Want your Facebook Page to expand and deliver results?

If social media and Facebook page views are part of your business plan for growing your medical practice and marketing your health care, there are some techniques that you should avoid, despite what you’ve heard to the contrary.

After all, you are spending the time to increase visibility; you don’t want to stab yourself with your own scalpel!

Run from these dubious “helpful tips” that others recommend:

1) Buying Fans and Followers

When you are just starting out, you want to show that there are a lot of likes and tons of people interested in following you.  The perception is that you have a horde of viewers, hungry for your medical advice.  You purchase followers and watch with satisfaction and amazement as the numbers escalate. This is probably one of the top “tricks” people advise to get a Facebook following.

The thing is, the goal is really to get a number of likes and followers from an engaged audience- one that is really interested in what you have to say and will want to use your services or products.  When you have diluted the “like” pool with numbers, Facebook sees that the fans that are engaged are much less percentage-wise.  This decline will damage your brand strength and invoke a punishment- your posts may not appear in your Fan’s feed.

 

2) Tagging Phantom People in Your Photos

A notification is sent out to each person that is tagged in a photo posted to Facebook.  Naturally the curious will click on the site to see themselves- people love seeing themselves and sharing memories of experiences.  But when it is done randomly and people are disappointed that they are not there and realize that it is just a ploy to get brand visibility, anger is aroused.  No one wants to be branded as a spammer.  It will be that much harder to get people to view your site again in the future.  Don’t do it!!!

 

3) Indiscriminate use of Hashtags

When hashtags  first appeared,  everyone was excited to incorporate them into their Facebook posts.- maybe even you!  However, a review of posts by Edgerank Checker reveals that posts using hashtags actually have less chance of going viral than those without hashtags.  Use them when you want to cross promote different platforms with the same type of information for a grouping.  Don’t (#hurt by a hashtag) use them indiscriminately!

Bonus

Tagging Other Brands

A well-placed appropriate (and relevant) tag to other brands in your post is rewarded by Facebook in their most recent algorithm.  Like hashtags, don’t do it indiscriminately but when it is strategic and makes sense for audiences in both brands.

Arrange for your free consultation at: barbarahalesmd@aol.com

I would be happy to discuss your needs and give you some pointers.