Getting your medical practice noticed on Facebook can seem like a daunting task for those who are not social media “experts”, or your practice specializes in topics that you just don’t know how you talk about. For my inaugural Today’s Business blog post, I will discuss some of the ways that you can help get any practice noticed on Facebook, and will provide some specific examples from case studies of three medical practices that I have worked closely with in my time at Today’s Business: Doc Howie (Pediatric Dentist), Dr. Kline (Dermatologist), and JAG Physical Therapy (Physical Therapy Group).
Focus on Website Content
The first step to getting your practice noticed on Facebook is to focus your content around backlinks to your practice’s website. For those who don’t know, backlinks to your website consist of any link you post that directly links a user back to your practice’s website. An example of this can be seen in the image below with our client, Dr. Mitchell Kline. These backlinks can include any content, on your website, whether it may be tab on conditions/procedures you perform or treat, a healthy library, appointment set up, etc. Focusing your initial posting around this type of content can be an effective mechanism for a multitude of reasons.
It is GREAT for SEO. The more posts you have with backlinks to your practices website, the more your practice will show up in searches on the web. This is due to the fact that the keywords displayed in backlinks, whether they be medical terminology or phrases, or anything else pertinent to your practice, greatly improve your practices SEO. Not sure what SEO is?
It drives traffic directly to your website. Through Facebook and other analytical software, you can track the amount of clicks you have gotten to your website from social media platforms, and can keep tabs on the effectiveness.
It shows exactly who you are and what you do. You don’t want to give users on Facebook a clouded image of who you are. Focusing around your practice’s on-page content ensures you are broadcasting the right message to visitors to your site. In these posts you can also include your practice’s phone number along with any other calls to action for users.
In the Media Posts
Website content can get boring after a while. As much as you love what you do, cares about it as much as you do. You need to find other ways to engage users.
If your practice is consistently in the media, whether it be articles on the web, newspapers, or magazines, on television, or any other mention in the media, you need to capitalize on it.
A perfect example of this is our client JAG Physical Therapy. JAG President, John Gallucci Jr., is also the Medical Coordinator for the MLS (Major League Soccer). With this affiliation, he is always in the media as a source of information in the sports medical industry.
In recent months he has been featured on or in Sports Illustrated, ESPN New York, CBS New York, and Men’s Fitness to name a few. We always make sure to highlight these mentions in our Facebook posting, as the likelihood that users will engage with this type of content from a large, trusted external media resource is much greater than your run of the mill content.
Post Engaging External Content
Not every medical practice is in the media like JAG and John Gallucci are. You will need to be creative to find other external content to engage with users and get your practice noticed.
Look for industry related articles, but make sure all information you post is from a trustworthy, and accredited resource. You don’t want to be promoting inaccurate or incorrect information, especially in the medical field.
Ask questions. This can be trivia (Trivia Tuesday is great!), asking users to give their opinion on something, providing thoughts, anything that is likely to make somebody reply. You can also provide fun facts or myths vs. fact, something that always goes over well with our dermatologist Dr. Kline. You want the average user to look twice at your post because what you have posed is that engaging, and actually stop and think of an answer.
Pictures. Pictures. Pictures! Pictures are key on Facebook. Our general rule for Facebook is every post NEEDS either a picture or a thumbnail image. Make sure your pictures are engaging, and not just boring shots of body parts or medical equipment. Two types of images to focus on are infographics and humorous photos.
Infographics can fit A LOT of useful information into a small space. They may provide fun facts and thought provoking information, in an aesthetically pleasing manner, and these go over very well on Facebook. You can even split them up and spread the posts over a series of days.
Depending on your practice, you may want to incorporate humor as we have with our client, Doctor Howie. As a pediatric dentist, you need to have a sense of humor, and we do a great job embodying Doc Howie’s humorous personality with all of the dental humor and jokes we post. Some medical topics can get very dull and dry after a while, and humorous pictures and jokes can help to lighten the mood of the content.
The above examples are only some of the many things you can do to get your practice noticed on Facebook. A lot of your posting may depend on your practice, and what you’re specialties are. Keep in mind you always be ready and willing to change things on the fly. Social media is constantly evolving, and your practice’s image on social media needs to keep up with the times and changes.
Here are some further insights courtesy of the Psychiatric Times. Have any other suggestions for getting your medical practice noticed on Facebook? Let us know in the comments below!