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OSE_1309_part1_Layout 1 9/6/13 12:31 PM Page 30 BUSINESS ADVISOR I don't have the time for social media. This is by far the most common concern I hear. It can be expressed in different ways. Before I reframe the issue in a better way, let me address the time aspect. First, you should decide what you are trying to achieve up front and align the strategies to get there with your available time. If you have 5 to 10 hours per week and want to share your thoughts on healthcare reform or explain various injuries and surgeries, you could start a blog. If you really only have 1 or 2 hours per week, maybe just sharing health articles on Twitter or Facebook is enough. For those of you who truly believe you don't have the time, I ask you to take 1 week and strictly document every single activity you do. Is that online research of players for your fantasy football team or the time spent on celebrity gossip really important? What about the local news? You'll be amazed at how much time is wasted. Eliminate even a few of them — checking e-mail 10 times a day would be my first recommendation — and you will "create" time. The better way to look at the time factor is a question about the return on investment of social media. Generally ROI is measured as benefits minus the cost. Most people realize that social media is inexpensive. You can host a blog for less than $10 per month. Twitter and Facebook are free. However, you should consider time as a cost, too, and social media is not "free" in that sense. The problem with return on investment for social media is the difficulty of truly calculating the benefit. What is that Twitter follower or Facebook fan actually worth? What is the value of 1,000 people reading one of your blog posts? In that sense, time spent on social media might have no real financial value. On the other hand, what if a healthy recreational soccer player 6 3 0 O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | S E P T E M B E R 2013