Social Media Marketing for the Medical Practice
I recently read a fabulous article about social media marketing for dentists by Dr. Jason Lipscomb.
The article states that dentists have been very slow in adopting social media as a tool for marketing their practice, preferring to stick with traditional marketing methods, such as direct mail, because that’s what’s always worked. However, the traditional marketing methods aren’t working so well anymore.
Social media has actually been around since the launch of MySpace in January of 2004, and Facebook in February of 2004. But it was really the invention of Twitter in 2006 and the adoption of Facebook by the general public that has fanned the flames of the current social media firestorm.
According to statistics, Facebook grew over 145% last year with over 42 million active users, in the United States; 55% of those users are women. Twitter boasts of 28 million users in the United States with 54% of them being female. Furthermore, 70% of Twitter users are over the age of 25. This information is very important because we know that women over the age of 25 determine as much as 80% of healthcare decisions made in their homes.
The Internet has become the medium of choice for researching information and finding products of services for over 90% of the people in the United States. And social media is an important part of how your practice can get found on the web. Doctors who are not using social media as part of their marketing strategy are making a huge mistake, and will soon find themselves left behind in terms of patient acquisition. Here are a few points.
- Social media, especially Twitter, is highly indexed by Google and other search engines. Every time you post on social media, or someone else does referencing you, it gives your website valuable “Google Juice” and therefore has the ability to increase your search engine rankings.
- Social media increases your visibility and credibility with prospects and customers alike. And the more visible and credible you are, the more profitable you will be.
- Social media allows you to monitor the environment, to see what people want so you can provide it to them. It allows you to monitor your brand, and create brand recognition, and respond to those people who are talking about you.
- The public likes social media because it gives them a voice. They are able to interact with celebrities like Ashton Kutcher, brands, like Starbucks, and organizations, like The White House, on a one-on-one basis, like never before!
- The public likes social media because it provides real time news. They learn about what’s going on in their world before they see it on TV, and they hear it straight from the source. In fact, 85% off the media now monitor Twitter to find out breaking news, news sources, and story ideas.
- Social media is not going away.
The fact is; your prospects and patients are using social media practically every day! Why aren’t you?
Here are 4 tips for how you can get started leveraging this powerful tool in your medical practice.
1. Make social media an integral and consistent part of your marketing strategy.. The social media task is not so time consuming and cumbersome that your marketing assistant couldn’t add it to his or her responsibilities. It literally could take just a few minutes a day to manage, but reap profitable benefits.
2. Start with Twitter. For the goal of finding and attracting new patients, I recommend you start with Twitter. It’s as simple as going to the website: http://twitter.com and filling some limited information.
There are four fields you need to fill out; full name, user name, password and email. I recommend that for full name, use the dentists’s name, i.e., Dr. Steve Franklin, because that’s what people will type into Google if they are trying to find out more about you. For user name, use your practice name, i.e., Happy Smiles Dentistry. And then use your general medical practice email address and create your password.
3. Find followers: I recommend you follow people based on their geographic location. If your office is based in Kalamazoo, then follow people who are in Kalamazoo. However, if you know that your patient base is in two cities, then follow people in both of those cities.
The best place to find people is at the website Twellow.com http://www.twellow.com. This website is basically the “yellow pages” of Twitter. Here you can find just about anybody who is registered on Twitter by searching by “Twellowhood” (location) or categories of interests.
Secret: It’s better to follow someone who has less than 2,000 followers because it’s more likely that you will be visible to them.. Just make sure they have used Twitter within the last 30 days. (Usually the date of their last “tweet” is posted.) The etiquette is that once you follow someone, they should follow you back.
4. Engage, don’t push. Lastly, think of Twitter like a big party that anyone can go to. You don’t go to a party to sell to people, you go to be social, to get to know them. The same is true with Twitter. Don’t talk about dentistry all the time. Talk about what’s going on in the office, the neat things your patients are doing or saying; the cool things your staff are doing.. Be personal, but not too personal. Pay attention to the conversation going on in Twitter and reply to real people. Answer their questions, comment on their comments. Just be real.
Used correctly, social media will become a very important new tool in your marketing toolbox.
May 30th, 2010 at 9:29 am
[...] the article here: StartupNation Blog » Blog Archive » Social Media Marketing for the … Written on May 30th, 2010 & filed under Comentário, Media Tags: adopting-social, [...]
May 30th, 2010 at 9:55 am
I must disagree with you on Twitter. For many many companies/medical firms etc.. Twitter has proven to be a complete waste of time because it causes the one who is doing the marketing to focus on activities and not on results. Local Businesses need to develop a better Google adwords,Facebook, blogging and SEO a strategy. I myself do marketing for local medical firms and I can say that Twitter did not drive any results. Whereas adwords, blogging, Facebook and SEO brought in the results.
May 30th, 2010 at 10:30 am
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May 31st, 2010 at 3:55 pm
[...] Social Media Marketing for the Medical Practice Published: May 30, 2010 Source: StartupNation Blog I recently read a fabulous article about social media marketing for dentists by Dr. Jason Lipscomb. The article states that dentists have been very slow in adopting social media as a tool for marketing their p… [...]
June 1st, 2010 at 9:22 am
I like this post but would suggest that it isnt just limited to medical practices.
This post would be a great starting point for any small business that is looking to start leveraging the social media sphere….
June 2nd, 2010 at 4:02 pm
Great article
I work with local businesses most of the time dentist are staying busy without much advertising. It is the start up dentist that really needs help. Social media is such a great way to interact with the customers and inform them with education. I would also say you can implement this strategy with any small business.
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:26 am
This is a good site so i like it.
Medical Health Blog
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:08 pm
StartupNation Blog » Blog Archive » Social Media Marketing for the Medical Practice…
I recently read a fabulous article about social media marketing for dentists by Dr. Jason Lipscomb. The article states that dentists have been very slow in adopting social media as a tool for marketing their practice, preferring to stick with tradition…
June 7th, 2010 at 1:52 am
I think Twitter is better for networking and keeping customers informed of current company events and sales. Facebook is where you’ll be able to make more sales and drive traffic to your website. Where Twitter is newsy, Facebook is full of depth that will appeal to those who want to find out more about your company. Aside from that, the Twitter etiquette here is great and can apply to Facebook as well. Searching by location is a great way to add friends and followers, and they will quickly spread word to their friends if the company reputable in any way at all. In most average sized towns there are not too many dentists, so being available through social media could really be a big boost to consumer awareness.
June 8th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
This is an excellant article for all buiness owners especially small business to understand as well as highlight the value of an SEO marketing strategy.
June 24th, 2010 at 12:22 am
i tried SEO Marketing for my clickbank affiliate products and it is also good.-*;
June 29th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
A very interesting post!
I have recently read a related post at http://www.innovatrs.com/blog/social-media-policy/on marketing your start - up. Apparantly social media can contribure a lot to a start-up’s marketing strategy. Social media should be prefferd by start - ups mainly due to its cost advantage and you can reach a large amount of relevant users.
July 21st, 2010 at 1:10 pm
If you’d like help with SEO, PPC Campaigns, web design and other marketing techniques check out bigfin.com. Their clients include many doctors, dentists, attorneys, other professionals and businesses such as Microsoft and City U.
-Emily
July 27th, 2010 at 1:14 pm
@Hillel Porath:
While I agree with you wholeheartedly that any marketing activity needs to be outcome focused, I believe you misunderstand what value Twitter can bring to your medical practice.
“Twitter has proven to be a complete waste of time because it causes the one who is doing the marketing to focus on activities and not on results.”
As long as these activities creates awareness of your medical group or bring actual traffic to your website, you are creating value.
Twitter can have many uses in healthcare:
- Virtual watercooler among colleagues
- Patient communication tool
- Trusted healthcare information broadcaster
Need examples of great use of social media in your medial practice?
http://www.foxepractice.com/online-presence/
September 6th, 2010 at 4:17 am
The Internet has become the medium of choice for researching information and finding products of services for over 90% of the people in the United States.
September 16th, 2010 at 8:29 am
The key to marketing for anyone in the medical profession is to convince prospective patients of the quality of care they will receive for the price they are charged.
December 9th, 2011 at 7:22 pm
Very cool site. Nice blog.
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August 20th, 2012 at 1:50 pm
Hey Wendy,
some great information - I do agree with much of what you’ve written and would just follow up with the importance of Google +. While it might not be the most active social media avenue, Google’s Penguin update just gave a good bit of juice to the same posting principles you listed - only, I believe, heavier than it does for Twitter or Facebook. Also, I do think Facebook and some other social media avenues are beneficial, but it doesn’t seem that local following is strong, yet, with Twitter - and thereby not as much of a social benefit as the others. Any thoughts?
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