Social media is a virtually untapped way of marketing your medical practice. Read on to discover how it can help your practice rise above the competition.

[list_item icon=”search”]Discover needed services:

Through social media, physicians can gain insight into what patients are interested in in regards to their specialty, what they are willing to do to improve their health and what obstacles stand in their way. A small practice has the flexibility to take advantage and act on information gleaned from their patients and audience. Taking cues from social media, a practice might find that patients are interested in a specialized service, a new surgical specialty, or a popular medical device- they can then leverage that information to tailor their marketing efforts to capture greater audiences and increase patient appointments.

[/list_item]
[list_item icon=”comment”]Increased customer service:

Responses to negative comments and complaints are crucial for reputation management, and can actually carry more weight than positive patient engagement. Because social media is the perfect tool for dialogue, complaints made on social media can be addressed — and often remedied — immediately, unlike customer service issues brought to a practice’s attention in a survey or followup call.  Taking care to keep specific details offline, practices can respond with a public apology and offer to “make the situation right”, essentially creating a public record of the positive action taken. When other social media users see that a problem is being addressed right away, they realize that customer service is taken seriously and feel valued as patients.

[/list_item]
[list_item icon=”globe”]Improved overall SEO:

Social networks can be an invaluable tool to increase your online footprint. Having a growing, engaged audience on social networks like Facebook can boost your Facebook page in search results for keywords included in your posts and page description; likewise, shares and re-tweets may get a piece of content indexed faster, all while driving traffic to your site and increasing the effectiveness of your content production efforts (typically a blog). Having a presence on Google+, Google Places, and Google Verified Authorship (a feature easily integrated into your blog) can help local SEO, as well as the indexing and display of a website’s content in search engine results.

[/list_item]

Have you integrated social media into your practices marketing efforts?  Do you have questions about where to start, what to do, and how it will help grow your practice?  Contact us today for a free consultation!

Healthcare Marketing Agency- Physician Referral Marketing (PRM) provides the tools and the know-how to grow physician practices & increase visibility both online and off. PRM specializes in strategic marketing campaigns & referral development through a uniquely direct relationship establishment with demographically relevant doctors and hospitals.To stay on top of the latest healthcare marketing trends, contact PRM today at 888-336-1344 or visit www.physicianreferralmarketing.com.  Also be sure to visit our Facebook, Twitter, or G+ page for the latest news in healthcare marketing. Nationwide service, with headquarters in Michigan and a regional office in Arizona.