Are you ignoring your practice’s Facebook page?
Many medical practices start using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter because they feel that’s what they need to do to stay competitive. While social media marketing is quite popular and beneficial, if not given due attention it can actually reflect negatively on your practice. An ignored Facebook Page can make your practice look stale because the content on the list is just that, stale.
Social media is one of the cheapest ways to market your practice. It is also one that requires time and commitment to see results. Many underestimate the time commitment involved in implementing and maintaining a social media strategy. Many assume they can have an Internet-savvy employee take care of this on top of their other responsibilities. This often ends in a failed strategy because to do it well, there has to be a great focus of one’s job.
To grow your audience, and in turn your practice, you need to add new content regularly. The new content appears on their Facebook fan pages and reminds them of their practice. This content doesn’t need to be just about you. In fact, only 20% of the content you post should be about you. So what else are you talking about? You talk about the things that interest your fans and that pertain to your practice. Where do you find this information you request? You find it online.
The term content curation means researching content online and finding articles and blog posts that are relevant to your audience. This does not mean that you steal the work of others. It is a process where you share the work of others because you find the information useful to your audience. Once you find a blog author you trust, you can put up your own review of your findings and post it on their site. This allows your fans to understand your opinion of the article and why you feel it deserves their attention. You have probably seen this in the form of a retweet. You can do the same thing on Facebook by providing a short review and then a link to the article. According to Social Media Examiner, “By selectively retweeting important information to other people, you are selecting a stream of information that has its own brand, but is based on the ideas of the community of people you follow.”
If you are a blogger, you can also use the content of others as a basis for future blogs. To learn more about keeping your social media accounts up to date, visit the Social Media Examiner blog here.
By taking the time to research relevant blogs, you share information and engage your audience. By the way, if you haven’t already noticed, this week’s blog is a perfect example of content curation!