It’s true the buzz phrase of the year is “social media marketing.”

Recently there has even been a new term coined called “social influence marketing.”

Are you still at a loss of what social media it is and why it may be important to your business? I understand, so let me see if I can bring some clarity and demystify the phrase that often causes business owners to get a headache.

Think of social medial like this — you enter a bar and there are conversations going on at each table. You hear one conversation about work, another about a brand new vehicle someone purchased and perhaps the other is a business meeting where co-workers are discussing the latest strategy in their industry. Are you with me? If so, good — let’s continue.

Think of the sphere of social media has this bar. All of these conversations are floating around. There is a lot of information sharing, opinions being broadcasts and relationships being created. Does that help?

Now, I want to show you how big these spheres are growing by sharing with you some recent statistics that were reported by Econsultancy. These statistics are recent, it will give you a glimpse of how quickly social media is growing and the impact it is having on businesses today.

• There are over 20 hours of video uploaded to YouTube every minute.
• One half of YouTube users visit the site at least once a week.
• There are over 250 million users on Facebook and 120 million of them log onto Facebook once a day.
• At least 30 million of the Facebook users access Facebook via their mobile phones.
• Over the last twelve months Twitter has broken the 1000% barrier of year-over-year growth.
• It’s estimated that there are 6 — 10 million global users on Twitter.
• Tuesday is the most active day on Twitter, followed by Wednesday and then Friday.

Do you still think you can afford to ignore social media marketing?

Times are changing. I read another article today that by the end of the year The New York Times will cut 100 newsroom positions. I write for About.com, which is a company owned by The New York Times, so this news saddened me.

I’m fortunate that I started in the online industry in 1997. As such, I’ve always adopted new media easily, but I think it’s because that’s where I began my career.

I’ve met with general managers of newspapers, editors and writers — our discussions always end up around the lack of adoption of new media when it was introduced by traditional newspapers. Unfortunately, those same newspapers are feeling the pinch during this time.

I’m not saying that traditional media is a dead-end, but let’s think about it. When was the last time you went out into the driveway to pick up your daily newspaper? When was the last time you pulled out the yellow pages to look up a telephone number?

We all knew that the Internet would change our daily lives — some of us slow to adopt, but now we can’t imagine living without it. There are many people who could handle a cable outage easier than an Internet outage. Need proof? Turn off your computer for 24 hours — cut off your access to the Internet. Did you just have a panic attack thinking about it? I did.

I find it amazing that companies still often depend upon the traditional means of marketing and look at the new media options as alternatives. They will pay more for a one time advertisement in a magazine than they will on their website design. They will seek out a radio spot before measuring the impact social media could have on their business. Do you see my point?

Put your business into check.

• How is your website? Does it reflect your business accurately? What message does it reflect when it comes to professionalism?
• Are you writing a blog and interacting with potential customers or is your website static and dull?
• Are you doing search engine marketing? How are you ranking when customers type in keywords? Are you showing up?
• What about social media? Have you dipped your toe in the water? If for no other reason than to monitor your online reputation and protect your brand?

Don’t abandon the traditional vehicles of marketing, but be sure to integrate it with online marketing and new media options; otherwise you may end up struggling like the newspapers are today.

Why is search engine optimization and search marketing important?

I Can Give You 134 Million Reasons.

Why should you care if you are listed in the search engines? There are 134 million reasons. That is how many people use the web each month. Over 85 percent of those people use search engines. Search Engines serve as an information clearinghouse to large majority of Internet users.

Search engine optimization is often referred to as internet public relations. High rankings in major search engines enhance the credibility and the brand awareness of your company, but this is not the only reason search engine optimization is important.

Major search engines have a job to do and it is to provide the most relevant information on terms searched for. In order to perform their jobs accurately they are programmed to take the path of least resistance when it comes to exact terms that users ask for.

There are two common ways to get listed in search engines. One is to use a pay-per-click search engine. The other is organic or natural search engine results. Utilizing both options are considered Search Engine Marketing.

Why is Search Engine Optimization Important?

When you consider that even the largest search engine index only contains 20% of the three billion web pages that reside on the Internet, it’s easier to understand how search engine optimization increases your chances of being found by your target audience. Without search engine optimization and proper search engine marketing your site will be as difficult to find to your prospective customers and clients as a needle in a haystack.

Build it and they will Come: Can you really afford to take that risk?

While professional search engine marketing is not cheap, it’s important to understand it’s one of the most vital marketing weapons available to those who wish to use the Internet as a vehicle to create and increase their business. It’s a myth to think that just because you build a website the visitors will just show up. It takes work, consider investing in search engine optimization in order to draw the traffic into you rather than your competitors.

The internet has become a trusted resource for medical information and research.  A recent study showed that 80% of web users go online to find health-related information including a physician.  

What are those searching looking for?

Great question.  They are searching for professional consultations, information about health conditions, local medical practices and information regarding medication and healthcare products.

The National Institute of Health did a recent study that showed that between 2003 and 2005 there was an increase of 7% of people searching for healthcare and medical information. 

In the past doctors have fought the stigma regarding advertising and whether or not it’s ethical and a professional practice.  Many physicians are now realizing that in order to gain the trust and confidence of potential patients they must have an online presence.   People are simply going online first to find that physician they click with.

This both good news and bad news for the medical field. The good news is if they are finding you you have probably begun to see an influx of internet leads that are converting into long-term patients.  The bad news is that if they are not finding you — they are finding the physician in your area that does have an online presence and they are going to them instead.

It’s not enough to have a website, you must market that website.  It’s important to utilize search engine optimization, so that you are being found by those seeking your speciality.   Your website must also create a level of trust in order to help them in feeling comfortable to take the next step and make that phone call to setup an initial appointment.   

If you are not seeing leads from your website, I hate to tell you but there is something wrong.  Every physician should be gaining inquiries and leads through there website.  The problem could be in a number of areas including:

• Your website is not in the search engine results.
• Your website does not create the comfort level to encourage them to move to the next step.
• Your website does not contain the information a potential patient might be looking for. 

I am so confident in the services that we offer at ThePracticePros — a medical marketing and consulting agency that I am personally willing to offer you a no-cost consultation to provide you with a critique on your current web presence and offer you tips and suggestions on how you could improve it and turn it into a lead generator for your medical practice.  Contact me and let me know you saw the offer here. 

In my last post I made mention of a program we have been creating to assist in advertising for doctors. I received a few inquiries regarding why physicians should consider an online marketing program to compliment their traditional marketing efforts, so wanted to respond.

One of the most controversial posts that I have written was regarding online advertising and dentists. In that posts I suggest that dentist begin considering placing some of their marketing budget into advertising online. The reasons are simple. When was the last time you opened the yellow pages to find a service professional, be it medical or not? My assumption would be it’s been awhile.

The Internet is at our fingertips daily, it’s easy to look online to find services providers that we need including physicians. Online not only will we find their telephone number, but we are able to read about the doctor and make a decision on whether or not they are the type of provider we are looking for. A physicians website can draw us in or turn us off. It can confirm that we want to make an appointment or drive us to keep looking for a better fit. This is the reason we created the medical marketing and consulting agency — The Practice Pros. We wanted to be able to give the information to the potential patient in a way that they can understand. This assists the physician in growing their practice drawing in people who are attracted and feel comfortable with them and their practice.

We are not new to medical marketing. We have worked with several doctors and hospitals in the past. In this process we began to realize how important medical marketing services was to them, even if they didn’t quite understand the potential in the beginning they saw the value shortly after we began our work.

There are several medical advertising agencies available to physicians, but we felt with our experience in the medical industry and our marketing expertise could help physicians gain the patients they were looking for without having to spend a lot of time trying to find the right places to advertise — we do that for them.

Why should physicians market online?

• We are an instantaneous society — give us information now. We don’t just want your telephone number and a static yellow page ad — we want to know who you are and why we should chose you.

• Medical information is one of the top searched for topics online. We not only look for information regarding our symptoms but we look for doctors who can relate and help us. We want to know you before I walk into your practice.

• Marketing your practice online enables you to stay in front of potential patients without spending a lot of your time doings so — because we know it’s difficult to find the free time during the day to market your practice.

• Marketing your practice is no longer an option — it’s a necessity — I guarantee if you are not doing it there are other physicians in your area that are and they are attracting patients that could be coming to you. Can you risk that?

• Physician marketing no longer carries the stigma of unprofessionalism that it once did. Marketing is simply educating potential patients on why you are the physician for them. You still leave the decision in their hands, but you inform them of why you should be their choice.

If you are are a physician and you ready to explore a turn-key medical marketing solution, that is as effective as word-of-mouth and referral marketing contact me directly. I will let you know if we can help you by implementing our medical marketing expertise and services. I will also let you know if our program won’t work for you — I promise.