For many, Mark Zuckerberb might not sound too familiar, but his influence on the internet social seen has been felt globally and been noted by Time magazine. As the founder and CEO of the Facebook site from his dorm room, he has changed the way we socialize online. Whether it is our family, co-workers or the staff at a medical practice, from an office PC to a cell phone, everyone is taking periodic glimpses at their Facebook home page to keep up with family and friends on the clock. While in most cases a strong “internet use” policy keeps everyone in check, Practice Administrators need to see beyond the negatives of Facebook and utilize this as a new creative and cost effective marketing tool.
The success of this site where over 300,000,000 active users gather, offers a great opportunity for medical practices to solicit and connect with these clients or in this case – patients. Traditional marketing methods required purchasing mailing lists from marketing firms, and running a campaign that’s hit or miss. With the increasing costs of stamps and patients turning to the internet to locate medical offices, it makes perfect sense to consider Facebook as part of your next marketing plan.
In evaluating all the business benefits of Facebook, here are just a few that can assist the Practice Administrator capture new revenue by forming a strategic and creative marketing plan.
Patient Engagement:
Use Facebook to communicate with your patients regarding new procedures and services you are offering in your practice. Whether it is an Eye Center adding new state-of-the-art iLASIK equipment, or an OBGYN practice offering procedures using the da Vinci® Robot Surgical System; keeping your patients informed is critical in retaining them as well as allowing them to share with others who may become your next patient.
Exposure and Branding:
With the ability to select your audience based on demographics such as age range, sex, and location, a practice can effectively target potential new patients and generate powerful brand awareness.
Feedback collection:
Many Facebook users are sent quizzes and questionnaires online daily. These data capture methods are perfect for practices trying to collect patient feedback on how well they are doing, and what they can do to improve. This brings tremendous time and money saving opportunities to the organization. It is completely free and will generate more response than traditional mailed feedback.
Patient Lead Generation:
As a practice searches for new ways to attract new patients, Facebook enables a practice to identify potential patients using specific criteria from their profile, and qualify them as a prospect.
Increase traffic to your site:
Facebook can increase your ranking on many search engines. With its dynamic content and popularity, you are able to draw attention to your practice name and drive them directly to your web site where you can report statistics and capture their information.
Reduce your web site maintenance cost:
In the past, healthcare practices required a full content management system to enable them to publish dynamic content and manage events. From online videos, articles and events, Facebook enables a practice to eliminate the maintenance and development costs. Without any expertise in web site design, an administrator can successfully publish medical content for its audience.
All in all, the reality is that medical practices are also a business. Attracting and competing for patients will always remain part of the practices objectives. While in some cases you might hire a marketing firm to assist with advertisement and marketing, there are many techniques you can perform on your own to reduce spending. These are technologies that will allow patients to come to us. One day, these same technologies will enable us to bring healthcare to them, from assisting in chronic disease management groups, to integrating with Facebook apps, all the way to communicating securely with patients through these portals. So, look for the Facebook guru at your practice, and make good use of this free tool.
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