5 Reasons Why Your Medical Practice Needs Social Media
1. It Increases awareness of your practice Whether you are a plastic surgeon, physical therapist or a pediatrician, there is competition in your field of practice and thousands of people in your community in need of what the facility has to offer. Make your location known with the power of Facebook advertisements and Instagram postings. People get a personal connection with content including photos and testimonials. Key information displayed on the business page sets it apart from competitors and establish credibility making it the premier destination. 2. Interact with patients and community
Retain and bring back patients with social media. The presence of your business on social media will enable it to stay in contact with patients during and after office hours. Flu shots, adjustments and check-up postings will remind them to come in and see you. Offer specials to existing clients such as discounted screenings and free dental examinations to keep business flowing and your patients will enjoy the savings. You can allow people in your area to know if their health insurance is accepted and if you have a respond on social media. Keep patients informed with current events like flu shots and school physicals, specials like breast augmentation and generate new clients with offerings such as free cancer screenings and consultations. These reasons make it necessary for your practice. 3.Create target audience with interest and location
A recent study shows more than half of people choose their doctor based on location. If your practice is new, has moved, or has competitors in the area get the business with social media boosted posts. Through targeted boosts, such as a post about your wonderful practice complete with a call-to-action button to schedule an appointment, your office can show up on the newsfeeds of people in your area. With social media you are able to choose a target audience specific on location, age, gender and interests. Press Factor LLC even has the capabilities to send your Facebook posting out to an email list and show up on their feed.
4. Reviews and credibility about your practice
Every person wants the best doctor and that is why they should see you. When a person is sick, hurt or wants to look cosmetically better you can rest assure they want a doctor with great reviews. Encouraging and managing reviews is key to getting new business and is extremely relevant in the digital age where everyone has access to to the internet. Reviews also play part in Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and showing up on Google. Social Media is one of the most used websites for reviews, making it important to have professional pages with great star ratings. 5. It makes your practice show up on Google
Google’s search engine algorithm is highly effected by page visits meaning the more visits your page gets the higher it goes to the top. With the number of users on Social Media, it can bring your facilities webpage more visits making it show up closer to the top of Google. The social media page itself additionally shows up on search engines and contains backlinks from users which Google also likes. In many cases the social media business page for the practice may show up above the actual website when people search for specific keywords
In business, we like to talk quite frequently about the ‘bottom line’. Garnering a strong social media presence will give your practice more insight and interaction with the people who matter, your patients. Understanding which social media outlets are garnering the most "likes" or discussion feedback on healthcare issues (for example, links to important articles on timely material such as the benefits of the flu vaccine) will help you to see into your patients' worlds and communicate with them like never before. If you’re looking for new ways to generate buzz for your practice, a strong social media game is where it’s at!
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