Social Media Marketing – Why Some Have It All Wrong

Am I doing social media right?  This is a question I hear a lot these days. The reality of social media in any industry is that it continues to evolve.  New strategies are being implemented on platforms like Facebook everyday. Unfortunately, some practices completely misunderstand the purpose and benefits of social media. I’m often tempted to stop calling social media marketing, “marketing” at all.

Social media platforms have become top media spots people choose to spend their time—not on television, not on email, and increasingly not even on Google. During the terrible wild fires this summer in Colorado, the police and fire departments didn’t tell citizens to check TV or Google for updates, instead they issued specific Twitter handles to follow.

Sad to say, some people still see platforms like Twitter and Facebook as temporary marketing tools—for short term campaigns. In those situations, social communities are then seen as expendable and of little value.  With this mindset, practices expect fast results from their campaign efforts. And in some cases will do just about anything to get those fast results.  Examples of trying too hard and too fast are: 

• Resorting to posting things that don’t reflect the practice brand.
• Posting too often with the belief that more posts will mean greater returns.
• Sacrificing quality for quantity.

So who’s succeeding in social media today?  It’s the practices who believe that their social communities are going to be around for the long term.  Just as we know telephone and email are mainstream communication tools, why not expect your Facebook community to be around for the long term? Did you ever expect to see the day when your children wouldn’t TALK with each other anymore—rather they will text each other while they are in the same house or at the same dinner table in some cases. Times aren’t a changing—they’ve already changed.

In fact Harvard Business Review (HBR) recently published an article titled Marketing is Dead.  In the article, one of the few ways to survive in our new world of marketing is to use social media properly.  The HBR author, Bill Lee said, “when you contemplate a major purchase, such as a new roof, a flat screen TV, or a good surgeon, you’re not likely to go looking for a salesperson to talk to, or to read through a bunch of corporate website content. Instead, you’ll probably ask neighbors or friends — your peer network — what or whom they’re using.”  Mr. Lee goes on to say how smart businesses should already be positioning their social communities to replicate these buying experiences. 

A specific example of what this could look like is having a Facebook page which reflects your brand and displays robust patient feedback or testimonials.  This also means that you must put more thought into your social media communities altogether.  If you are paying a service to “handle everything for you” and you don’t even understand what any of this means, stop doing that. Take some time to become informed.  As a business owner, you would never consider buying a new piece of equipment or investing hundreds or thousands of dollars on something you knew nothing about, why do that with your social media budget?

Here are a few guidelines you can follow to help make the most of your social media communities, for the long term: 

• Am I aware how my brand and our practice values are being represented on our Facebook or Twitter accounts?
• Do I understand, and can I appreciate, the difference between marketing campaigns and fostering communities via communication tools?
• Is my practice being mindful about the amount of posting we do? Are we honoring the newsfeed space of our valued patients who’ve liked our page, or are we throwing caution to the wind and posting as much as possible to maximize keeping our name and face in front of people?
• Have we used a service to buy likes so our numbers are inflated and we look like we have hundreds or thousands of raving fans? Or have we acknowledged it’s okay to grow slowly, with the intention of engaging patients or people in the community who genuinely have interest in our practice?

The good news is that social media communities can morph into different personalities. If you don’t like the community you’ve built to date, you can change your strategy and make over your page. Remove the contest you were never comfortable with, adjust the amount of posts you are making, or invite more patients to share their thoughts on your page.  Practices can be largely disappointed with the results of their social media campaigns when they don’t understand the goals or objectives in the first place.

So begin with the end in mind. More and more so, the end is farther away—and likely more valuable—than you think.  Adopt a mindset that your social communities will be around for the long term. Positioning your practice the right way on social media will  help enhance your online reputation, emulate the quality of patient experiences in your practice, while also publishing abundant word of mouth about your practice.

Need mentorship or hand-holding with your Facebook efforts?  We would love to help, email or give Rita a call.