Especially now amid COVID-19. Even so, you can attract new patients by merely having an active online presence.
I’m sure you have made modifications to patient workflow and disinfecting while protecting you and your staff.
It’s no different with your marketing. You have to do it; you need to develop a new process.
In today’s market, people are primarily communicating and accessing the internet through mobile devices.
Reputation management most always seems to get put on the back burner. I get it. You have a lot to do, it seems time-consuming, and you don’t know where to start, and frankly it’s not on the top of your priority list.
Did you know that you could have an edge up on your competition with reviews and recommendations alone? It takes hardly any marketing dollars at all. Simply ask your customers to give you a recommendation/review each time you complete your sale/service.
Nowadays most everyone searches for products and services on the internet and they look at the reviews before making their buying decision. You could be missing out if you don’t have any or few reviews.
When you start getting reviews, make sure you answer them promptly. You should ‘like’ and ‘thank’ the positive reviews and also reply to the negative reviews. The worst thing you can do is ignore the negative reviews. Be polite and diplomatic and try not to take them personally.
Use the information to ‘do better’ in your business. It may be valuable information that you didn’t know was happening. Or, maybe you realized it was going on and didn’t think that it was affecting your customers negatively.
Remember, they cared enough to take the time to give you feedback. Most aren’t trying to be hurtful. They want to use your products/services. A negative reviewer could turn into one of your greatest advocates.
Here’s how to get started:
1. Claim and verify your business account in the review sites that are unique to your business, in addition to Facebook, LinkedIn, Google, and Yelp.
2. Use a review management dashboard (i.e., Get Five Stars)
Monitors online reviews so that you know where people are leaving them
Enlists feedback. You can send emails to your clients requesting a recommendation
Reporting. Allows to see how many reviews you received and the types of reviews you are getting.
Ability to screen poor reviews before them being pushed out to the various social channel. That way you can contact the customer to try to handle the situation.
Some dashboards (i.e. Social Ordeals) even respond to you, claim your listing and post to your social channels
3. Respond to your reviews as soon as possible. Don’t ignore negative reviews.
We’ve just the scratched the surface.
Remember, you are creating a lifelong relationship with your customers. Stay in constant communication with them via social media, blogging and email marketing.
Inspire. Engage. Convert.
When you feel inundated with social media apps, virtual places to hang out, chat, swap stories, ideas, broadcast how you feel, who you love and what you do – you often end up asking yourself, why Twitter, do I need to post here too?
I wondered that myself from time-to-time. I’m not the type of person that likes to be ‘out there’ for the whole world to know and see. However, we are talking business here, and if you’re not engaging with your audience on various/multiple social channels, you won’t see many conversions (sales).
The answer is [bctt tweet=”If you have a social media platform they will come. If you don’t, they won’t see you or find you; plain and simple!”]
I have learned that you must have something exciting to draw people to, and you have to let them know about it, if you want them to do business with you.
There have been plenty of stellar computer applications, gizmos, gadgets and grand ideas that did not take hold because they were not marketed well. Nobody knew about them! Ever hear of the Franklin? Not many did – so the first Apple clone went out of business and Apple has stood alone in their field ever since.
So what is Twitter? Twitter is a series of quick information bursts, a search engine of sorts, like the old ticker tape from the stock market – current, up to the moment data, that keeps scrolling through. I’m here, this is how you find me, this is what I do, go here to read more. You can think of it like buckshot. Not necessarily targeted, because people choose to follow you. However, if your followers see and like something and they find you via search (i.e. #hashtag), retweet your post, then their friends retweet their posts, suddenly your one blast of buckshot has become a fireworks display. People are pouring into your space to get to know you. Once they know you and your product, they will love your product.
How do you draw them in? One thing to do is use a slick little tool called Tweriod – that monitors your followers posting times so that you can send out your microburst advertising minimally every 30 minutes at peak times. Couple that data with Buffer, a social media scheduling tool, and you won’t be up at 3 am, tweeting for your Japanese followers.
When formatting your tweets, TitleCase is a great little tool for your title field, and hashtags are a must. Hashtags are your keywords in Twitter, like threads in a giant spider web, if you click on a hashtag, you will see all the other tweets that use that keyword. It’s a great way to find things in Twitter, but don’t overdo it. Use Hashtagify and Google Keyword Planner, to get the attention-grabbing hashtags to use.
You won’t be inserting a full article into Twitter – you only have 140 characters – so it needs to be punchy, fast, and timeless. A picture says a thousand words, so couple your tweet with a punchy, fast, dynamic picture! One of the most important things to do is use content that is always going to be relevant to your audience – in the industry, this is called evergreen content. If I posted an article on how to code in HTML in tables, it would be very dated – if I tweeted @marcialking White Space in Web Design #awestruck #webdesign, with a link to my blog piece, and an awesome picture of a web page the article will be useful for years to come. Evergreen content will help you establish and maintain your authority in your field, and allow you to integrate new content easily – without having to refresh old pieces continually.
So are you ready to take the Twitter plunge? Follow the simple action steps to get those fireworks started!
I know I’m being a bit trite, but if Facebook is a blood line in your social media marketing, what is your Facebook Blood Type? Are you an A Positive or a B Negative?
We’ve all
seen it, unfiltered posts filled with swearing, negative posts and comments, inappropriate pictures and pictures that try to milk sympathy or dollars from “friends” on one of the most popular social media forums today. It feels as if no one has a filter these days, a thought goes directly from the brain to the keyboard and the social niceties have gone out the window. You hear and see family drama, people blasting others, and others who troll pages and posts, looking to pick a fight.
Most of us would just rather shut it off than deal with it day to day. BUT – Facebook is one of the most popular social media forums today. You wouldn’t stop advertising in a newspaper or on the radio because you didn’t like all of the content. You might change sections – but you would still use the resource. Facebook is a fabulous free forum for marketing your business. So how do you combat the B Negatives so you can C Growth in your Business?
Don’
t B Negative. Unfollow feeds and friends that bring drama along with them. A simple right click on a post will allow you to block a post, or unfollow someone. Right click on their name to unfriend them. This isn’t personal, this is business and if they ask you can simply say, I represent my business on my Facebook page, I can be your friend in real life, but your postings are the wrong presence for my business. If you know them well, talk to them about ways they can change their image on Facebook – some will.
Set A Positive example. Make sure your filter is established. Post helpful things, touching family moments, and things that lift your spirit. Always keep your posts upbeat and influential. Publish helpful tips about industry based items that the general public will find interesting, events that are networking based, connect people to 
people, and people to your product – but keep the sales language to a minimum. We don’t want to hear about the how and what, we want to know your why!
Limit the Engagements. If someone posts something that really riles you up – take it offline. You can instant message someone to have a conversation that doesn’t need to be shared with the world. Or, take the high road and simply ignore the post. There is no requirement to “like” everything someone puts up. And if you don’t like a comment someone put on your status post, hover your mouse on the right-hand side of the comment and click the remove button. If they do it frequently enough, block them or unfriend them.
Follow the leaders. Find trendsetters in your industry and follow them, or be a trendsetter yourself. Post A Positive Image and post A Positive Status every day! If you have a critique – post A Positive Solution along with it. Recommend sites that are upbeat, and add substance, and show yourself as A Positive Leader In Your Field.
