This is part one of our seven part series on Facebook Marketing for medical professionals. In this series, we will give you exclusive insider tips for marketing your practice through Facebook, and show you how to get the most out of the social network.
Facebook is the biggest social network thus far, and more and more medical professionals are realizing the golden potential it holds. Just to give you a quick overview of why you should be marketing on Facebook:
- There are over 1.5 BILLION users on Facebook
- The average amount of time spent per Facebook visit is 20 minutes
- There are 4.75 BILLION pieces of content shared on Facebook EVERY DAY
- 42% of marketers say that Facebook is critical or important to their business
- 85% of internet users are on Facebook
- 42% of people have mentioned a company in a Facebook status update
With numbers like that, you would be crazy not to be using Facebook. Facebook is no longer just a social networking site for people to connect with friends. Users are browsing Facebook to see what their favorite companies are doing, search for discounts, find out about new local businesses, and even to find out more information about your practice.
In order to achieve success on Facebook, you have to know how to use if effectively. Because of the rush of other doctors and dentists trying to get a piece of the pie, you have to be more creative, technical, and have a thorough grasp of the Facebook landscape.
There are certain techniques you can use to set yourself apart from the rookie Facebook marketer and step into the upper echelon to become a Facebook marketing PRO.
You?ve seen the basic tips like post regularly, engage with your audience, and ?Like? related pages. These techniques are effective and have been proven to work, but in 2014 and beyond, you?re going to have to start getting more advanced and thinking beyond just the basics.
We?re going to go beyond just getting thousands of likes on your fan page, and find out how to get conversions and really build your practice through Facebook.
Tip #1 Create a Call to ActionOne of the biggest mistakes doctors and dentists make is failing to set up a call to action on their Facebook page. You have to give your page a purpose beyond just getting likes or posting content. Decide what you want your page to do for your practice. Are you aiming to:
- Gather email leads?
- Get appointments?
- Earn referrals?
- Get traffic for your website?
- Promote a specific service/treatment?
Just having a Facebook Page up because you?ve heard it was a good idea isn?t enough. The potential for using Facebook for your practice is enormous, you just have to make sure you?re executing it correctly.
The great thing about Facebook is that you can (and should) constantly change your call to action or purpose for your Facebook page. You can do this by changing your timeline cover, pushing Facebook ads to different tabs, or running separate campaigns.
Your call to action will set the tone for the rest of your fan page. For instance, if your goal is to promote a new service, your timeline cover should showcase the new service in some way. A lot of big brands that constantly put out new products do this extremely well. The video game developer Electronic Arts constantly changes their timeline cover to promote their newest games.
Next, you should set up a new tab specifically for your call to action. Facebook prohibits the use of calls to action on the timeline cover, but you can still use your tabs. Set up a tab with either an email capture form or a landing page. You can easily do this with the Static HTML Tabs app.Your call to action should extend to your timeline posts as well. Every now and then, post a creative, humorous, or attention getting message that has to do with your call to action. This will increase engagement which will subsequently increase your EdgeRank.