can see in this example, Kylie Kardashian did a handbag giveaway in May 2019 in conjunction with Disick and Curated Businesses. The idea is that if you liked and followed all 70 people that were “sponsoring” the giveaway, you could win all of the handbags plus $20,000. Where’s the financial benefit to Kardashian, Disick and Curated Businesses? Word is that the 70 sponsors each paid $25,000 to be part of the giveaway.

And what’s the benefit to the 70 sponsors? More real followers leads to more brand awareness. While some of those followers will unfollow the sponsors, some followers may like what they see and become a client to one of the sponsors. For example, one plastic surgeon that participated in that May giveaway grew from 10.9K to 230,819K! Sure his follower count fell back to 149K about 10 days later. But I bet, somewhere in those 149,000 followers is a few patients that will make his $25,000 investment worthwhile!

Summary

Everyone will tell you that you should “simply” grow your following through engaging content. But that usually takes longer than our short attention spans and patience will allow. So consider Like Pods and giveaways. Whatever you do, don’t buy bots follower and likes, because if your following disappears overnight, you’ll have some explaining to do!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Thank God I didn’t buy bots, followers and likes! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

As you can see above, Dr. Kaplan will be presenting with a team of experts in their respective fields. The Cosmetic Forum supported by MTF Biologics will review the latest in regenerative medicine. However, this is not Dr. Kaplan’s expertise! He will speak to the physician attendees on using social media in their practice to engage with patients. But more importantly, he will talk about using the BuildMyBod Health Price Estimator to capture social media followers’ contact information in the process!

Practice Profitability MD (PPMD), a practice management consulting company is having a live event this weekend in Tampa. PPMD was founded by Dr. Rich Castellano, a facial plastic surgeon in the Tampa Bay area. Dr. Castellano helps cosmetic practitioners make their staff more productive, grow their businesses and avoid burnout so they can have more fun at work, enjoy more free time and make their practices more profitable.

The PPMD Live Agenda

Aside from many sessions throughout the weekend addressing ways to improve a cosmetic physician’s practice, Dr. Kaplan will be reviewing the 5 way to educate patients prior to the consultation so they’re ready to book and pay in full at the time of their appointment.

Dr. Kaplan will discuss:

1. 1. Building rapport through social media
2. 2. Education through video and before and after photos
3. 3. Eduction through online reading material
4. 4. Discussion of cost and financing prior to the consultation
5. 5. Continued “touch points” through email marketing

If you’re in the Tampa Bay area, you should attend the meeting by signing up here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post BuildMyBod Founder speaking at MTF Cosmetic Forum and PPMD Live! first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Social media is to blame, or take credit, for everything these days! The effects of social media are evident across a variety of spaces. For example, it’s changing political discourse, feelings of inequality (you always knew the Kardashians had more money than you but now you know how much more!) and how a business goes about generating, well, new business. Specifically, to stay competitive, aesthetic practices are increasingly relying on social media and changing their referral patterns.

Social media’s effect on changing referral patterns for aesthetic practices

When patients go to a particular doctor for a medical problem, it’s typically because they were referred there from the emergency room or another doctor within the patient’s same insurance network. But when it comes to practices in the aesthetic space, it doesn’t work that way. The emergency room isn’t referring patients to doctors for botox treatments or a breast aug! Aesthetic physicians (plastic surgeons, dermatologist, etc) have wholly different referral patterns.

In the old days, aesthetic physicians would advertise in the yellow pages or send out print mailers. Those days are long gone. Over the last 15 years, consumers were relying solely on internet searches to find their doctor. With the rise of social media, referral patterns are changing significantly.

This is good news depending on your perspective. How well prepared are you? How diversified are your marketing channels? If you’re active on social media, then great. If you haven’t taken the plunge, then it’s going to be a long arduous trudge building your social media following after so many years in practice. And if you were a Facebook fan, that is now a pay-to-play game. Organic posts to your business page will be seen by about 6% of your followers, For any traction on Facebook, you’ll have to boost, or pay, for anyone to see your posts.

Engagement through Instagram and Instagram Stories

For now, Instagram is where it’s at. And it doesn’t cost a thing…for now. What I’m learning from my Instagram account is that posts aren’t enough. Sure I can have engaging posts and strive for 1-2% of my followers to engage by liking or viewing my posts. However, based on my experience, views of Instagram Stories (the 10-15 second video clips that tell a story and then disappear after 24 hours) is the new gold standard.

While I often get less than 1% likes on my posts (and my followers are real people, not bots), I get over 1,000 views on my Stories in a 24 hour period each week (I’m not even bragging but 1,000 views in a 24 hour period turns into real patients!). How do I know that likes on posts aren’t the recipe for success in my case? Because as the pie chart below shows, my number one biggest referral source at 28% is social media (Instagram and Snapchat). My social media efforts include the content I’m uploading day in and day out on my social media accounts and also my weekly collaboration with Dr. Michael Salzhauer. Also known as Dr. Miami (@therealdrmiami on Instagram and Snapchat), Dr. Miami posts my content on his affiliate page, @drmiamiland for a monthly fee.

He has over 2 million followers collectively on his social media accounts. When he gives you a “shoutout” on one of his accounts, it results in referrals that further emphasizes the new-found importance of social media. Social media as a referral source has become so critical that, as this article explains, even though I had a 62% drop in traffic to my website from April to June of 2019, my social media engagement and revenue increased year over year.

Diversify your marketing channels and building an email database as a backup plan

Thankfully I diversified my marketing channels between internet search (Google) and social media. If I had put all of my eggs in the Google basket, the consequences on my practice could have been devastating. I weathered the Google algorithm updates of March and June 2019 because I had two “arrows” in my quiver. I had my social media presence and a growing email database to protect me.

No matter what technique you use to “make it rain” (Google, Bing, social media or social media influencers like Dr. Miami), you need to make sure you have the right “bucket” to capture as many leads as possible. That way, if your luck changes with Google or social media, you still have a huge email database to show for it and you can reach out to followers directly. Read how I generate leads on my website via price transparency here – http://modernaesthetics.com/2017/12/loading-the-sales-funnel-through-price-transparency#1.

Moving forward

The growth of my social media presence saved me as my web traffic dropped. Unfortunately, I’m not done. I must now build my web traffic again to ensure I remain in a favorable position if my social media presence, specifically Instagram, was to go south.  Cautiously consider each new marketing opportunity in case it’s the next “big one.” Marketing trends will continue to evolve. To remain relevant, providers need to be nimble and able to adapt to the times. Because in 10 years, we’ll be writing about you-know-what that’s changing referral patterns!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Changing referral patterns in the age of social media first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Agree to be on social media

The short answer in my case, is no. We do not give the patient anything to coerce them into being on social media. We simply ask. And if they have concerns, we delve into what those concerns are. If we can allay those concerns in one pass and they agree, great. If not, that’s end of the conversation. We don’t shame them or hold a grudge.

But under no circumstances do we offer any favor or treatment or money in an effort to get them to agree to be on social media. There are several reasons for this. We don’t want them to feel pressure. If there is some renumeration, there’s a risk they would regret it and have buyer’s remorse.

There’s also a power or education gap between the patient and doctor. The doctor is in a position where their mere presence can cause undue pressure on the patient to make a decision they normally would not.

Ironically, you don’t have to offer the patient anything to be on social media. By the time they reach out to our office, they’re already following us on social media. They’re already learning from us. And for that reason, they want to be on social media. Just as they learned from other patients that agreed to be on social media, they want to pay that education forward.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Why would patients agree to be on social media? first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

If you’re in or around Sacramento tomorrow or already attending the California Society of Plastic Surgeons’ (CSPS) Annual Meeting, don’t miss Dr. Kaplan’s 1-hour social media course! But Dr. Kaplan only has 25K followers on Instagram, you say? What makes him an expert worthy of giving a course?! He doesn’t consider himself an expert but he’s in the trenches utilizing social media on the reg so he has something to offer. Continue reading to find out what!

Social media course at the CSPS Annual Meeting

The CSPS Annual Meeting is a wonderful gathering of the best and brightest of plastic surgeons in California. And with so many plastic surgeons in California active on social media, it only makes sense to have a social media course.

Because Dr. Kaplan (aka @RealDrBae on Instagram and Snapchat) is very active on social media on a daily basis, he suggested a course on the topic. Surprisingly, one had not already been scheduled. But after giving a well-received presentation on social media to the Greater Sacramento Society of Plastic Surgeons a few weeks ago, he got the opportunity to give a similar course at the CSPS this year.

While hesitant to refer to himself as an expert, his presentation reviews the nuts and bolts of social media. Through a mix of video and screenshots of the various platforms in action, Dr. Kaplan’s course will provide a great overview to the social media novice and explore some of the more engaging aspects of Instagram. Since social media is a rapidly changing space, he always has more content to add from presentation to presentation and that also means that even the most seasoned social media user can learn something new.

Course Description

The newest plastic surgeon right out of training can get busier, faster simply by being social media savvy. That means we all need a basic understanding of the power of social media. Dr. Kaplan, aka @realdrbae on Snapchat and Instagram, will give a thorough overview of the social media platforms that are transforming plastic surgery practices across the country. You don’t need to have a ton of followers to be successful. You don’t need that X factor. Anyone can do this. But you should try to be the best you can be.

By attending this course, you will: 1) gain a basic understanding and the differences between Snapchat, Instagram, Instagram Stories, Instagram TV and Facebook Live; 2) receive ideas for clever content to be used on social media; 3) become familiar with various engagement tools on Instagram; 4) learn how to create content once and then repurpose on all platforms; and 5) monetize your leads by capturing the contact information of your followers

Space in limited – don’t miss this opportunity to hear the latest trends on social media.  Cost for the course is $45 and it is free to Residents/Fellows/Medical Students. Register online for the course on the CSPS registration page  OR if you have already registered for the Annual Meeting, contact the CSPS Executive Office directly to add this course to your registration:  cspsoffice@att.net or (510) 243-1662.

Hope to see everyone there!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Dr. Kaplan giving social media course at CSPS Annual Meeting first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Makin’ it rain!

As you’ll see in the video below, Dr. Miami relies heavily on social media to generate a buzz and interest in his practice. As he explains, social media “makes it rain” with interested consumers and potential patients. The buzz results in patients inquiring about his services.

He has hundreds and thousands of inquiries every day. What do they all want to know? How much is this gonna cost me?! With so many leads, their call center would be overwhelmed if answering questions about cost was done manually. That’s why they direct them to their BuildMyBod profile page here.

This way, consumers can check pricing automatically. But to check price, they first have to provide their contact information. So Dr. Miami is essentially combining price transparency with lead generation! Something we call #PriceTransCAREncy! While social media may make it rain, BuildMyBod health is the bucket to capture that rain (leads)!

Video testimonial with Dr. Miami

Are you a provider and want a BuildMyBod account for yourself? Sign up here!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Makin’ it rain with Dr. Miami! [video] first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

According to the FFAS website, “The mission of the Foundation of Facial Aesthetic Surgery (a Non-Profit, Multi-Specialty Foundation) is to foster a sense of cooperation and knowledge exchange between the medical specialties that are primarily involved in the science, practice and teaching of facial aesthetic surgery and non-surgical medical aesthetics.”

Agenda at FFAS

Dr. Kaplan will speak Friday afternoon on, “How to generate leads through social media.” We’re constantly feeding so much content into the social media beast. But what do you have to show for it?

In the process of producing more and more content, we forget to consider what we’re getting in return. Dr. Kaplan will talk about how you can use social media to not just passively generate leads but proactively generating leads.

He’ll show examples not only from his practice, but how other doctors generate leads through social media. Specifically, he’ll show how a Price Estimator is a great way to get a consumer from your social media page to your website and leave their contact info behind.

If you’re in town and want to attend, register for the FFAS conference here.

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Dr. Kaplan speaking at 26th Annual FFAS Conference first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.

Who are your potential patients?

When a doctor (or anyone) posts video clips to Snapchat or Instagram Stories, it’s possible to see who is viewing those video clips. With Snapchat, the identities of the viewers are a little more vague than Instagram. On Snapchat, the profile photo isn’t visible and the Snapchat handle isn’t readily identifiable. But with Instagram Stories, you can tell who is watching you.

With Instagram Stories, it’s possible to see the viewers profile photo and their handle is accompanied by their name in many instances. These identifiable markings can be changed by the user but if they’re not, you can see who they are.

So what can you learn from the people watching you? For one, if the person watching is a recent surgical patient, that tells you they’re still happy with your work. If they’re watching while recovering, they’re probably not mad at you! This is especially helpful if they had a postoperative wound or it was taking longer than usual for their breast implants to settle. If they’re still watching, probably means they’re pleased overall.

It’s particularly interesting to see potential patients that are watching and then come in for a consultation. These are the best consultations because they know how the doctor works. They’re well educated on the procedures and services they’re interested in and they have reasonable expectations.

Think about it. In the past, a potential patient wouldn’t necessarily be able to see the doctor do the operation they’re considering. How’s that for transparency and preop education!

Click here for the original blog post written by Dr. Kaplan for BuildMyBod.

The post Interacting with potential patients on social media first appeared on Plastic Surgeon San Francisco | Pacific Heights Plastic Surgery.