Social Media | Medical Web Experts

3 Reasons Why Social Media Is Essential for Success

Social media has become an indispensable part of many people’s lives. In fact, few people will commit to something – from eating at a new restaurant to making an appointment with a new doctor – without doing a quick Google search first. This means that strengthening a medical Internet marketing strategy with a social media aspect is essential for the success of any business. Healthcare organizations that choose not to participate in social media could be losing out on potential patients.

Here are three reasons that explain why a healthcare business’ success depends on social media:

1. If you’re not online, you don’t exist.

If a patient is looking for a new primary care physician, all it takes is a few quick seconds to perform a simple online search for them to be able to see what’s out there. Without an Internet presence, your practice won’t be found. With the help of social media, you can increase your practice’s visibility and reach out to a widespread audience. You can also communicate with your target audience so that you are not only seen, but heard.

Remember, your audience requires unvarying reminders of you who are, what your business does, and how you can be of value to them.

2. Patients want informative content.

Appealing content is the driving force behind any successful marketing campaign – social media or otherwise. This means that your message is just as important as where you post your content. With social media you can become part of the online conversation and reach patients on a personal level. To gain their trust, all you have to do is provide something of value and consistently deliver high-quality content that isn’t found anywhere else.

3. It’s an opportunity to set yourself apart from your competitors.

Healthcare businesses can use social media to prove their expertise and enhance their online reputation. They can show patients on a daily basis what it is they sets them apart from other practices and take steps to establish themselves as a credible authority in their field. Once you establish trust and credibility, patients will begin to see you as an authority and will visit your website and social media profiles for information.

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Posted by Suzy Mage on April 12, 2013

Why Reputation Management Matters

Whether you like it or not, your customers are posting reviews about your company on websites all across the Internet. These reviews provide potential customers with a glimpse into the products and services your organization provides and can sway them to choose your services over those of a competitor. However, they can also be damaging to your company’s reputation. In fact, according to a Nielsen “Global Trust in Advertising” report, online reviews are one of the most trusted sources of information for buying decisions, second only to recommendations from friends and family.

In order to protect your organization’s brand and reputation, it is important for you to manage the reviews that customers write about you online. Here are a few quick tips to help you get started:

Take charge of your social media profiles. Physicians are often hesitant to create social media profiles, fearing that by doing so they will provide patients an outlet to voice their negative opinions. The truth is – patients are already talking about you online. Providing a place for them to write comments or reviews just allows you to respond to them much more quickly.
Monitor the Internet regularly for mention of your organization. You can set Google alerts for keywords such as your practice’s name and the names of your physicians. You can also easily search Twitter by typing key terms into the search bar, both with and without the hashtag symbol (#).
Ask your patients for reviews. There’s nothing wrong about asking patients for feedback – especially those who have expressed contentment with your practice. Tell patients which sites you use, such as Healthgrades or Google Local, and encourage them to write about their experience.
Have a plan in place for handling negative criticism on social media. Patients may post things that are unflattering – and sometimes untrue. So, it’s a good idea to have a strategy for how your practice will handle negative comments. This includes assigning someone to handle these types of crises, as well as how they will go about doing so.

Of course, not every organization will have the time or resources to handle online reputation management on their own. Healthcare professionals who want to focus on practicing medicine and not necessarily on the branding or marketing aspects of their business can contract the services of a marketing agency that specializes in online reputation management for the medical industry.

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Posted by Amanda Guerrero on April 2, 2013

Top 7 Current Healthcare Marketing Techniques and Trends

Medical marketing is an industry that’s constantly growing and changing. Staying on top of what’s effective will help your doctor’s office or health care organization successfully market itself with the highest earning potential and the least amount of effort.

1. Build a Brand.
Creating a unique and communicative identity for your healthcare organization can help set you apart from the competition and ensure that your company’s image sticks with your customers. Building a brand helps solidify your position in the market and communicates clearly to your potential patients what you’re capable of doing for them.

Working logo design, a set color scheme, images, and particular messages into your online and offline advertising campaigns helps solidify your brand. Done right, branding helps your audience remember you in a respectable way.

2. Construct a Real Website.
More and more American adults are leaving the yellow pages behind in favor of online searching to find health information or a healthcare provider. It’s absolutely essential for medical practices and healthcare organizations to build a solid, respectable website and maintain it regularly in order to be taken seriously in today’s market. Whether you choose a custom site or a template website , the best medical websites are affordable and offers a ridiculously high return-on-investment (ROI) compared with print ads when combined with search engine marketing.

3. Search Engine Optimization.
Search engine optimization, or SEO, is an online marketing technique centered on moving your website up to the front page of search engine results for certain terms related to your business. When your website appears in the top five search results for keywords related to your specialty and location, searchers will find you a hundred times easier than if your website doesn’t rank. What’s more, once a certain amount of work has been done to improve your rankings, the results will be strong enough to keep your practice high in the rankings with minimal maintenance.

4. Grow Your Social Media Presence.
According to a recent study by PwC Health Research Institute, over a third of US internet users utilize social media networks – like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ – to find health information and talk about their symptoms. A full 41 percent of those people are using the information they find on social networks to make decisions about which healthcare provider to choose. Clearly, having a social media presence and being active on your profiles is a huge marketing platform for reaching internet users. Many doctor internet marketing services offer full social media setup and profile management to make sure that your company is taking full advantage of your online profiles.

5. Pay-Per-Click Ads.
Pay-per-click advertising – often abbreviated as PPC – offers an instant presence in search engines like Google and lets you pay only for the number of visits the ad brings you (hence the name). PPC helps you generate leads and traffic to your site instantly, and you can turn your campaign on and off whenever you like. It’s also easy to target users within a certain area. Done right, pay-per-click ads can be a great way to market your medical practice or healthcare organization – though your results and site traffic will probably never be as good as with a long-term SEO campaign.

6. Run Promotions Online.
Running online deals and promotions is a great way to get people in the door and make them truly excited about your services. Thinking of a cost-effective offer – like a high-demand service that you can offer at a percentage off on certain days or a two-for-one deal – and then promoting it on your website helps bring in new clients who might have been on the fence if not for the promo. Bonus: if you’re running a pay-per-click medical internet marketing campaign, advertising your special offer in search engine results will increase your visibility.

7. Participate in Conferences.
If you work for a healthcare organization or a practice with a unique service, participating in regional conferences can help increase awareness for your business and build a need for your service. Putting your name out and building personal relationships with potential customers (not to mention associate businesses and partners) keeps your company’s brand and presence strong. Check online for conference opportunities in your area.

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Posted by Marie on November 12, 2012

Content Marketing’s Branding Power

Online content marketing is the next digital media revolution. The first was the Google search revolution, allowing the public to use the internet for all their needs, wants, and desires. Then came the introduction and rapid expansion of social media networks, allowing those users to connect and share online content with their friends, fans, and followers. Content marketing is a combination of the two, and health care and medical providers can strategically use it for both their and their patients benefit.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing involves content – the creation of original content or the use of content for the benefit of an audience – in addition to marketing – getting people to discover and engage with that content.

Although the two are mutually exclusive, one cannot exist without the other in this strategy. A company cannot merely create a website, write in some content, and wait for the success to show up. Instead, they must actively promote and share their content on appropriate social media platforms. As always, there’s a catch – the promotion needs to be subtle and inviting. Rather than pushing content on a consumer, make it so the content pulls them in and allows them to discover it for themselves.

Why does content marketing work?

Currently, advertisers are investing a lot of money on digital ads without realizing much more branding power content marketing has than the typical online banner ad. No one remembers their favorite banner ad like they do their favorite TV commercial – regardless of how pretty or sparkly it is. Why? Because people connect with stories. Although a picture may be worth a thousand words, a story can never be told in a banner.

Emotion and connection are what draw the consumer in to content marketing. It’s an effective branding strategy that enables brands to share their stories with their consumers in their own words. The story can be written and shared in several different ways, such as online articles, blogs plots, videos, reviews, or eBooks. Online marketing doesn’t have to cost a fortune, it can be low-cost (or in some cases like social media, free) or it can be professionally produced, depending on the preferences of the business investing.

There’s one important thing to keep in mind when considering online marketing: online marketing is NOT the same thing as an advertisement. It’s real, personal, interestering content that delivers something of value to the consumer that can makes them want to become a potential payment.

To read more on online marketing, click here.

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Posted by Suzy Mage on October 15, 2012

Five SEO Tips to Learn from Wikipedia

It’s no coincidence that when a medical realted search term or phrase is typed in to a Google search bar that Wikipedia.org is the top slated search result. Looking at Wikipedia as a model for search engine optimization (SEO) can offer health care providers several fundamental SEO basics that they can use to optimize their website’s search results.

Usability: People use Wikipedia often, whether for general knowledge or as a reference source. Its content is well written and comprehensive, and people trust it. The more Wikipedia is shared and used, its rankings improve. However, this positive feedback loop isn’t exclusive to Wikipedia – any good article or website can be used as a reference and shared in social media.
Specificity: Wikipedia articles cover specific topics and are very focused – most article headings are only one or a few words long, and generally are the term or phrase searched. Unless Google is sure that the article is correctly focused on a specific search term or phrase, it will not give it a high ranking.
Organization: Wikipedia articles are well organized, well written, and easy to read. Document structure is an important factor in Google page ranking and is also a good indicator of quality content. It is important to utilize a single title tag for each article and to break up content into logical sections with headers. Paragraphs upon paragraphs of content are not only boring to read, but will not generate positive reactions from Google. In addition, using tags to specify important SEO terms and phrases in your content can improve its results.
Links: Wikipedia content is full of links, both internal (linking to other Wikipedia pages) and external (linking to other websites). Internal links are great for two reasons, 1) they help connect users to related content and 2) it lowers a page’s bounce rate (according to Wikipedia, a ‘bounce rate’ is the percentage of visitors who enter the site and “bounce” (leave the site) rather than continue viewing other pages within the same site). A low bounce rate is also a good indication that content is engaging and relevant. Not only does Wikipedia utilize internal links, but its content also contains several external links to high quality sources to support information used in their articles; Google also monitors external links, and proper use can improve page rank.
Relevance: Wikipedia’s content is updated regularly. New articles are continuously added and old articles are revised and improved. Google favors content that is up-to-date. It is not adequate to just design a website, add content, and sit back to watch what happens. These days, new content must be added regularly, existing content should be updated, and any content that is outdated or incorrect needs to be swiftly improved or corrected.

Overall, the lessons learned from Wikipedia are that content should be configured in a way that is easy for real people to read, understand, and use, in addition to being specific, up-to-date, and trusted. Also, articles should link content to other high quality websites as well as use internal links to encourage a flow of traffic internally when appropriate. It is easy to forget that patients are real people, and they will choose content that is presented in a way that is easy for them to read, understand, and use.

To read more about what health care providers can learn from Wikipedia, click here.

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Posted by Suzy Mage on October 2, 2012

Tablet compatible websites are becoming a necessity

Global sales of tablets reached over 64 million units in 2011 and are projected to increase to 232 million units in 2016, according to the most recent Tablet Technology and Markets report from Futuresource Consulting. Not only are sales projected to rise 200 percent, but the Adobe Digital Index report projects that tablets will create more web traffic than smartphones by early 2013.

Although the Apple iPad dominates the market, its competitors have entered the market and seem to multiply by the minute. To name a few, there’s the Amazon Kindle, BlackBerry Playbook, Motorola Xoom, Google Nexus, Samsung Galaxy, and Sony Tablet.

Many people see tablets as an important addition to their computer. Tablets make it easy for people to carry their computer with them; making it possible to access full websites from any location. In 2011, tablets accounted for 10 percent of total mobile app downloads and it is projected that by 2016 they will account for nearly 20 percent. In addition, the Futuresource report mentions that tablet owners tend to be media savvy.

How does this affect your health care or medical business?

Heath care and medical websites must be revamped for both smartphone and tablets – the time of creating websites exclusively for desktop browsers is over. Tablets and smartphones present a unique opportunity to develop mobile compatible websites in addition to their existing desktop versions. Mobile users want do the same things that desktop users do, but the content needs to be presented in a compatible way; businesses need to assure that as many people as possible can access their content.

Some tablets and smartphones have sophisticated browsers that allow them to view full websites in miniature versions, but most mobile viewports are too narrow to support a layout created for a desktop. Not only could this affect viewing capabilities, but if the page weight is too large it may lead longer loading times. Longer loading times will lead to more potential customers and patients pressing the ‘back’ button before seeing your content.

Mobile browsing is not a passing trend. Tablet use is increasing at an exponential rate and it’s not going to slow down anytime soon. If a health care or medical business decides to not create a mobile alternative for their website, they can be assured to expect not only user frustration but the possibility to lose potential patients and customers.

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Posted by Suzy Mage on September 27, 2012

Turn online traffic into patients using these Search Engine Optimization tips

If your business is in the medical field, then Search Engine Optimization (SEO) can be a valuable resource to enhance your website traffic and increase your patient base. But if the online medical marketing content published doesn’t captivate your audience, you could be losing potential patients. A positive online presence is crucial in successively running a healthcare business; we are, after all, in the era of the Google search, and these days, you don’t need a MD to publish content on the internet. To increase the effectiveness of your online marketing content, keep in mind these six ways to capture your audience:

Identify your target patients: Know the patient base you want to talk to, and design content that speaks to them. Knowing who your online marketing content is directed to and targeting their needs can increase the possibility of welcoming new patients.
Recognize the social platforms your target patients use: Once you know your target audience; now you must decide which social platforms and tools can most effectively reach them. For example, if the majority of your potential patients prefer to read blogs, then focus your energy on posting blogs rather than on Facebook posts or tweets.
Let your content to be effortlessly found: Unique content has little value if there are no potential patients to observe it. Make sure that you publish your content within the social platforms that they visit most in order for them to effortlessly find, read, like, and share the content.
Update content without fail: It is essentially to stay current when working in the medical field, and outdated content can turn off prospective patients who may think that your business is obsolete. Updating your social platforms consistently is a simple way to prove that your business is relevant and up-to-date.
Observe the strategies used by your competition: Your goal is for potential patients to pick your business over your competitors, and monitoring their medical internet marketing strategies can help you perfect your own. Some things to take notice of include what type of content they produce and share, how often they publish it, and the level of sharing and engagement they get in return.
Reformat, not copy, your content: If your patient base consists of different segments that prefer different social platforms, then you can reuse the same content to reach both groups. However, you cannot just copy content from one social platform to another, this can get you in trouble with search engines. Instead, you must reformat the content in a creative way. For example, you can use the same content from a Facebook post but format it into a slide show.

If you put in the time and effort to develop unique online marketing content that effectively reaches your target audience, you can maximize your online presence and potentially gain new patient and customers. It may not be instantaneous, but you can guarantee that you will notice the results of improved SEO.

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Posted by Suzy Mage on September 12, 2012

Follow the Penguin, SEO Techniques for Modern Online Marketing

Google releases updated algorithms about 500 times a year and the most recent major overhauls have included black and white animals: the panda and more recently, the penguin. Since its release in April 2012, the Penguin has been changing the way search engine results are produced has been giving some business owners a scare, particularly in medical fields.

“You don’t want the next Penguin update,” said Matt Cutts, a search engine optimization (SEO) and spam specialist for Google. The Penguin is designed to block out “black hat” marketing strategies, such as keyword stuffing, cloaking, unnatural link building and content duplication.

In general, the goal of these search engine updates is to better rank and reward web sites that are using “white hat” search engine optimization techniques, like a healthcare provider that utilizes the internet for medical marketing.

Online SEO strategies are always changing courses and experienced marketing companies will stay on top of developing trends, serving clients’ needs regardless of the latest algorithm update. Below are some current “white hat” techniques that you or your marketing company should be utilizing to strengthen your business’s online presence.

The Key is Keywords: Keyword density plays an important role that you need to comply with the standards cautiously. While it is important to add keywords in web site content, it is more important to use them properly. Ensure that you do not add keywords forcefully in your content.

Rich Content: Website content is one of the most important aspects and should be given serious thought. Adding fresh content on a website will reawaken Google’s search engine bots and, if they find the content to be legitimate, they will rank the site accordingly.

Social Media Presence: One of the newest elements in SEO is Social media optimization (SMO). If you want to promote a business, it will require a working knowledge on social media websites like Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus. Constantly updating business events and happenings through these mediums is one of the easiest ways to increase your company’s internet profile.

Website Branding: Google’s search engines thoroughly examine the themes of websites to rank them. As a result, it is important to design a web site theme that fits with your business functions or operations. For example, a doctors office should include various medical internet marketing phrases and links to boost their visibility.

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Posted by Louis Bernays on September 5, 2012

Three Tips To Lure Customers With Localized Internet Marketing

An increasing number of consumers go online when they are looking for local businesses in their area or want to learn more about the products available near their homes, according to marketing research. Therefore, having a strong internet presence is essential for a successful business strategy.

Regardless of what you sell, your company’s size or location, the potential for online marketing is growing every year and business owners that take advantage of it are rewarded for their efforts. Social media was once

Using a mix of online social media websites and localized search engine optimization (SEO) techniques, any business owner can raise the profile of their enterprise and attract more customers. Here are a few easy tips on how to boost your business’s search engine results:

1.) Use Customer Review Sites to Your Advantage

Sometimes, online customer reviews can make or break a business. Internet date reveals 72 percent of consumers find online reviews are as trustworthy as personal recommendations, and 52 percent said positive online reviews about a local business increase the likelihood they will visit the business.

The answer is clear: online reviews are becoming more popular, and more consumers are referring directly to the Internet to seek out local businesses. Therefore, any smart business will make these customer reviews work for their business. That doesn’t mean you should spam fake reviews of your own business all across the Internet, and it doesn’t mean you should use these review sites to slam your competition—those are bad practices that can get you blacklisted on Google Places and can destroy your good name as a reputable business in no time.

Instead, encourage your customers to leave positive reviews online. You can’t force customers to really do anything, but if just a handful of them leave positive reviews on the Internet about your business, those will become valuable testimonials that will encourage more potential customers to pay your business a visit.

2.) Add Localized Keywords to SEO Marketing Strategies

It sounds simple, but many forget to do it. Where is your business located? The name of the town, state or region where do business should be a prominent on your company’s web site and not just on the front page, but in subtexts, titles, keywords, tags and other SEO tools.

Data on your website analytics tells you that you have lots of customers searching for you from a particular city or region, you should include that area by name in your keywords. If you find that visitors are hitting your website with a search term paired with a city or state name, optimize your online content for that particular city/state name.

An easy way to increase your visibility in specific areas is to simply include city and state names with the keywords you’re optimizing. Search engines will recognize your keywords and link them with the regions you’re targeting, so when someone within your area searches for your services, your business is more likely to rank higher due to that association with both service and regional relevance.

3.) Help Google Find Your Business With Google+ Local

Google is God in the digital world and will shine light on your business if you do as it pleases. Not only is Google the most widely-used search platform on the internet, but it provides a number of free, simple features you can use to promote your business directly to search engine users that are actively looking for your products and services.

With a little effort, you can boost your small business’s visibility on the internet by providing Google with some basic information about your business. The more you provide, the easier it will be for customers to find you through Google search.
When you complete a profile on Google’s “Places for Business”, your company will be easy to find on Google Maps, Google Shopping, Google+ Local, and many other Google Search products.

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Posted by Louis Bernays on August 17, 2012

Five Ways Healthcare Companies Benefit from Social Media Marketing

In the age of Google, a strong online presence is the key to running a successful healthcare business. That said, it’s becoming essential for hospitals and health providers to reconsider their marketing strategies and start mixing social media into the equation.

A study by iCrossing and Opinion Research Corporation, “How America Searches: Health & Wellness,” discovered 34 percent of consumers use social media to search for health information and 36 percent what to see what other consumers say about medication or treatment. The study also found 67 percent use online search engines to find healthcare services.

Simply put: online marketing for physicians is crucial and social media can help lift your business through the rankings in Google searches. To help understand the possible applications, consider these five examples of how the social web can work for hospitals and others in the healthcare industry:

Live Procedures Tweeting  – Social media channels have helped open an area of healthcare that was, until recently, available to a select few: the operating room. Last February, Henry Ford Hospital became one of the first hospitals to use tweet a live procedure from an operating room. Doctors, medical students and curious non-medical personnel followed along as surgeons posted short updates on a kidney surgery to remove a cancerous tumor.

Train Medical Personnel to Tweet –  Some healthcare organizations have begun leveraging social media channels to complement training efforts. The Mayo Clinic, for example, incorporated social media into a recent training presentation for local chapters of the American Heart Association. During the presentation, participants were encouraged to contribute to the discussion using the #AHAchat hashtag.

Appeal to Mainstream Media –  Reporters have become tech savvy. Seventy percent of journalists use social networks to assist reporting, compared with 41 percent the year before. With numbers that high, it only makes sense for healthcare marketers to leverage social media channels in order to achieve coverage by both mainstream media and industry publications. As part of healthcare marketing efforts, organizations can use social media channels – including blogs, forums and microblogs – to share success stories from out-of-the-ordinary operations or treatments, medical research or other significant achievements.

Communicate during Times of Crisis  - Whether it be a flood, an earthquake or a mass shooting, hospitals and healthcare providers are at the center of it all when a disaster strikes. Healthcare providers can use social media networks to provide real-time updates both for those directly affected by the crisis and those watching from afar.

Share Information with Patients -  With the magnitude of health information available on the web – both accurate and inaccurate – it’s likely that patients can easily be misinformed. By integrating social media into doctor marketing strategy, organizations can share accurate, timely information regarding symptoms, diseases, medications, treatments and more.

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Posted by Louis Bernays on August 9, 2012

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