Category

Marketing

May 04
0

Why You Need a Social Media Calendar

By | Marketing, Social Media | No Comments

If you think that you don’t need a social media calendar for your online marketing strategy, you are missing out big time. Why should you even bother? A social media calendar along with a social media scheduling tool, can streamline the posting process & save you tons of time. There are many different scheduling softwares to choose from: Hootsuite, Buffer, Edgar, Sprout Social to name a few. Combine these forces & keep your social media on track and working for your business. Here are six reasons why you should add a social media calendar to your online marketing plan:

Get organized now, avoid chaos later.

Deadlines, marketing campaigns, personal post, charity, local events…these post can be overwhelming. Sit down and map out your anticipated posts on a calendar template. Take the time to enter each post into your scheduling tool. If you can preschedule your entire month, you will be set up for success. You never know when something is going to come up, but you will know that your content is ready to go and your campaigns are on track. Your schedule will help you contribute more to more social media platforms, without the stress.

Collaborate with your team without confusion.

Do you need your copywriter or administrator to double check a post? They can easily refer to the social media calendar & edit posts set up in your scheduling tool. Find a cool meme that would complement your post for next Friday? It’s easy to add additional graphics, hashtags, links and even videos to your pre-scheduled posts. These are the details that will take your social media to the next level. You will have a central location for all of your social media channels, that is  organized and easy to reference back to.

Maintain brand consistency.

Keep your message clear and concise over all your different social media platforms. Your calendar serves as a template of what kind of posts your brand wants to maintain. After the posts are set up in your scheduler, most tools allow you to set up feeds, where you can quickly review your latest posts. This also allows you to keep up with the quota you set for your weekly social media posts, and keep track of where you are lacking or running behind.

Map out where you should fill in the blanks.

Social media content should not just be marketing campaigns. Rotate what kind of content you are serving to the public: promotions, campaigns, blog posts, social commentary, or goings about in your office. This is also your chance to show the personality of your brand. Look at your calendar thoughtfully, find the blank spots in your schedule and fill them with interesting content from reputable brands. Show your audience where your interests lie and what influencers are important to your brand. This also gives you the time to add in last minute articles of hot topics or current events.

Serves as a database for your content.

Your calendar is a map of your future posts, as well as a record of your previous content. Most schedulers allow you to look into past scheduled posts. This is great when you decide to create new social media accounts & want access to your previous content, without having to scroll through Facebook or Twitter. This will also help to keep you from posting the same articles, graphics or other content more than once. 

Measure your success.

Use your calendar and your social media analytics to make educated decisions about future posting. Some schedulers provide basic analytics and some advanced versions can create social media reports for you. Even Twitter & Facebook provide you with their own analytic reports. Check your results, see what’s working and what needs to be improved on. 

Make a social media calendar for your business & stick to it! Get it done ahead of time and you will be posting like the pros.

Apr 22
0

Discovering your Market Position

By | Consulting, Marketing | No Comments

Have a lot of competition?

Most of us do, which is why positioning is so important. Your market position is the perceptual location where you fit in the marketplace amid your competitors, and in the minds of consumers. You NEED this, without it you risk getting left behind. Determine your market position with these 3 steps:

1. Self-discovery

Use a third party and ask your patients why they choose you. Also ask those who go elsewhere and why they didn’t choose you. This will take time. You won’t receive an abundance of responses at once, but slowly but surely you can craft this information into a list of top criteria that patients use to select a practice.  Find out what it is that your patients are truly buying from you.

2. Competitive analysis

Do you have a close eye on your competition? Make a list of who’s ‘top’ in the market and study their positions. Secret shop their practices and discover what they are offering and what makes them stand out. Can you identity why patients would choose their practice over yours? Be objective, so you can truly see where they stand on the criteria from the first step.

3. Market analysis

Now that you have identified your competitor’s position, map it out. Take a look at the market as a whole, and reveal potential market opportunities and gaps. Use the information discovered in step one to visually see the differentiation among products in the patient’s mind.

PerceptualMap

Examples of Patient Criteria

  • Price
  • Value
  • Quality
  • Customer Service
  • Convenience
  • Results
  • Expertise
  • Experience
  • Reputation
  • Technology
  • Forefront of Advancements

Things to remember

Don’t try to be all things to all people or you won’t be anything to anyone. Have a true identity and avoid making your practice something that it’s not. For the most convincing position is the one you deliver on.

Apr 13
0

3 Steps to Choosing the Right Social Media Platform

By | Marketing, Social Media | No Comments

How do I know what social media platform to use for my business?

The answer is not so simple. It depends on your type of business, audience & what you are capable of when it comes to time and resources. But, if you put in some hard work there will be pay-off. Social media is a great way to communicate with consumers, help solidify your brand & even gain potential leads for your business. These 3 steps will help you chose the best social media platforms for your business.

Step 1: Identify your Target Audience

Try to understand your audience by examining a few things about them

  • Who are they?
  • What social media platforms do they use?
  • How often are they on these platforms?
  • What kind of online content do they enjoy?

The more you know about your audience, the easier it will be to choose platforms & meet their needs. Look at your competitor’s social media presence, see what they are doing well & what is getting the most engagement.

Step 2: Know your Platforms

To make an educated choice on social media platforms, you need to know what they are and how they are different. This will help you determine which platform offers the most potential to reach your specific audience. Here’s is a quick breakdown of the most popular social media platforms for businesses.

Twitter– This social network is limited to 140 characters per post, or tweet. Even less characters, if you are including an image in your post. Twitter is like an on ongoing conversation, or a quick text message.  This is the most “in the moment” social media platform & is perfect for rapid posting. Twitter is great for making important announcements, introducing new technologies & breaking news.

Use the power of hashtags & “@” mentions to connect with leaders, innovators & vendors in your industry. If you are actively blogging for your business, Twitter can be a great way to post your links & connect with others.

Facebook– This is the largest social network, with over 1 billion users. Facebook is a great way to connect people to your business, locally & worldwide. This social media platform is usually beneficial to any type of business, because of the versatility. It is the perfect place to work on branding your business by sharing videos, photos and text updates. Users can even leave reviews, which strengthens the reputation of your business.

Facebook can be more low maintenance than other platforms, with just a few posts a week. This gives you a chance to represent your business, give the followers an inside look, and gives you a platform to show your expertise. Just make sure you are responding to questions & comments or redirecting followers to the appropriate contact info or website.

LinkedIn– This is a networking site that is a great place to connect with others in your industry or other local businesses. LinkedIn is all about growing business connections. This is a place to get your services out there, as well as give advice & ask questions of others in your industry.

LinkedIn in also an ideal place to post your blogs & will help gain awareness for your brand. You may not always connect your business directly with consumers on this platform, but it is a good practice to have a professional LinkedIn page. This page will also help your employees have a stronger personal LinkedIn profile page.

Instagram– This visual platform is great for showcasing the creative and personal side of your business. If your business is personal and likes to have fun, Instagram is the platform for you. It allows posting of photos and videos up to 15 seconds. There are tons of filters you can apply to your photos & videos to give them a cool modern or retro look. Instagram also uses hashtags to help users search for keywords, that can lead to your photos. Research what hashtags are working for popular accounts & apply that knowledge to your own hashtags.

Are your employees taking selfies & bringing unique and special touches to your office? Snap a picture and post it on Instagram. Most phones have quality cameras these days, so it’s easier than ever to photograph what makes your business unique. Followers like accounts that are very active, so make sure you are posting daily.

YouTube– This is a very powerful visual tool, that only allows video.  If your business has any video content at all, start a YouTube channel. You don’t have to be that active on this platform, but it is a great place to upload your videos. Having your own channel gives you a place to send consumers and is easy to advertise across platforms.

For example, consumer testimonials can be uploaded to YouTube & shared onto Facebook. From there your audience can click through to any other videos you have available. Who knows! Your videos could even go viral! Viewers LOVE instructional videos, demonstration videos & videos showcasing new technology. So, go ahead and show them why you are the best in your market!

Google+– This is a social network created by Google. A lot of people think that Google+ is a ghost town, but it can do more for your business than you think. It is very simple to automate Google+, by connecting it to your Facebook posts. This can mean very little work, with BIG benefits.

The BEST thing about this platform is any content you put on Google+, can help your business google ranking. Google is the number one search engine in the world. Everything you post on you Google Plus for Business page is immediately indexed by Google. Which means, what you post to your page can rank in search results even if your website doesn’t.

Pinterest- This is another visual platform that works as a digital bulletin board. Users identify their interests & use these keywords to search for different information, pin ideas for later & organize on different boards. Pinterest is like a search engine for decorating, cooking, fashion, wedding planning… the list goes on and on. Through the discovery of images, users can click through to what interests them. From there, users are redirected to the website where the original content was posted. Pinterest is a leading platform for traffic referrals.

This platform does not work for every business, but it can be helpful in certain circumstances. For example, an office administrator could pin posts from the company blogs or even pin images of glasses offered in the optical shop. This would be a great way to drive traffic to your company’s website.

Check out this infographic by Leverage, for any easy visualization of this information.

 

Step 3: Making the Choice

Determine How much you are capable of. It takes a lot of time, energy and resources to be successful at social media. You need the content to post & the capacity to deliver on social media. Depending on whether or not you can hire someone to monitor your accounts, it’s best to use a “less is more” approach.

Be picky. Only chose two or three social platforms. Use your knowledge of each platform to carefully determine where your audience is & where they will be the most responsive. Make sure that you are posting engaging content on your social media pages & keeping a regular social media schedule.

You don’t have to be a master of all social media platforms. But with a little time & research, you can be awesome at a few.

Mar 30
0

Your Google Ranking Matters

By | Marketing, Web Design | No Comments

Want to know the trick to getting your business out there and visible to the public? Most people think advertising or word of mouth is the most important factor. As a business owner, here is something you should consider: 89% to 93% of all buying decisions start online. When consumers want something they typically go to search engines, like Google, right from the start.

The goal is to make sure that your business is visible from the beginning, when someone searches for services you provide. Your Google Ranking determines how far down on the list of links your potential patients have to look, to find your business. You want to be as close to the top as possible, preferably on the first page of search results. First page websites get 91.5% of traffic through Google. Consumers usually won’t dig too deep, they will only check out the first view sites that came up from their search.

3 Tips to raise your Google ranking:

Your Page Title — Make sure that the title of your web pages, (which is the text in-between the <TITLE> tags in your web page’s code), have meaningful keywords that you would expect people to search for. For example if you provide LASIK services, you should have words like “LASIK” in your title i.e. “LASIK Eye Surgery”. Pretty simple stuff right? The more keywords in your title pertaining to your business, the more likely that Google will find your web page. Keep in mind that titles shouldn’t be really long; it is only one crucial part of the equation.

Content — Make sure your site content also contains the keywords that people use to search for your business. Having your website content full of those keywords helps Google find your site easier, giving you a higher rank.

ALT Text — You should also use ALT text for your images. This alternate or “ALT” text is a brief description of the image. Since Google is essentially blind, it relies heavily on words. Having ALT text that contains keywords throughout your site, is also very helpful in boosting your Google ranking.

Try taking these steps and see how they improve your Google ranking. These small changes will increase traffic to your site and strengthen your business. Comment below, and let us know how this worked for you!

Mar 16
0

How to Respond to Negative Social Media Reviews

By | Marketing, Social Media | No Comments

We’ve all been there. Your staff calls in the sick, patients are late, and surgery is running long. Patients in the waiting room are growing uncomfortable, and the complaints start rolling in. Before social media, we could try and resolve the situation in the waiting room, or hope everything smooth’s over before the patient begins to make a fuss. Now, with Facebook, Yelp, Google, Healthgrades, etc. patients can leave your office without making a sound, and share their experience with millions of other users, just for you to feel defenseless.

There is hope. By following these simple strategies, you can take control of these negative comments/reviews and improve your online reputation all at the same time.

  1. Respond fast and say you are sorry. The worst thing you can do is nothing. On Facebook you can certainly delete a negative comment or review, but other social media platforms, those comments live there forever. Respond fast and apologize for the problem that patient felt.
    1. Extra Tip! Set alerts to notify you of anyone commenting on your social media platforms so you can respond without major delay.
  1. Pivot to marketing. Remember your response is more powerful than this isolated incident. You are not just talking to a single patient, but a much wider audience that is looking for positive reinforcement to choose your practice. Ex. “We are so sorry to hear that you are unhappy with your vision. We have thousands of patients that are so thrilled with their vision years later, so we want to make sure we can do everything we can for you.”
  1. Take charge. The patient needs to see valued and that you are going to make things right and look into their complaint. Leave a direct line or email in the comment, and ask the patient to contact you directly to further discuss the issue. You do not want to go back and forth, airing the dirty laundry on social media. Respond promptly and talk to the customer directly to resolve and try to get them to remove the bad post or at least post positive again.