WHY MOST CLINIC’S SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING EFFORTS FAIL

[cs_content][cs_section parallax="false" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px;"][cs_row inner_container="true" marginless_columns="false" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;"][cs_column fade="false" fade_animation="in" fade_animation_offset="45px" fade_duration="750" type="1/1" style="padding: 0px;"][cs_text]WHY DO MOST CLINIC’S SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING EFFORTS FAIL.

Let's face it...most practitioners are Rubbish at social media. Our research shows that 30% have no social presence. 60% have a presence but admit their efforts are lame, and that leaves the remaining 10% who are crushing it & proud.

So it’s not surprising that of those that do have social media marketing activity, 92% believe that their social media marketing efforts do not produce a good return on investment. Many practitioners are just too busy & so delegate the social management to another staff member or even outsource it to an agency.

The problem with asking another staff member to run your social media marketing efforts is that its often not a priority & gets squeezed in between patients and other admin duties. When they do get around to posting something, they just are not you with all your skills & charisma; and their efforts although genuine just don't hit the button. In fact even when experienced practitioners run their own social it’s usually lacklustre.

“Most of us make the mistake of posting what we want to SAY, rather than what people want to HEAR.”

A social campaign needs to be structured, and you need to keep to a schedule & a theme that is dynamic. It needs to be layered & considered as a medium to long-term investment.

Most media agencies know this and will give you a shiny proposal… then fall short of their promises. Ask every colleague you can; I bet 100% of those that have outsourced to a digital agency were not satisfied with the results. When you are paying good money, Return On Investment is important. Whether it is adwords experts, Content creation, social management or all of the above, if the agency doesn't understand you & your profession, their efforts just wont succeed.

Healthcare is a unique service, people make the choice to visit your office with a very different set of rules than when they buy something on amazon or eBay. First of all, I don't really care whether the man who sells me a USB stick on eBay talks nicely to people, has clean fingernails and loves his dog. But your patients DO, they are trusting you with their body, they need to know that you can be trusted.

SOCIAL proof is the BEST way to show that you are trustworthy. Word of Mouth used to be the only way you could benefit from social proof. Mrs Jones tells her neighbour about you and rummages through her hall drawer for an old business card & Mr Smith gives you a call. Word of mouth is still vital for your practice. But now Mrs Jones will Facebook or whatsapp Mr Smith, he will then stalk you on the internet until he is happy that you are trustworthy. He wants to see other peoples reviews (good & bad) he may actively search for your clinic name plus ‘the words complaints’ or ‘scam’ to make sure you are legitimate. He could even gain basic information from your last accounting year submission; making sure everything is above board.

Only once Mr Smith is satisfied that you are the person he wants to trust with his spine/knee/hip/teeth will he pick up the phone, email or complete a contact form - but not before he has checked groupon to see if you have any offers running.

So stop seeing social media marketing as a thorn in your side, and start taking to people Human To Human, Patient to patient, rather than pixel to pixel.

Social is the NEW WORD OF MOUTH. 

What does your Social Presence say about you?

{see our new video on Marketing for 2017 & how to make use of the Social Proof}[/cs_text][/cs_column][/cs_row][/cs_section][/cs_content]