Social networks such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are more than just something to do in your spare time, they are essential in the world of medical marketing. Building your business brand on social networks is a key ingredient to increasing your overall search engine rankings.
For quite some time, search engine experts and medical marketing consultants had an inherent feeling the social media played a role in their overall search rankings, and yet no one could prove this for sure. However, in December of 2010 the two biggest search engines confirmed this feeling in an interview with Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Land.
In this interview, associates from Bing and Google both established the fact that “social authority…carries much more weight,” and that this weight is “used as a signal in organic and news rankings.” This was huge for medical marketing consultants, and the suggestion of having a Facebook and Twitter Page became a complete necessity.
Facebook and Twitter for Each Physician
While having a corporate Facebook and Twitter Page is desirable, having a personal page for each physician within the practice is highly recommended as a social media best practice. While this might be easier for smaller offices where general rules of engagement can be easily laid out, larger practices can benefit from this technique.
With each physician having their own social profile comes the advantage of more links, more discussions, more availability, greater connection with patients and potential patients, and ultimately a greater online influence. Physicians can connect with patients directly, interact with their community, get to know local businesses and non-profits, and create a personal connection with existing patients.
When each physician within the practice has their own social profile, the entire business brand has more opportunity to grow. For example, if each physician were to post one blog a week, imagine the amount of content that would be added to the site with a limited amount of work. If each of those physicians posted that blog to their Facebook and Twitter accounts the amount of click-throughs each week would raise dramatically.
If your medical practice has a small social presence and you’re looking to increase your brand, consider getting each and every physician, nurse and assistant on Facebook.