Promote Your Content On Social Media
Being active on social media sites where your patients and clients hang out is a sure way for them to get to know you and what you represent. Your name will be in their mind when topics come up and you will be in their conversations when your topics are discussed.
This is one of the best ways to increase visibility and become known. It is also a great jumping off point to get speaking engagements which further your visibility and strengthen your brand…and it’s a great way to grow your practice and business. This is a fantastic strategy that you shouldn’t avoid!
It’s pretty much impossible these days to separate your content marketing strategy from your social media strategy.
Check this out!
Don’t think that social media implementation applies to you and your services? Do you think it is a waste of time? Take a look at Kevin Pho, M.D. (http://www.kevinpho.com) He started implementing a social media strategy when these platforms were in their infancy. While he has an active medical practice, he is known as the Social Media Leader which has evolved into many very high-paying speaking gigs. His ad states:
“Make your event memorable with an inspirational KevinMD keynote! Kevin Pho, MD is a health care social media leader since 2004, a practicing, board-certified internal medicine physician, a national media commentator, and co-author of the book, Establishing, Managing, and Protecting Your Online Reputation: A Social Media Guide for Physicians and Medical Practices.”
Implementing a social media strategy is key to marketing yourself and promoting your services. This comes with providing helpful information that patients or your audience finds of value and is in sync with your services. Provide, provide, provide and then you can present the call to action. This can be to make an appointment, sign up for a newsletter, ask for a tip sheet or get your ebook. It is not an overnight strategy, but rather a plan that you build on over time.
Brian Peters, a digital marketing strategist at Buffer, lays out his process in Introduction to Social Media Strategy.
Show your personality: What are the words and graphics and visuals that you’re going to post? Are you going to be sophisticated or quirky? Add some videos that show you spreading your message.
Select the platforms you’ll use: You can’t be on every platform but you can have a great profile on every one that shows up when people are searching. Your concentrated effort however should be on the one that makes the most sense for your brand and where your audience is more likely to hang out. If your audience is young, it may be Snapchat. If it is the 30s, it may be Instagram and for the older set it may be Facebook.
Produce platform-specific content: Your plan can implement relevant links or videos while curating other content while also adding in your own content from your blogs and newsletters. Every platform has its own nuances and ways that people share. Get the great marketer Gary V’s secrets at his class here.
Make a toolbox: What tools support your social media strategy? Consider Hubspot, Hootsuite, Buffer and Trello for scheduling posts in advance and making sure you have all the content you need. Canva and Pablo are effective for graphics. If you’d like to embrace social media but just don’t have the time or don’t know what to say, you needn’t worry. Outsource it!
As a doctor and social media marketer as well as content marketer, I would be happy to discuss it further with you.
Schedule a 30-minute discovery call at Barbara@TheMedicalStrategist.com . Speak to you soon!
