Trend Watch 2022
As you reflect on 2021 and the year ahead, it’s a great time to think about new ideas and ways to improve your life and practice. Wendy Lewis (@wendylewisco; wendylewisco.com) shares a trend you should adopt and one you should leave behind:
Trend to take into 2022: Voice & Visual Search. It’s here! Voice and visual search are part of our daily lives. That means that you need to make these new-ish forms of communication part of your aesthetics practice ASAP. For starters, these models can help drive growth, increase revenue, and streamline the patient journey. Visual and voice search are rapidly changing the way we connect, find information, and make purchasing decisions. So, this means that in 2022, more companies, businesses, and consumers will be jumping into these models as they will emerge from a “nice to have” to a “must have” for your marketing strategy. New developments in artificial intelligence have improved these technologies by light years so that more consumers are coming onboard to simplify their experience of interacting with all sorts of businesses. In particular, this trend is having a big impact on how we search and shop for all kinds of products and services top of mind. AI offers improved ways to connect and engage with current patients, while at the same time, attract new ones.
Don’t make the mistake of assuming that AI is just for Tesla-driving tech wizards and younger audiences who live on their phones. On the contrary, people of all ages are eager for ways to simplify their lives and complete basic tasks more effectively and efficiently to have more time to enjoy self-care, family time, and Netflix. We are all very busy, even more so post-COVID-19, and having the ability to get answers 24/7 is very appealing. So, if you are looking to catch the eye of women and men who are on the hunt for toxins, fillers, skincare, and surgery, you need to be visible everywhere they are. Think of voice and visual search as a means to that end.
Trend to leave behind: Content Chaos. Be honest. Are you drowning in content but not sure what to do with it all? Do you often find yourself staring at your various screens feeling lightheaded trying to figure out where to post what and when? You may be suffering from a chronic condition sometimes called “Content Chaos.” Fortunately there is a cure; no vaccine required.
Get organized by creating a system of managing your content in all forms to be filed, distributed, shared, or deleted as needed. If your content collection is not well managed or carefully evaluated, you may be at risk of missing out on opportunities to market your practice or stand out from the competition.
Content chaos creates unnecessary diversions that can keep key stakeholders in your practice too busy sorting through it all to use it in a timely manner. This requires more than just a better filing system; rather it needs a universal strategy to quickly determine how to optimize the best content for the right channel. In some cases, your top content may be repurposed for several platforms in different ways. For example, a great video of a provider doing a treatment can be posted on Instagram first, and then re-used on another channel at a future time. You may also re-post it on Instagram as a #throwbackthursday post with a fresh caption and/or intro copy. An article about a new product or research work you may be doing may be cut down to 500-750 words for a blog post with an image added. Bear in mind that each marketing channel you may be active on tends to appeal to readers or viewers in a different way. You wouldn’t use the same exact content, i.e. words and images, on Facebook and LinkedIn, although I see this very frequently. A Facebook business page is primarily used by aesthetic practices to reach consumers, whereas LinkedIn is a B2B platform where you can connect with colleagues, vendors, and like-minded businesses.
If you find yourself with a deluge of content in the form of photos, audio, video, articles, and random thoughts, get it under control for 2022. You can thank me later.
Dr. Corey S. Maas Takes Lead as New AAFPRS President
Corey S. Maas, MD is the new president of the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery (AAFPRS). He succeeds outgoing president Dr. Paul J. Carniol.
Dr. Maas, founder of The Maas Clinic in San Francisco, will serve the 2021 to 2022 year term
“As we emerge from these challenging times, our leadership will make every effort to communicate and engage with the strength of our organization, our talented and innovative members, through live video streaming and live meetings. We value each member and will foster meaningful dialogue leading to action items to further improve member-ship and engagement,” says Dr. Maas.
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