Social Media Tips for the Veterinary Professional featuring Dr. Crocker

Dr. Tannetje' Crocker has worked really hard to develop an impressive social media following and the content that she provides to young veterinarians is invaluable. In this episode, she gives some tactical pointers on how and why a social media presence (and therefore, a personal brand!) can be really important for your career. Tune in to hear how she makes sure to lead with a positive outlook in the veterinary social media world.
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About Dr. Crocker!
Dr. Tannetje' Crocker is a 2009 graduate from the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine. Upon graduation, she completed an equine focused internship in Southern California. Then she worked as a solo equine ambulatory practitioner for three years before transitioning to small animal medicine. She currently practices in Grapevine, Texas at Northwest Animal Hospital and the Animal Emergency Hospital of North Texas. Tannetje' is passionate about mentorship and empowering both veterinary students and young veterinarians to embrace the profession and find joy and success.  She is inspired by fellow veterinarians and vet students who want to contribute, support, and move this profession in a new direction. 

She met and married her husband Shane Crocker at the start of veterinary school. Thirteen years later they have lived in 7 houses, had 2 children, and continue to laugh and love together. In her free time, Dr. Crocker can be found spending time with her family and friends riding horses and enjoying the outdoors.

Dr. Crocker is always looking for speaking and writing opportunities in the veterinary industry, so please feel free to reach out to her.
Contact Dr. Crocker
Instagram: @dr.tannetje.crocker
Email: dr.crocker@drcrockerpetvet.com
Website: www.drcrockerpetvet.com
Dr. Crocker's Youtube Channel
Purchase Dr. Crocker's Veterinary Adventures Career Guide
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Transcript

Stacey Cordivano: 0:07

Hey there, it's Dr. Stacey Cordivano. I want veterinarians to learn to be happier, healthier, wealthier and more grateful for the life that we've created. On this podcast, I will speak with outside of the box thinkers to hear new ideas on ways to improve our day to day life. Welcome to The Whole Veterinarian. This week, I have a bonus episode for you from the amazing Dr. Tannetje Crocker. You can check out her full bio in last week's episode 19 but she is currently a full time small animal vet in Grapevine, Texas, and maintains a large social media presence with over 12,000 followers on Instagram. Make sure to go connect with her there and I'll link her info in the show notes. Here's our quick chat about social media and the benefits of developing a personal brand. I wanted to talk today a little bit about social media. You have developed a following and you're very active and you put out amazingly educational content. And I just wanted to hear a little bit from you about your journey with that.

Tannetje' Crocker: 1:27

So it's been an interesting journey. It I joked that in the beginning, I was like the duck, you know, where on top, I'm like, let me just join social media, and underneath I'm like, paddle paddle, paddle, paddle because I really have no clue what I'm doing. So I quickly learned to engage with people who knew what they were doing. And Danielle Lambert was out school was probably the number one person that really taught me a lot about a social media account online. And so I will just pass on some of those things. Because I think a lot of people are like, I don't, it's overwhelming. And I don't know how to do it. And one I would say, especially on Instagram, the community is extremely positive and supportive. And so people should not be nervous about joining it. Because the veterinary community on there has really kept it pretty awesome. I feel like

Stacey Cordivano: 2:14

Yeah, I would agree.

Tannetje' Crocker: 2:15

So some of the things you can do is, number one, know why you're joining. And so you can make a list of kind of the five things you want to focus on. And you want to be really consistent in what you're sharing and what you're doing. So obviously, I joined to talk about my journey and to share why so loved my job. And so I do talk a lot about my current job, I share vetinary cases, I like to share things that just make me happy and great stories. And then I also talk about my family because having that as a factor. And balancing it all is really important. And I think a lot of younger students who don't yet have kids, it's important to kind of explain to them how we do it. All right. Mm hmm. And that is not easy. And then I do think it's good to put some fun stuff in there. So if there's something you're really interested in, I, you know, my daughter rides horses, we have a fun cat, and he's on there a lot. But things that just make people happy, make them smile, you kind of want to have just a good four or five things that are really consistent with what you're doing. And then being consistent and posting every day showing your face. So a lot of people hate videoing themselves. But getting on stories and saying this is a cool case I had today, like look at this mass I took off or you know, look under the microscope with me or let's talk about this x ray or I had a really crappy day, I had a you know, client that was tough. And this is how I dealt with it. Really, that adds a lot of value. Because people see you and they hear what you're dealing with day to day and how you handled it. And that can really help kind of grow your following in your connection. And I think it's important that it's not about like the following and the likes, if you really want to engage and you're really joining social media because you want to make a difference in our profession. Or just be encouraging. You have to interact. So I don't know how much do you post or do stuff on your, you're like, uhhh!

Stacey Cordivano: 4:09

I'm learning as you speak here, right? I I struggle with social media, it's it feels like a lot added onto my plate, except I do realize the benefit. So I want I don't get sucked in like into drama, I get sucked into like all the different learning resources. So I probably post three times a week. And then stories. I'm not... I haven't opened this account up as like personal as I know, it probably should be I struggle because I don't want to come off as like the person that knows it all because I certainly don't every one of these interviews I'm doing to help myself learn and share what I'm learning. And so I struggle with making it personal because I don't know that's an imposter syndrome thing, I'm sure but yeah, stories. People do love them and I'm not certainly not the one to ask about how to do it right.

Tannetje' Crocker: 5:03

Well, no. So there's not any one way to do it. But if your goal is to get your message out, to do that, you have to grow your following, right, and you have to grow your engagement. You have, I listened to your podcast, the episodes are amazing, and they're awesome. I think knowing that what you have is something that the profession needs is really, really important. Now, I'm not great at scheduling stuff, I will just kind of do posts as they happen to me. And sometimes I'll do them and save them as a draft. And I don't post them, but I kind of have some things saved up and I can do them. If I'm really busy, I can just be like, Oh, I'm just going to post that one today that I did a week ago. But there are a lot of apps that you can actually, you know, make them and they'll post them for you. You can schedule it. And that way, you know if you have a day where you have two hours and you can sit and kind of do a couple things and then schedule it all then you don't have to worry about it. But Adam Greenbaum from Western cloud said one of the best things that I had heard in a long time, he was like, you guys are veterinarians. You have amazing content every day. I mean, you literally could say, look at this super cute horse that I'm working on. Look at this pony. Like, look at this bandage. I did like, it doesn't have to be something that's like I'm going to teach you all about laminitis. It literally could just be Look what I'm doing today. And you put up a cute picture. And you post a story of you know, what's something great you did today? What's something that gave you joy today? Like? That's a question you ask all your participants, but you're just looking for like engagement, you're looking for people to react and respond. And then the more people do that, the better. I also think something that's really easy and intentional is going through and following people that you are inspired by and reaching out just like you know, we'd kind of connected in that way. Yeah. And that has a lot of value to on Instagram, but it is work. It is. And I think a lot of people think you just join and then if you have great content, people just will see it and it'll grow. But it's it's not quite that easy. So I don't want to downplay how much work it is and how much time it can take. Again, I'm a workaholic, and a night owl. So it's easy for me to kind of keep up with it. But I do think knowing what you have to offer is important, and we need to hear it. Hopefully that's motivation enough to try to do it as much as you can. And then just sharing, you don't even have to share your family. Like some people don't want to share their kids and stuff. That's fine. But I mean, you see horses, horses are amazing. I can take a cute horse picture, put it up, you know?

Stacey Cordivano: 7:29

Yeah, yeah. Well, that feels like it should be under Clay Creek Equine. Right? I guess I struggle to mesh the content of The Whole Veterinarian with ...Yeah. You know, as an inspiration to younger equine practitioners, I guess I haven't looked at it that way, I guess.

Tannetje' Crocker: 7:46

Well, you, you are trying to engage with the profession and bring people in and connect them right that have something to offer and something to say with the younger generation. And so I think that by showing what you're doing, and sometimes that does include what you're doing for a living, you know, and being a practice owner, I mean, all of that I think it's important to show show some of that. And I actually, I mean, I do the Instagram for Northwest Animal Hospital, which is where I work, and I post cute puppies and kittens. And it's a lot more like look at what we're seeing and what we're doing. And then I put some of the grosser stuff or the you know, on my Instagram. Yeah, because clients don't really want to see that stuff as much. I mean, they want cute horse pictures. But if you do have a cool, I don't know, if you get bought fly infections there or you have a cool like, this baby was just born and watch the video. I mean, and owners love it. Most owners are like, yes, put my stuff on, you know, social media, and you're there with them. You can just ask them, those are just some things you could you could think about. And you have to reply to every comment that people make. I know this is a lot. I'm sorry.

Stacey Cordivano: 8:56

No, no, that's great. I do see the importance of engaging back when people strike up the engagement with you. This is like slightly different as far as engagement goes. But I saw you posted something unrelated, and it looked like a client responded with a complaint about a product. And I just thought your response was like perfection. you could tell it was because of the response following response by that owner. You just responded with compassion and empathy. And they were looking to be heard. And it was very clear. That's like side note of responding to every comment. Do you feel like people need to focus on one social media platform?

Tannetje' Crocker: 9:37

I think it depends on who you're targeting. So I'm mainly targeting, you know, vet students and the younger generation and so Instagrams where I'm most active, but I am on Facebook, and I have quite a few people on there too. There's a lot of older people on there. And so I think Facebook is a great place to target the older generation. Facebook to me is more negative and Facebook, you can have people say things that aren't as nice sometimes versus Instagram. So you have to be careful though. And then everyone says, to really engage on LinkedIn, especially if you want to do more speaking and like podcasting, there's a ton of really good connection on there. I'm not as great at LinkedIn. Full disclosure, I actually just hired somebody like a month ago to help me put out the content, because I just can't keep putting it on these different medias. And I'm trying to get more YouTube videos up. So I have somebody who I pay her and she actually is helping me get everything up on the different platforms, I like to really keep up with Instagram and engage there. The other ones, it's more just having a presence just because those aren't my audiences as much.

Stacey Cordivano: 10:45

And so for you, this is sort of building that personal brand and sort of ownership of your career. As far as recommendations for people that are thinking about getting into this, what are the benefits of that for people building their own brand.

Tannetje' Crocker: 11:01

For me, if you are a practitioner, and you're trying to hire, I would 100% engage on Instagram, because I think just the networking and connections through there for a community who is so positive about veterinary medicine, and is looking to like move it in a good direction. I think that that's a really important place that I would be. And I would be trying to connect with people there. I think that the benefit to me right now, personally, is I am trying to get a certain message out. And it's been really cool the opportunities that have come from that. Being able to do a career workbook, I never thought I would do anything like that. And now I'm looking to partner with one of the bigger companies to try to get it to all the vet students. And so, you know, I think if I didn't have my Instagram and have a personal kind of branding push that I'm making right now, I wouldn't have those other connections. I'm going to be speaking at fetch 360 coming up. And that came through Instagram and a connection. I did a webinar recently on work life balance that was really awesome with DVM 360. So all that has come through social media, and especially with not traveling right now, this is the way right that you network and you find opportunities. So that would be the main reason that I would think people would want to really try to grow it and kind of brand themselves a little bit and really get their message out there.

Stacey Cordivano: 12:22

Yeah, that's helpful. I think some people could just think like, oh, why am I going to put all this effort in, if it's just posting pictures, but I think there's a lot more behind it, which you are a perfect example.

Tannetje' Crocker: 12:34

Yeah. And I didn't know all this existed, I literally joined it just to be like, you know, let me share a positive message. And then it's really snowballed. And I get great opportunities like this now, I mean, we likely would have never met if it wasn't for social media. And it was so fun. And I hope it helps somebody.

Stacey Cordivano: 12:52

So fun. I hope it helps somebody too.

Tannetje' Crocker: 12:54

Yes.

Stacey Cordivano: 12:55

Any other tidbits you think people have to know about social media?

Tannetje' Crocker: 12:59

Just be yourself and have fun with it. It really doesn't need to be something you like stress about and you freak out about and you're like, that picture is not perfect. Just enjoy it. I mean, share what you do. We have an awesome career. It's easy to find really fun stuff to share, I think.

Stacey Cordivano: 13:16

Great. And thanks for the push to get a little more personnel stuff out there!

Tannetje' Crocker: 13:19

I'll be watching your account.

Stacey Cordivano: 13:20

Yeah. I have an accountability partner. And thank you very much for your time on that.

Tannetje' Crocker: 13:26

You're welcome.

Stacey Cordivano: 13:30

Thanks again to Dr. Crocker for giving us a little bit more of her time. I don't think she realized that this was kind of turning into a personal coaching session for my social media. But I really appreciate it. I hope you were also able to get some actionable takeaways like I was, I think her point about just being herself is such a good one. So I really encourage you to get out there and connect with others.Yo can find both of us on Ins agram. I am @thewholeveterinaria, and Dr. Crocker is @Dr.Tannet e.Crocker. I'll make sure to lin that in the show notes. We wo ld be happy to put you in touc with anyone you might need as a resource. So definitely find us on there. As always, thank yo so much for listening. I rea ly appreciate it. If you have any feedback or questions, get in touch in any way, Instagram, mail, whatever works for you. f you want to make sure to ever miss an episode, go to th wholeveterinarian.com/subs ribe and sign up for our newsle ter. It's just a once a month uick summary of what we've pres nted content-wise throughout t e month. No spam ever, I prom se. And next week we have a alk about practice ownership a d some financial stuff. So'm looking forward to sharin that with you. Have a great week nd I'll talk to you again soon.