In today’s world, social media is one of the most important tools for promoting your practice, winning new patients and driving profitable patient action. A crucial component of any online marketing strategy, doctors often wonder what they can do to maximize their social media impact. The first step – unsurprisingly – is growing their fan base. Of course, getting more Facebook likes requires strategy. Read on to learn a few of our favorite tips!

Here is our list of the Top 5 Tactics for Getting More Facebook Likes:

1. Spread the word. The only way patients will know you’re on Facebook is if you tell them! Be sure to add your social media links to your email signature, letterhead and other office literature. Also, think about adding a flyer to your waiting room or sending out an email blast.
2. Invest in a social media station. You don’t have to buy an expensive computer kiosk to get more Facebook likes in your waiting room – a simple tablet will suffice. When patients arrive for their appointment, hand them a tablet open to Facebook and ask them to “like” your Page if they’re interested. This way, patients don’t have to remember to visit your Page once they get home.
3. Start your first ad campaign. Facebook advertising is a great way to supercharge your Facebook efforts. Helping you zero in on the most “valuable” likes possible, Facebook allows you to limit your audience by location, age, gender and interests. Of course, managing a Facebook ad campaign takes time and know-how. If you’re looking to “leave it to the experts,” think about subscribing to a medical social media marketing service.

Medical Social Media Marketing

At MedNet, we offer a variety of services to help you launch and manage your Facebook Page, along with Twitter and Google+. Additionally, we’ll create your highly-targeted Facebook Ad Campaign. Contact us to get started!

Do a quick Google search for yourself and your practice. Ask yourself these two questions: Do the search results provide accurate and positive information about you? If you were a patient would you be swayed to pick up the phone to schedule an appointment?

Whether you’re happy with your online reputation or not, this is a task you should perform often. Managing your online reputation is essential in today’s age, where millions of pages of new content and consumer reviews surface the Internet each day.

Still not convinced? Here are the top 3 reasons you must manage your online reputation:

1. 80% of consumers go online to read information about doctors. Before choosing a health provider, most patients search online for practice websites and patient reviews. It’s important to not only make sure patients are finding your website, but also that their impressed by the information search engines provide. This is where search engine optimization can be of help to you and your practice! Learn more here.
2. Establish patient trust. Seeing you and your work online helps develop a personal relationship with patients before they even set foot in your office. Making sure patients come across your impressive achievements and positive patient reviews will establish trust and credibility for you and your practice.
3. A first impression is everlasting. In most cases, your online reputation is your first impression—who you are online is who you are to potential patients. Gain control of your online reputation!

Here are a few ideas to get the ball rolling:

• Stay alert: Set up Google alerts for your name and practice name to receive email updates whenever you’re mentioned online. You can also use tools like Twitter Search to monitor what people are saying about your brand on Twitter.
• Build your own brand: Start by claiming and building out your Google+ Local listing. Also, start blogging and work on optimizing your website in search engines. This will help you control what’s ranking for your brand name and keep any negative mentions off of top Google pages. Join social networks like Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Your social media presence also influences your rankings within search engine results pages.
• Encourage patient reviews: Patient reviews have tremendous power in search engines. Encourage patients to post positive reviews to your Google listing.

Need Help Managing your Online Reputation?

At MedNet, we provide a variety of services that help enhance the online presence of healthcare practices worldwide. Contact a MedNet representative and ask us about our Internet marketing services.

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

“Goodbye, clutter. Hello, bright, beautiful stories.” That’s the motto behind Facebook’s newly-redesigned News Feed. A visual interface, centered on rich, relevant content, Facebook’s new layout also presents a few new challenges for Internet marketers. With users now having the ability to “weed out” stories that aren’t important to them, the question for medical practices becomes essentially this: “How can I avoid becoming clutter?” To help you along the way, here are a few tips from MedNet’s expert Internet Marketing team!

Top 4 Tips for Facebook’s New News Feed:

1. Photos/Videos Now Even More Important. Facebook’s redesigned News Feed puts photos and videos at center-stage. A highly-visual platform, images now display much larger, making them absolutely essential in capturing and engaging readers. So, before you hit publish, always make sure you’re uploading or linking to a great photo that stops them in their tracks.
2. “Bigger” Opportunity for Promoted Posts. Posts are getting bigger – that means Promoted Posts are getting bigger as well! For medical practices, that creates more “real estate” to display your ad/story. Like ordinary wall posts, promoted posts should be highly visual and offer relevant, useful content.
3. Market to the Patient, Not the Device. One of the best new features of the new News Feed is its “responsive design.” Creating a seamless user experience – regardless of whether patients are using a computer, tablet or smartphone – you can now focus all your energy marketing to the patient, not the device. Mashable recently reported on this, explaining that “According to Dan Slagen, SVP of marketing at Nanigans, this move ‘reduces friction’ for advertisers planning out campaigns for mobile and desktop by ensuring a similar experience on each.”
4. “Feeds” Make Good Content Essential. Facebook’s new News Feed introduces several new “subfeeds” allowing users to focus on stories that are important to them. For instance, the “All Friends” feed only displays stories published by one’s Facebook friends. Users can ostensibly “filter out” posts from Facebook Pages, making it essential for businesses to step up their content game. As users now have to go out of their way to seek out your content, a boiler-plate status simply isn’t going to cut it – posts have to be relevant, informative and engaging.

Don’t Have Time to Manage Your Social Media Presence? Let MedNet Help!

Strapped for time? Let MedNet launch and manage your social media campaign. We’ll plan and execute a cohesive social media strategy for your practice and get potential patients talking! Contact a MedNet Representative to learn more.

If used correctly and efficiently, a blog can do wonders for your practice. It can establish you as a leader in your healthcare specialty, making you a trustworthy resource. Blogging can also enhance your online presence, enhancing your search engine rankings and visibility.

Follow these 5 golden rules to be on the path to blog success!

1. Frequency: Post to your blog often! Posting on a regular basis will help establish a loyal reader-base. Set aside time weekly, or twice-weekly for the best results.
2. Relevancy: Get into the minds of your readers. If you were a patient, what would you want to read about? Touch on common questions and concerns and avoid medical jargon that will not resonate with readers. Still stuck? Check out our blog with tips on finding topics that patients search.
3. Imagery: Blog posts with images tend to get more views, shares and engagement from readers. But, unless you purchase stock photos, create your own graphics or take pictures yourself, you may find it hard to find free, quality images that can be used without penalty. For your convenience, there FREE photo sites you can visit to find images for your blog! To name a few, check out FreeDigitalPhotos.net and PublicDomainPictures.net. Learn more here.
4. Call to Action: If you don’t give readers something to do, click or fill out, they’ll simply move on to another site – even if they’re interested in the services you offer! Conclude each post with an appeal to reach out. One of the best ways to do this is by linking back to your contact form. This gives them a clear picture of the next step, and it can be just the thing to turn a simple blog into a powerful patient engine.
5. Share: Last, but certainly not least, spread the word! Share your posts with your social networks and consider sending out frequent email blasts. You can even set up a blog feed — each time you publish a post, it will automatically be shared with your Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Twitterfeed offers a great, free service to set up and manage your feeds!

Don’t Have Time to Post to your Blog?

Posting regularly to your blog can be one of the best ways to increase visibility, market yourself cost-effectively and keep people coming back to your site. Don’t have the time to keep up? We can help! Among our range of solutions to market your practice, we offer blog article writing for as low as $100/month. Also check out our social media management service and contact us to get started.

Social Media Marketing has two sides. There’s the “free” end, which involves staying active on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, posting targeted content and having a meaningful dialogue with your followers and patients. All that these efforts cost is your time and knowledge. Then, there’s the “paid” side – particularly, Social Media ads. A powerful opportunity to reach new patients, many are projecting that social ad spending is going to jump this coming year!

Popular blog, Marketing Land, recently featured this topic, explaining that, “According to a new report from the Nielsen-owned company, Vizu, 64 percent of online marketers say their budgets for paid social advertising is increasing this year.”

So, what does this mean for your practice? One thing: Social Media is no longer a spectator sport! If your practice isn’t staying competitive on Facebook, Twitter and Google+, your new client list might not grow as fast as you would like! Make sure you’re “staying in the conversation” and exploring all your Social Media advertising options.

Let MedNet Help!

Not sure where to get started? MedNet offers several packages for managing your Social Media Presence and using your advertising dollars most effectively. Contact a representative and get your Social Media efforts rolling today!

Recent Facebook changes have unfortunately made it more difficult for small businesses on Facebook to be seen by their fans. Facebook recently confirmed that it’s not certain that all fans will be presented with posts from a given page that they “Like.”

While Facebook Advertising is certainly a great way to guarantee exposure, some small businesses simply don’t have the time or resources to set up a Facebook Advertising campaign. Aimed at helping those small businesses to succeed on Facebook, a new feature simplifying ads (for Pages with fewer than 10,000 fans) will become available.

About Facebook’s New Advertising Option

1. It’s not yet live, but will be available in each qualified Page’s Admin Panel, where admins will be able to choose a budget and a geographic location.
2. The ad unit will show on the right column of the PC version of Facebook, on mobile devices and in the newsfeeds of your audience.
3. In addition to having fewer than 10,000 fans, there must be a city in the about section of the Page to qualify.

Here’s a mock-up of how Facebook’s new ad creation will look, from www.insidefacebook.com.

Due to recent changes in Facebook’s ranking algorithm, known as Facebook Edgerank, some of your fans are not seeing your posts in their news feeds. To ensure that fans keep receiving all posts from your Page, encourage them to take the following steps:

1. Hover the mouse on the “Like” button near the page name.
2. In the drop-down menu select “SHOW IN NEWSFEED.”

We recommend that you follow the above instructions for ANY Facebook page you care about, so you can continue seeing all the posts from the pages you already like.

Another way to ensure your posts are seen by a vast majority of your audience, including “friends of fans,” consider promoting important posts. According to Facebook, promoted posts appear higher in news feed, so there’s a better chance your audience will see them. Check out our previous post for “Best Practices for Facebook Promoted Posts.”

It’s holiday season! Many businesses, big and small, use this time to market their products and services. Wondering how you can market your practice during this time period of heightened consumer spending? Check out our new Pinterest board with marketing tips and trends this holiday season!

Follow MedNet on Pinterest and comment with your favorite holiday marketing strategy!

It’s officially holiday season! With people scrambling to get gifts, Google and other search engines are often the go-to source to find the best local deals. If you want to boost sales this holiday season on a controlled marketing budget, consider running a pay-per-click campaign.

Benefits of a PPC Campaign:

• Know how much you’re spending
• Count how many leads you’ve collected
• Calculate the cost per lead
• Track success of your campaign

To get the best bang for your buck, follow these PPC tips:

1. Target the right keywords and use those keywords in your ads. Not sure how people search for your services? Look at your Google Analytics keyword traffic sources to learn more about how people are finding your site. Also use Google’s Keyword Tool to determine popular search terms.

   Once you discover which keywords to use, use them in your ad copy.

2. Target the right locations. Google lets you select zip codes, states, counties, cities, and specific geographic areas. Don’t waste money on ads that serve people outside your target market!
3. Choose a relevant landing page. Choose wisely where your PPC campaign will lead visitors. If you’re running a holiday special, consider creating a landing page specifically for your campaign.

   If you don’t have the time or resources to create a page specifically for your ad, choose the best page from your website. For example, if your ad is for “50% off LASIK,” your landing page should be information about that procedure.

4. Test and optimize your ads! As you accumulate data from your ads, shift budgets to higher converting ad groups, test different offers, and split test landing pages to see which ones get more conversions.
5. Ask for help! If you want your PPC campaign to generate more, high-quality leads for your medical practice, considering turning to experts in search engine marketing.

Experts in Healthcare Pay-Per-Click

With years of experience launching and maintaining PPC campaigns and proven success in creating effective landing pages, we’ll help your practice generate leads and increase conversion rates! Contact a MedNet Representative to get started.

Image courtesy of dream designs/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Looking for timely social media posts and blog topics? Want to make sure your patients stay healthy this Thanksgiving? Visit our new Pinterest board with Thanksgiving health tips and ideas, from recipes to portion sizes! Feel free to repin, and use articles for social media inspiration!

Visit our board on Pinterest and comment with your Thanksgiving health tips!