Consider the following scenario:
You run a healthcare practice. You have a website, and a potential patient located in your area searches for your practice specialty on Google. You appear in the top three of search engine results for your practice specialty in the area. While you’re not number one, being in the top three of these search results is certainly a good thing. In general, you receive a solid amount of web traffic from Google search results and a decent amount of appointment requests from your online form.
This patient decides to look at the top five practice specialists, including yours. After checking out your website and liking what you have to offer, they decide to see if you have a Facebook page. They don’t see a Facebook icon on your website, so they log on to Facebook and search for your practice using Facebook Search.
After a few minutes searching for your practice on Facebook, they can’t find you.
“Who doesn’t have a Facebook page?” they question.
You don’t. In fact, you have no social media presence at all. In that past, you thought about signing up your practice for a Facebook page and a Twitter account, and maybe even a Google Plus account to increase your search presence on Google. But you never prioritized social media and never seemed to find the time to get it going. You figured it was too much of a time investment and that it was difficult to measure the ROI.
This patient is now put off by the fact that you aren’t on Facebook or any other social media. They find that strange. They decide instead to go check out your direct competitor’s website, who is also in the top three of Google search results and also has a social media presence. In the end, they like that your competitor has a greater overall web precense, and without a huge differentiation in service offerings between your practices, they decide to go with your competitor for their healthcare needs.
You just lost out on a potential patient to your competitor, all because you didn’t have a Facebook page or social media presence.
Sound crazy? This is sadly a common scenario.
Potential patients may find you on Google, but when they check to see if you have a social media presence and you don’t, they’re put off.
This is just one example of a potential patient you’re missing out on by not having a social media presence. What are some other reasons why you need to get your healthcare practice on social media?
This infographic illustrates how social media is revolutionizing the health care industry.
Read the full article at: www.healthcarecommunication.com
Leave a Reply