What Does an Editorial Calendar Mean for Your Social Media?

18Nov

Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

I am a huge supporter of taking the time to create a plan when you have business goals that you want to achieve. Plans save time and money in the long run, simple as that. And this holds true for your social media marketing efforts as well!

Two great examples are diets and road trips. In each scenario, you want to get from A to B. We all know that having a written plan (or map) is crucial in finding your way effectively, and efficiently; whether with diet and exercise, or on the highway – a plan keeps you from getting lost along the way. Consider your social media marketing plan that written map to success.

A crucial aspect of a successful social media marketing strategy is strong valuable content. I’m sure you have read all about the importance of good content before, so I am not going to go on and on about it here. The short story on good content is….you need it to be successful on social media.

Good content takes time to complete, so it is handy to have shortcuts to help you organize your plan in advance so that you are not spending hours on end trying to keep up with writing and posting your content on a consistent basis.

My secret weapon for you? An editorial calendar.

While you may think these are just for journalists, they come in handy for organizing the business content that you want to share in the social media world. This will help you identify the messages that you want to share and pinpoint the most effective times to share them.

What you will need is a calendar (online or printed) and an hour or two to organize your thoughts. First I suggest that you make a list of all of the information that you would like to share during the month (events, announcements, email blasts, etc). Then I would suggest that you choose a goal for your month. Whether it be more email signups, leads, in-store visits, or whatever your own personal business goal would be.

Then, think about how you would drive those results and what type of content makes sense. Presto! You just found out what your theme of the month will be. So if you are choosing newsletter signups, you need to weave the theme of your newsletter through your posts during the month.

Also, you should know how many posts you want to do per week. I would always suggest a minimum of 7-14 per week. Which would mean 28-56 per month.

Do you have an email blast that goes out on Tuesdays? Make sure to mark that on your calendar to share a link to your email blast every week on a Tuesday. Want to run a contest to promote your newsletter signups? Promote it three times per week and mark on your calendar when you want to do this.

Then continue to add items to your calendar and before you know it – it should be nearly full! By creating an editorial calendar you will enable yourself to consistently brand yourself across online and offline as well as come up with quality content that engages your audience. Now get to it!

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Long-Form Posts on LinkedIn: The Secret to Building Visibility and Credibility

By Christopher Tompkins

4Nov

LinkedIn, Social Media, Uncategorized

LinkedIn has long been one of my preferred social media networks due to the fact that if if you are interested in targeting professionals in your preferred market, it truly is second to none.

If you are new to LinkedIn, you will quickly find that the more you dig into the site, opportunities will present themselves which will allow you to engage other professionals that are interested in learning more about your topic. These opportunities can drive lifelong relationships, referrals and sales.

There are many ways to showcase your credentials and knowledge on LinkedIn. It goes without saying, that the first step is to create an engaging profile and company page. You can also join groups. You can also write updates.

Now you can do one better.

Long-Form Posts.

LinkedIn launched these with the view to help its users showcase their knowledge in a whole new way. Now when you publish a Long-Form Post your original content will be showcased in a few different ways:

*It is immediately shared with all of your followers

*It is immediately shared with all of your connections

*It is searchable both on and off LinkedIn

*It gives someone outside your network the opportunity to follow or connect with you

*It becomes part of your professional profile, with its own section.

Not too shabby, right?

So how can you start using this today? Find suitable posts from your content arsenal.

If you have a blog or regularly write articles that you share across the web, this is perfect content fodder for the LinkedIn Long-Form Post. Remember, the term is long-form, so we are not talking 200-300 words. Go long!

Now that you have your content, here’s the step by step (and simple) process of publishing your first Long-Form post:

Log into your LinkedIn account.
On your “Home Screen” you will see your picture with a white box next to it with the words “Share an update…” in it. If you look to the right side of this box, you will see a small pencil icon. When you cursor over it, the words “Share an Update” appear. Click this.
A new screen will open which looks similar to a Word document. Here is where you can cut and paste your existing content or get to writing something fresh. You have all of the basic formatting options here as well as the opportunity to add pictures, hyperlinks, and embed media.
After you have added your title, completed your content, and formatted your post – it is time to post! I suggest clicking the “Preview” button to see how your Long-Form Post will look to other LinkedIn members. Once you are happy with what you see, simply click publish…and you are done! By the click of that button, everyone that is connected with you will receive a notification that you have just published a new post.

While this is a fairly simple process to reach so many, make sure that your message is worth everyone’s attention. Crafting a useful note which is packed with value for the members of your target market is an absolute must! My top tip here is to always think about what your target audience is interested in while coming up with anything that you post online. If your goal is to engage future referral sources or clients, provide information that they would enjoy.

LinkedIn Long-Form Posts are just another way that LinkedIn is helping you share your expertise while increasing your visibility on the site. Definitely worth a look!

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Pinterest and Its Marketing Value for Assisted Living Facilities

By Christopher Tompkins

24Apr

Healthcare Marketing, Pinterest, Uncategorized

When you are trying to gain more online visibility for your assisted living facility, it seems like there is a new tool popping up everyday that you “must” pay attention to. Facebook. LinkedIn. Twitter. YouTube. Google+. And now Pinterest.

Pinterest is the latest (and greatest )tool in your visual marketing arsenal.

If you have been paying attention to the trends in online marketing, visual content marketing has become a hot topic, especially within the healthcare field. For years the value of blogs and videos have been touted, but now images have also moved to the forefront. At the end of the day, people want to do more than just read online – they want to look at and engage with visually appealing content.

And images are what Pinterest does best.

But why should your home assisted living facility care? Well, let these stats do the talking (recent, as of earlier this year):

Pinterest has over 70 million active users
80% of Pinterest users are female
80% of Pinterest pins (or “posts”) are actually re-pins (or “shares”)
Web traffic referrals to external websites (like yours!) grew 30% growth from last year
Average time spent per visit is 15 minutes
Average user spends 98 minutes per month on the site
90% of Pinterest users have a household income of over $30,000 per year!

These stats illustrate the fact that the Pinterest has an affluent, female-driven audience who spend lots of time on the site and are eager to share.

So how do you get involved? Aside from creating an account you need to organize your information before you get started. My advice is to create a personal Pinterest account for yourself and have a peek around at the functionality of the site. It has a robust Help section, so ask your questions there you will be able to learn more about how to use Pinterest. Create a few “boards” and “pins” and envision how this would look for your assisted living facility.

Now you can begin to create your strategy in order to increase your visibility among a very influential online market! Our team of Pinterest experts can help you get started in no time flat with Pinterest marketing campaigns in addition to classes to help you better understand what your strategy should be.

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Twitter for Home Health Marketing? Absolutely!

By Christopher Tompkins

23Apr

Healthcare Marketing, Twitter, Uncategorized

For many home health agencies, Twitter continues to remain a bit of a mystery. This fast moving medium tends to be a bit off-putting to marketers at these companies as they can find it hard to reconcile the amount of effort to the measurable results. Is it really worth it?

If you had asked me the question a few years ago, I may have had a slightly different answer – but today your home health company MUST be represented fully on Twitter.

When I speak with a home health company about Twitter, usually the first objection I hear is that “Our audience doesn’t use Twitter.”

Let me explain why this statement is incorrect.

Think about the networking meetings that you or your staff attend. Some may be full of other home health companies, but others may be just health-related businesses or maybe they are just other businesses in your area. So why would you go to a networking event where no members of your target market were present? Well, because the people that would be attending could either influence a purchase decision OR refer business to you.

This argument holds true for Twitter as well.

Having a strong and influential profile on Twitter will enable your home health agency to reach a much wider market online. While someone who is sick in bed may not be “tweeting” with you everyday, their caregiver may. Their loved ones might. Their caregiver’s best friends will. And the list goes on. Twitter helps you to create a large net where your information can reach an extended network of users who can then in turn share it with their extended network, and so on.

Aside from the influence and viral aspects of Twitter, it also helps you to stay competitive in your market place. Let’s say for example that you are a home health company based in Boston, Massachusetts that serves the Boston and surrounding areas. By now you should be able to know all of your direct competitors, but say that there are 10 of them out there, 7 with Twitter accounts. You not only have the ability to look through their accounts, but you can also get exclusive access to see who is following them. Every single one of them.

As you can imagine, this is extremely useful in terms of a competitive analysis – but also allows you an insight into who would be interested in your information. Actually, you can invite them to follow you as well. Imagine that power!

Another reason Twitter is important for your home health care company is that it brings a cutting-edge credibility to your business. In the business of healthcare, it is increasingly important for your company to be on top of all technological advances and trends. You want to be viewed as offering the best home health care services for your target market, and by showcasing your company (and what sets you apart from the pack) on Twitter you are able to get this across to thousands upon thousands of people.

All in all, if you have not created a Twitter account yet for your home health care company, there is no more time to wait. You need to get on this today. I suggest your first step should be to do a quick look around Twitter to see what your competitors are doing and how engaged they are with their audience. This will show you how successful you will be quickly. For example, if you are going to be an early adopter in your market, you will be able to suck up the market share quickly. But if your competitors have vibrant profiles that are active, it will take more time.

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LinkedIn Results: What Your Home Health Agency or Assisted Living Facility Can Expect!

By Christopher Tompkins

22Apr

Healthcare Marketing, LinkedIn, Uncategorized

If you have been following our blog or our related daily national radio show (The Social Marketing Academy), you know that I am an absolutely MASSIVE proponent of the powers of marketing your company on LinkedIn. This vibrant and highly active professional social networking hub can offer so many positive outcomes to your business that sometimes it can be surprising.

When it comes to home health agencies and assisted living facilities, LinkedIn is one of the tools that is not always the first choice when you turn to online promotion. Many individuals in these industries believe that by simply creating a sparse LinkedIn Professional Profile, they are checking off “LinkedIn Marketing” from their to-do list.

This couldn’t be farther from the truth.

There are many activities that make up a vibrant and successful LinkedIn marketing strategy which home health and assisted living facilities are missing. But why?

It truly does come down to lack of resources: especially time. Of course time is always at a premium, and LinkedIn is one of the longer games when it comes to building visibility and credibility. Also, the time that you need to spend on the site on a consistent basis can be daunting to an overworked marketing manager. Speaking of lack of resources, this can also relate to the lack of knowledge that a home health agency or assisted living facility has of how LinkedIn works. Who has extra time to learn an entirely new marketing tool?

Whether you don’t have the time or still need to pick up the skills, here is why you need to listen up when it comes to the power of LinkedIn marketing for your home health or assisted living company. Below are some of the results that you can expect from a LinkedIn marketing campaign:

Visibility: you will gain visibility to members of your target market by joining groups where you could have hundreds of thousands of eyeballs to your every move.
Credibility: your activity and marketing strategy will build your credibility and position you as an expert/leader in your field.
Website Traffic: you can build valuable traffic from LinkedIn to your website, blog or landing pages.
Referrals: you can connect and network with referral sources in real time to enhance the reach of your business.
Connect with the Elusive: having trouble connecting with leads via email – try LinkedIn and see how your rate of response changes.
Event and Service Promotion: promote your events and/or services to the masses as often as you please (including email blasts).
Public Relations Opportunities: the more consistent your activity is, the more you will asked to post guest blogs, speak at conferences and have media appointments.
Testimonials: you can solicit and collect useful testimonials that you can then use in your marketing collateral.
Branding: you can brand your company fully via LinkedIn Company Pages and showcase your services through Showcase Pages.
Hiring: looking to expand your staff or need to replace a member of staff? LinkedIn will help you reach some of the most savvy prospects in your area.

And this is just scratching the surface. All of the above results are within your grasp as long as you have a cohesive and strategic social media marketing campaign by your side. This is something that my team at The Go! Agency specializes in, and we have years of experience executing these campaigns for members of the healthcare industry – and in particular home health and assisted living.

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5 Common Facebook Mistakes Made by Home Health Companies

By Christopher Tompkins

21Apr

Facebook, Healthcare Marketing, Uncategorized

When it comes to Facebook, it really does take more than simply creating an account and watching the leads, referrals, and clients come pouring in. The site just isn’t suited for the “build it and they will come” mentality.

This is especially true for members of the healthcare industry, and in particular home health agencies. In the wonderful world of Facebook, people login and engage with information they find useful, and brands which interest them. When you are able to fill these two needs, Facebook becomes a different ball game: one that continues to evolve and bring new and more interesting opportunities.

From working in the healthcare market for some time, I’ve seen many home health agencies that have been getting it wrong on Facebook for years. In the past, I chalked it up to the fact so many healthcare organizations were just waking up to the power of social media for marketing purposes and were doing their own internal fact finding.

Now however, you really need to “up your game” and get involved with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, not only to stay competitive, but also to continually engage your target market in an increasingly cluttered world.

There are several fundamental problems that many home health companies have made on Facebook. In order to help ensure that your agency is not making these mistakes, I’ve listed them below with some easy fixes for you to follow. Let’s get started:

1. Make Sure You Have a Facebook Page. Make sure that your agency has its own Facebook Page….not a Facebook Profile or a Facebook Place. You want a full blown Facebook Page. Nothing is more unprofessional than a member of your target market being asked to “Add as Friend” rather than “LIKE” your Page.

2. Hi-Resolution Cover Image and Logo. Facebook branding should continue on from the branding that you have on your business cards, website, brochures and more. Make sure that your Facebook Cover image is on-brand and is eye catching (after all, it’s the first thing people see when they come to your page). Also, make sure that your Facebook Page logo is hi-resolution and meets the guidelines of size that Facebook puts forth. Both of these items I’ve seen done incorrectly time and time again, and these first impressions do make a difference!

3. Don’t Neglect Your ‘About’ Section. This is another highly neglected area by many home health companies. Go to your Facebook Page, click Edit Page and then Update Page Info. This will bring you to a page where you are asked to fill in specific information about your organization. FILL IN EVERYTHING YOU CAN! A good rule of thumb is to open your agency’s website in another window and then copy and paste the information directly from there to the corresponding area of the Facebook Page. Remember to pack this section with keywords – this is how you will be found easily and quickly in Facebook searches!

4. Respond to Comments, Reviews and Posts! There is nothing worse than going to a home health company’s Facebook Page and seeing absolutely no responses to anything that was written to them. You need to respond to everything – whether it is positive or negative. If you have tons of negative reviews, have you thought to reach out to these people to fix this situation? Just leaving them up there to fester is not bringing your credibility higher, it is dragging it down to rock bottom.

5. Post More Than Once Every 10 Years. Nothing says “I’m here and I care” like completely ignoring your Facebook Page. Sarcasm of course. You need to post to your Facebook Page consistently. If someone goes to your agency’s Facebook Page right now and sees that your last post was 3 months ago….why would they follow or LIKE you? People want to engage and follow home health care agencies that are active (on a consistent basis), not those who never even check their page.

These 5 mistakes are easy to overcome, especially with the help of a qualified social media marketing team. If you are experiencing the above problems, or just need some help making sense of the social media landscape for your home health agency, let us know! The Go! Agency are specialists when it comes to the healthcare social media space and we can help you define and reach your goals today. Call us toll free at 866-926-2636 for a free consultation.

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Are You Ready for a New Twitter Profile? Ready or Not, Here it Comes!

By Christopher Tompkins

16Apr

Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

Lately all of the social media juggernauts have been undergoing some major changes in order to make them more intuitive, attractive and powerful when it comes to engaging your target audience. Facebook has rolled out some important changes to Pages, LinkedIn has rolled out Showcase Pages and now Twitter is rolling out an entirely new Twitter Profile layout.

For those of you who have been avoiding Twitter, this just might be a the perfect time for you to get started. Why? This new design is the most straight-forward of all of the previous incarnations and will help you get started quickly with great new features.

Just so you know, this change is going to be rolled out first for the web version of Twitter, which is what we will focus on in this article (not the mobile version).

Now here are the top 6 new features and changes to your Twitter Profile you need to be aware of:

1. New Header Image. In order to bring your Twitter account to life, Twitter has now introduced a massive new image-driven layout to show its dedication to the visual. These layouts will be slowly rolling out to all Twitter users, and those who create a new account can receive one right now. For best results the image should be 1500 x 500 pixels. Make sure that this image is cohesive with your brand and other social media images. My top tip is to choose some of the branding from your online point of sale (website) and recreate it here. Using online photo/image editors you can do this yourself, but of course a graphic designer can be an absolute asset.

2. Larger Profile Pic. Now you will be able to showcase your brand logo with a larger more vibrant image on your Twitter profile. The new size for the Profile Pic is 400 x 400 pixels.

3. Profile Layout Change. You will now notice that there is a 3 column view where on the left hand side all of your most important information is instantly visible. Your name, bio, location and website will be prominently featured on the left hand side (much like the recent changes that Facebook made to their Pages). Also in the left column you will find all of your photos and videos. Another upgrade is that underneath the new header image are tabs (which will also be used on Facebook Pages) that break down your profile into the following choices: Tweets, Photos/Videos, Following, Followers, Favorites, More (which include lists). This design has streamlined all of the noise on Twitter so that navigation and engagement can be more straightforward.

4. Pinning Tweets. Much like Facebook, you will be able to “Pin” Tweets to the top of your Twitter feed so when people visit your profile they will be met with what you deem to be the most important information for them to engage with first. This is a great self promotional tool to get your message across to the masses.

5. Larger Popular Tweets. If one of your tweets is getting a lot of attention, it will appear bold and larger than your others so that it pops out in your feed. This is a great tool to track successful tweets and monitor them, as well as showcasing your most popular content to your target audience.

6. Filter Tweets. This is a great new tool that will help visitors to your Twitter profile filter your tweets based on their own personal criteria. So for example if someone comes to your profile and filters your tweets using “promotion”, only your tweets with the word “promotion” will show up. This is a great way for people to engage with the content they want and for you to search for information that your business may need (ie: competitive analysis).

I’m sure that this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the changes that Twitter is going to be making – but I like the direction that they are moving in. There has even been talk of removing hashtags (#s) and @ replies in order to make the platform more intuitive!

If you are having problems making sense of Twitter and not sure how to get the traction that your brand deserves on Twitter, let us know.

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Own a Fitness-Related Business? Avoid These 6 Social Media Marketing Mistakes!

By Christopher Tompkins

19Mar

Social Media, Uncategorized

With all of the information out there about social media, it is tough to know what to pay attention to and what to take with a grain of salt. Yet even with all of this information, we all still make our fair share of mistakes when executing our social media marketing campaigns.

As the owner of an online marketing agency, everyday I speak with people who are trying to make the most out of their Facebook and LinkedIn profile, or making their “tweets” count on Twitter.

One market in particular that I’ve found struggles to find social media success is that of the fitness industry. While some businesses are absolute super stars, there are many that are not measuring up. This is completely understandable when it comes to the many facets of not only running your fitness-based business, but also learning the online marketing ropes perhaps for the first time.

Now, this is not the end of the world and you can definitely turn things around. To get you started, I wanted to share some of the most common mistakes that I have seen fitness-based businesses make over the years on social media marketing sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube and Pinterest. Here is the list with descriptions and tips on how to combat them in the future:

Mistake #1: Lack of Research

This is a very important one. With all of the hype around social media (and also due to the fact that creating accounts is free and easy), many of us are eager to just jump in head first. Keep in mind that social media is a branding and visibility platform and thus needs to carry the right messaging and voice. Before you go full speed ahead, first see what you are getting yourself into.

I suggest creating a sparse profile and taking the time to look through each site. Where is your target market? What is your competition doing right (which can really help you come up with a strategy)? What applications can be useful? How are people communicating? What tools to I have to communicate with my market? While Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter can work to everyone’s advantage, if you only have time to manage one or two presences, it is best to be able to pinpoint the right ones and save yourself time and effort.

Top tip: a great way of seeing what sites suit your business is by asking your existing audience via polling.

Mistake #2: Lack of Focus

When you execute an advertising campaign, you know who you are targeting. When you do a public relations campaign, you know what market you are trying to reach out to. When you do an email marketing campaign….well, you get the point. Social media is no different.

Social media allows us to target with laser focus, you just need to identify who you are trying to reach. Once identified, the key is to connect with “meaningful people” not just random people to get “the numbers.” Come on, why connect with 10,000 people who don’t care about you? What good does that do? Find connect and engage with people that matter. Focus!

Top tip: Social media is another marketing channel, it is not the “be all and end all” of your entire marketing strategy!

Mistake #3: Lack of Consistency

If you are going to execute a social media campaign, make sure to do it on a consistent basis – not whenever you can grab a free second. By consistent I mean daily, weekly, bi-weekly…on some sort of schedule. Since you are growing your audience, you need to be in front of them gaining that visibility and credibility consistently.

Top tip: Create a schedule of when you will be executing social media and what messages you will be highlighting. It takes a few minutes, but can save hours of weekly work. No time to even make a plan? Outsource! It’s not a dirty word anymore.

Mistake #4: Using a 100% ‘Push’ Marketing Approach

Push marketing is used all of the time in traditional marketing. While it is a perfect fit in many instances, it is not the foundation of an engaging social media strategy. Push marketing literally “pushes” what you want directly into your audience, while “pull” marketing using social media is about starting a conversation, engaging, enchanting and much more. My suggestion is to use a 90% pull and a 10% push marketing equation. This is something that I have used and it works a treat. This way you can grow your audience and create value before offering up a special discount. If they believe you to be credible through your pull approach, when you incorporate the push elements you will have higher levels of success.

Top tip: To ensure you are not missing your ratios, write all of your social media updates at once. So if you are writing 10, make sure 2 are self promotional and the other 8 contain entertaining, engaging or educational content.

Mistake #5: Wrong Goals

Truly look at what you are trying to achieve, and “more sales” is not enough. Social media has many outcomes, so it is smart to have a broader scope. Think in terms of hits to your website, newsletter signups, ebook/book sales/downloads….this is the way to go!

Top tip: Social media ROI is based around the goals that you set out for your campaign. Make sure to write down your goals and measure them on a weekly and monthly basis!

Mistake #6: Lack of Planning

Again, I am going back to the importance of a plan: without a plan, you plan to fail. Although we know this cliche all too well, there is definitely truth to it. Why? Because a strategic plan saves you time and money – two things that we all can use, right?

Sit down and figure out your marketing strategy and then layer your social media strategy on-top. Social media can support and enhance everything you do, you just have to keep the two connected. Without the connection, you are wasting the power of cross marketing and branding. Flying blindly in a new marketing medium could not only be risky for your reputation, but also cause you more trouble than you can handle.

Top tip: Spend the time to write a plan and save your most valuable resources – time and money!

I hope that these mistakes are ones that you have not made and if you have, you will no longer make. It is important for us to all to take a close look at our plans and strategies in order to see how strong and effective they can be. Without strategy or planning, a social media marketing campaign takes a lot more time and a lot more effort to execute. In the ever competitive fitness industry, making sure that your brand is cohesive and your marketing is on-point is paramount to your success (online and off).

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Relationship Marketing: Is It Working For You?

By Dale Griffen

20-21_DOCLIFE_V2_I1-screen_pdf__page_1_of_2_-640x327

14Mar

Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

(This article is featured in the latest issue of Doctor’s Life Magazine. They have kindly allowed us to reprint this with permission. To learn more about Doctor’s Life Magazine and read the rest of this month’s terrific issue – click HERE)

We’ve all heard sayings similar to: “people, not products, drive sales” or “people do business with people they like.” Customer service and good client relationships have always been important when it comes to acquiring and maintaining clients, but now more than ever it’s so important to cultivate and nurture these people and businesses by using relationship marketing. Why?

Most consumers want to talk about their experiences, but now their opinions aren’t just shared across the fence, they’re shared online—worldwide, instantly, and not just to their friends, but to anyone that wants to know more about you. Are you just letting it happen, are you getting involved, monitoring what’s being said about you, your company, products, and services and translating it into higher revenue? Relationship marketing is vital in making sure that the positives are emphasized, and any negatives are corrected. It’s all about ensuring customer satisfaction and retention.

Let’s take a step back and look at exactly what relationship marketing is. In a nutshell, it’s considered marketing that puts an emphasis on long-term customer relationships by utilizing forms of communication other than advertising and sales promotions, and thereby developing a far more satisfying overall purchasing experience for both the buyer and seller.

Relationships of any kind exist for what each person gets out of it. It doesn’t sound very romantic, but think about it, if your significant other didn’t give you the security, affection, love, trust, financial stability, or whatever else you personally need—that relationship wouldn’t work. The same holds true for business relationships, they too are based on the “what’s in it for me” mentality. Are you providing what your client needs? How do you know?

Besides person-to-person interactions or speaking over the phone, social media is an extremely effective tool in furthering the client-business relationship. Let’s take a look at how Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Yelp, FourSquare or any other platform can help you develop better relationships with your current and future clients, other professionals, and leaders in your industry.

As we mentioned, people share their experiences, opinions, and even suggestions—good or bad. Now, they’re doing it online, with 757 million daily active users on Facebook, 400 million daily Tweets, and over 259 million LinkedIn members, 45 million users on Foursquare, and 117 million monthly visits to Yelp. People are talking!

The benefit for you is that since these platforms are public, you have the ability to join in on the conversation. Better yet, if you are proactive, you can develop relationships with these people that are lasting and beneficial to your bottom line. Remember, when you’re in a relationship with someone, they are much more likely to be loyal to you and tell their friends about you. A loyal customer is your best sales person!

Logically, some of the keys to a good personal relationship are; taking an interest, listening, meeting basic needs, having positive interactions, and good problem solving skills. Are you doing this with your business relationships?

Let’s look at each of these in terms of social media. Are you posting on social media with the goal of helping people to solve problems rather than gain sales? A great quote is, “People don’t want quarter-inch drills—they want quarter-inch holes” by Ted Levitt. This means that people do not necessarily pay for a “product” or “service,” they pay for the solution to a problem. In fact, what we do in business is rent those products and services to our clients to get jobs done in their lives.

Have you developed good “listening skills” online? One of my favorite true stories involves a famous steak house. A man had a same-day round trip flight from New Jersey to Tampa for a business meeting. While waiting to take off in Tampa that evening, as a joke he tweeted: “Hey @Mortons – can you meet me at Newark airport with a porterhouse when I land in two hours? K, thanks. :)” And guess what? They did. You may have heard of this very true story—it generated a lot of press, and a LOT of business for the steakhouse, not to mention some very loyal customers! (Read more here: bit.ly/MortonsCRM). What can you do to be sure you’re “listening?”

Obviously, part of listening includes handling in-person complaints, suggestions, and compliments. But as we mentioned, people may be more comfortable simply posting these things online. How can you catch them?

Here are a couple of ideas!

• Go to Google and search for, and set up, alerts. Enter all of the keywords and key phrases that describe you and your business, things like your name, company name, specialty, location, ZIP code, and even specific search queries that people may enter to find a business like yours. (You may even want to set up alerts for your competition to see what they’re up to!)
• To find conversations on Twitter that you might want to be involved with, go to twitter.com/search-advanced. Enter the criteria you are looking for, for example if you sold cars, you might search for the key phrase: “I need a new car” and your ZIP code. You’d be surprised at how many entries there are there. Responding to that tweet could have excellent results! Take a look, and see how you might modify it for your business! Another great tool is TweetDeck, a very inexpensive tool to help you manage your social media.
• On LinkedIn there are a plethora of groups that you can join that are dedicated to your specific niche. Find the groups that are right for you by typing in your keywords and start some discussions, or get involved with some current discussions! It will elevate your status as an expert in your field. It’s a great networking platform that can be dialed in to your target audience and location.
• Look in on Foursquare and Yelp to see that your information is there, and updated—then check in from time to time to see what people are saying.

Be active in posting on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter, putting up information that is informational and helpful to the reader. Post tips and articles that are related to your area of practice, and pepper in promotional posts only now and then. You want to make sure you have an active social “voice,” but don’t forget the importance of social “listening.” Remember that social media is PR, not sales. Emphasis on the word “social.” When someone “likes,” shares, or comments on any of your posts on social media, be sure to respond to them. Just like in a real-life networking setting, if someone “liked” or commented on your tie or shoes and you didn’t respond, they would walk away. The same holds true on social media.

Remember, just like any relationship, there’s work involved. The social media channels are free to use, but as we’ve said before, “time is money.” It’s crucial to develop a marketing plan for your social media activities and stick to it.

One last quote from Zig Ziglar: “Every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, and no trust.” When you develop a good relationship with someone and earn their trust, you can show them much easier that they do need, can afford, and want what you’re offering!

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Incorporating HIPAA into Your Practice’s Social Media Marketing

By Dale Griffen

23Sep

Healthcare Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

This article has been reprinted with permission from Doctor’s Life Magazine. To learn more about Doctor’s Life Magazine, please click here.

It’s clear that social media is here to stay and that ALL businesses, including healthcare organizations, are currently using and will continue to increase their use of social media to connect with their targeted audience—patients, peers, influencers—all with the goal of creating a wonderful community where you impart your knowledge, support your peers, and increase your status within that community as an expert—thereby driving business to your door. However, the issue of patient privacy, HIPAA, and offering advice is still of concern. Many have said; “My business did fine before social media…I don’t need it!” However, our client base and the Baby Boomers (incidentally the fastest growing segment of social media users) are turning to the web and social media to get answers, research providers, and give their opinions. Their fingers are still “doing the walking,” but on their keyboards instead of in a phonebook.

Physicians are being asked to deal with more and more lately. With the increase in the cost of doing business, insurance, managed care, reimbursement issues, litigation, the advent and transition to EMR’s, HIPAA concerns, and now social media integration, it’s understandable that physicians are slower to adopt this means of communication. However, physicians are such a wealth of information, those that do get involved in social media and blogging reap huge benefits and quickly develop a reputation as an expert in their field, often leading to an increase in new patients, requests to speak at events, invitations to write for industry journals, and more!

Often, clients expect that if you are on the cutting edge of your medical specialty, that the other aspects of your practice—your office, your staff, advertising pieces, personal appearance, and even your business cards, website, and social media presence—should reflect that level of professionalism and technological savvy. How can you be a part of this 24/7 online networking event while keeping current and ahead of the curve with the ever powerful and beneficial results of a successful social media campaign?

In a previous Doctor’s Life Magazine column (bit.ly/SocialMediaRx) I discussed how social media is an extension of your practice specialty, personality, current marketing plan, office atmosphere, and website – all rolled into one.

Here are 10 suggestions on ways to have a successful social media campaign, and continue to communicate online with patients (current and future) and market your services, while adhering to HIPAA guidelines. Note that these tips can apply to texting, emailing, voicemails, and other forms of communication as well!

1. How you act on social media is transparent, and you should act no differently online than you do in person, or how your sales and marketing staff would at a networking event, or how any of us would in an elevator. SO as social media is truly a “conversation,” just like face-to-face interactions, you need to maintain your own personality and tone, you also need to refrain from posting anything that might identify a patient, even if you don’t mention their name. You wouldn’t want to post any combination of things such as locations, times or events that may allow someone to draw a conclusion or disclose personal information. Although a picture is worth a thousand words, be sure to get authorization before posting pictures of employees, vendors, or patients.

2. Maintain professional boundaries and don’t combine your personal and professional online accounts. Have a separate account for your friends and family and a business page for your practice. Refrain from “friending” your patients on your personal account. Occasionally a patient may find your personal account and send you a friend request. If that happens, be sure to private message them to let them know that your practice’s social media policy prohibits you from connecting with them on your personal page, but offer the links so they can follow your business page.

3. Social media is a transparent platform for sharing information, not hiding it. With that in mind, be sure that whatever you post, whether it’s an original post or one that you share, re-tweet, or mention is one that you’d be proud of, and wouldn’t mind if it were printed in a newspaper. Many times, once things are out there in cyberspace, they’re out there, which brings us to our next tip…

4. Before you push send, count to three and ask yourself if the post is true, helpful, respectful, does it apply to a mixed audience, and could it be misconstrued as offensive by anyone. Remember, once you push send it becomes immediate, and although you can sometimes delete a post, people can print it or save it before you do. This applies to responses to comments, especially when you might not agree. Again, be sure to act the same way you would in person.

5. Review your privacy settings at least monthly, as they can change. Be sure that you have control over the comments posted and that you can approve or deny what you want. Don’t be afraid to block anyone that posts anything that is inappropriate.

6. Google yourself frequently. Or better yet, set up Google Alerts, (google.com/alerts) so that you will get an email whenever a search term (your name, the name of your practice, or any subject you want an alert on) comes up in Google. Another great idea is to have a separate gmail.com account for your social media accounts only. You can set your contact emails to your business account, but all of your notifications should be sent to this private Gmail account, so that you will see EVERYTHING that’s going on on your social media channels. This email address would be different from your contact email, and is kept private on the sites, just be sure to adjust your notification settings in each channel appropriately.

7. Know the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and its amendments, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH ACT), along with state laws, all of which provide privacy and security protections of personal healthcare information (PHI), along with the repercussions if the law is violated. Be sure to take reasonable and appropriate measures to protect your patients privacy. The Mayo Clinic has a wonderful 12-word social media policy: “Don’t Lie, Don’t Pry, Don’t Cheat, Can’t Delete, Don’t Steal, Don’t Reveal.” Obviously, each of these rules can be expanded upon. Read more at bit.ly/SMMPolicy.

8. Set up a social media policy within your office and provide education on it as well as regular HIPAA education and how social media is included in this. Review it frequently with those that have access to and/or manage your social media channels, and update it as rules and regulations change. Some guidelines you might want to consider including in your social media policy should touch on; respect of time and property, use of confidential and PHI information, respectful communications, right to monitor, and enforcement measures, and that each employee utilizing your social media is responsible for knowing, understanding, and upholding HIPAA regulations, as well as your social media policy. Remember even if you don’t have social media channels for your practice, your employees most likely have personal accounts. Be sure that they understand the implications of revealing PHI on those accounts.

9. What if a patient comments on your social media channel, if their name shows up, is the physician breaching patient privacy and opening themselves up for trouble? The answer is: Probably not. However, you should take any precautions you can such as, setting up a disclaimer on your ‘about page’ stating that opinions and views are your own, and reminding them that by commenting on your site, they are revealing their identity. However, since they are doing it by their own volition, it would be no different from them having a conversation with someone in your waiting room. However, with monitoring you can stay on top of the conversation.

10. “What if I get on social media, and someone complains or says something negative?” We hear this one quite a bit, and the truth is; if you didn’t have your own outlet for them to write these things, they would simply do it on their own channels. Having your own social media presence allows you to monitor what’s going on, react to comments and ideas, and if and when something negative does come your way, don’t immediately delete it—show the rest of your followers that you are truly concerned and document an apology, correction, or whatever it takes to recognize that client’s issue, and your willingness to make it right. Bear in mind, use caution in what you say, perhaps requesting the client call you directly. Oftentimes, it’s the fact that you respond, and the speed of doing so that shows you are a cut above!

In conclusion, there is no doubt that social media is here to stay. The benefits of this online version of communication far outweigh the potential risks, with just a few common sense tips. Remember too, when outsourcing your social media to a online marketing firm such as The Go! Agency, they are bound by the same rules and regulations as you are. Be sure to ask them very pointed questions about how they will maintain your patient’s privacy, and ensure that your social media campaign is one that truly creates a wonderful community for your practice, educates your current and future clients, and pushes you to the top as an expert in your field!

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