3 Important Tips to Avoid Destroying Your Facebook

“The marketers will flood in and ruin Facebook”. This is a quote I heard a few months ago while I listened to Gary Vaynerchuk speak. Gary is the author of Crush It and The Thank You Economy.  He is also a visionary with phenomenal instincts for social media and relationship marketing.

Rita Zamora and Gary Vaynerchuk, Boulder CO

Gary said that sooner or later the marketers would finally convince late adopter business owners to jump on board with social media. In this rush to get on board, people would push out traditional marketing and sales messaging and ignore the nuances of new media etiquette … and that this “push” marketing would result in zero returns and thus a mass Facebook exodus of marketers, businesses, and potentially users.

There are many practices who have their social media efforts down to a system. They are engaging patients, having fun, and getting concrete results like testimonials and referrals. Likewise, there are many practices who are posting willy-nilly on Facebook—with no system, no plan and in some cases no clue. So what can you do to avoid destroying your Facebook Page and experience? Whether you are already on Facebook or not, consider the following tips:

Tip 1) Practice owners, don’t let someone “talk you into using Facebook” to market your practice. If no one in your practice likes or uses Facebook, this tool will not be a good fit for you. Unlike traditional media where anyone could write a check and buy an ad, mail postcards or run a radio campaign, social marketing is different. A key component to Facebook marketing success is participation from within your practice—at least one person in your office needs to co-participate in the management and promotion of your Facebook efforts. Why? Because the only way for your practice to benefit from relationship building is through genuine, personal interaction.

Tip 2) Page administrators, If you don’t have have anything good to say, don’t say anything. Traditional marketers wake up on Monday morning and think, “How can I push my marketing/sales message out to users right now?”. Remember that social marketing is not direct marketing. You can’t push out a batch of sloppy Monday morning posts and expect them to result in something good. On the other hand, mail out a pile of recall cards first thing Monday morning and that could result in phone calls. See the difference?

Social media is different—users have an internal radar that alerts people to sales messaging and tactics. If you don’t have something fun, clever, personalized, entertaining or useful (useful in their minds, not yours) to post, it may be best to not post anything.

Tip 3) Users, clear out your Facebook clutter. Do you find yourself scrolling through your newsfeed and feeling frustrated because of all the “mindless chatter” that is before you? I found this article Social Utopia Isn’t Coming interesting, because it talks about how we all have a limit to how big our social circles can be. If you have befriended lots of clip art friends (people who literally use clip art for a profile photo and are trying to hide their identity for whatever reason), or people who you don’t really know, or care to know, take time to prune your network. Be conscious when you are friending new people. All of that space in your newsfeed is taking up space on your computer screen and your psyche. You throw out rubbish from your mailbox and inbox, do the same to tidy up your Facebook.

Just as yellow page advertising got more expensive and “harder” because each new ad you competed with got larger and larger, so too will Facebook marketing get trickier. Likewise, email marketing. People are often now ninjas when it comes to protecting their email address. We handed our email addresses and got saturated with too much messaging.

In order to continue marketing successfully on Facebook, be mindful about how you use the platform. Honor your friends and followers. Those practices who genuinely enjoy Facebook, have great patient relationships, enjoy talking with patients, and appreciate the nuances of social networking will continue to reap the benefits of amplified word of mouth and new patient referrals. Those who do not, will likely abandon their Facebook and join the mass exodus that Gary Vaynerchuk described.

The future of Facebook marketing will continue to evolve. What are you doing to keep your Facebook efforts nimble, fun, and effective?