Does social media fraud happen to physicians? Of course it does. Thanks to American Medical News for interviewing me for the article "3 Ways Doctors Can Protect Against Social Media Fraud," posted on January 21, 2013.
The most annoying thing that health care social media bloggers complain about is other people stealing their content for their own website. For example, I know of other website who have "cut and paste" word-for-word my blog posts and claiming it for their own. Some websites call it "guest posting," while I call it plagiarism. Here's my quote from the article:
"Social media identity fraud is definitely a concern to me," said Michael Sevilla, MD, a Youngstown, Ohio, family physician and social media enthusiast who founded the "Family Medicine Rocks" website and podcast. Dr. Sevilla said he has had blog content copied and reposted without his permission on other websites.
Now, I know the reality is that there is nothing that can be done. That's the downside of making your content so easily available. To completely prevent this, you put up a pay wall, or make it unsearchable on google - both not really advantageous to get the word out. Stealing of your social media content goes with the territory, so live with it, or get out.
The rest of this American Medical News article talks about physicians needing to create and claim their own social media footprint. Great quotes from our pal Dr. Bryan Vartabedian, creator of 33Charts.com, are included in this piece.
Finally, welcome to those of you who are visiting this site for the first time because of the AmMedNews article. I encourage you to check out this website along with my other social media platforms like twitter, podcast, linked-in, you tube, and others. Enjoy!