One frequent question that I get from business owners is “How can social media help my practice?” That’s a valid question. If you don’t have much experience online, you may wonder how being on Twitter or Facebook can help you and your company. Seriously, does a dentist need to be on Twitter? Does a dentist/plastic surgeon/orthodontist, etc need to be on Facebook? Does a chiropractor need to use Google +? The answer to all those questions is YES. Let me explain….
1. Marketing Diversity
I am a firm believer that you don’t want to rely too heavily on one particular marketing strategy. I’ve seen companies go broke because they put all their eggs in the good ol’ Phone Book SEO Method. They put all their marketing spend in the phonebook. The same goes for somebody that focuses only on PPC ads. What happens when the competition gets fiercer and you are paying double for your ads? You better have more than one marketing method that you have built up so your business doesn’t take a hit.
2. Build Your Reputation
On the internet your reputation is everything. Everybody is reading reviews online before doing business with a company. What better way to earn the trust of your customers and potential customers than engaging with them and building up your reputation. By positive, engaging, witty updates you will be able to slowly build trust of potential customers and strength the relationship you have with your existing clients.
Before doing business with a company, it is common to ‘Google’ or search their name online, to see what is being said about them. If you have bad reviews out there, whether legitimate or not, they can put you in a world of hurt financially. Go ahead and Google my company Titan Web Agency. On the first page do you see all the social networking platforms listed? Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo, YouTube, etc. These social networking sites can often bury bad reviews.
3. Promotions
Back in the day it would be common to have to plan your promotions a year in advance, especially with the phone book. With direct mail you need to do it months in advance. With social networking? A well thought out promotion can be planned over a weekend and up and active on Monday.
You can then split test promotions on Facebook vs. Google + to see which platform performs better. Now, if you have a small amount of followers, you probably will get next to no response to your promotion. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t work though!
What it does mean though, is that you could benefit from reading my post about how a healthcare practice can get started with social media.
4. Direct Patient & Potential Patient Communication
How crazy is it that you can have a direct link to your patients and communicate with them visually within second’s right in their living room? Previously you would have to advertise on TV, and not many small businesses can afford that, now you can do it for free or next to free! Not only that, but customers can contact you directly and have an issue taken care of or potential lead contacted right away.
Even more exciting is 100% absolutely free text messaging directly to your patients. Do you own a dental office and you want to be able to send out specials to your patients? You can do it at no charge and begin implementing within a half an hour. Check it out, here’s what you do:
Step 1: Go to http://www.twitter.com and create an account for your business with the word ‘deal’ or ‘offers’ in the Twitter name. Make it easy to remember. If the business name is White Teeth, maybe your Twitter handle could be WhiteTeethDeals.
Step 2: Advertise the service to your patients. Talk to everybody that comes in. Post it throughout your location on professionally designed collateral.
An example of a call to action on the flier would be:
Text “Follow WhiteTeethDeals” to 40404 to become part of our VIP club and get special offers sent directly to your phone!
Then you, the business owner, would Tweet a special offer from that WhiteTeethDeals Twitter account and everybody that is subscribed would receive that Tweet via text message.
Example: We are having a referral party! Refer one patient and get a Sonicare Tooth Brush. Refer two? Drawing for Xbox!
BONUS: When you get a new subscriber, not only will the person get all future Tweets via text, but they will get the most recent one as well.
Your subscribers don’t even need be on Twitter to get these deals, because it is simply a text message service. How cool is that!
Here is more information on it from Twitter.
If you need help determining the best social media strategy for your practice, contact me, I can put together a plan that will get you on the map, improving your online presence, and bringing value to your business.
No longer is social media just for teens, social media is for every business that wants to grow.