5 ways social media is changing your medical or dental practice

As a healthcare provider, think about all of the opportunities and challenges social media has brought your practice. Now as an individual, think of all the relationships you have built with other businesses. Does social media overall benefit you in the marketing industry?

Social media is a huge marketing opportunity that has allowed business’s to either alter the way they have functioned in the past or depict how they will behave according to how social media changes. Consumers today demand more personal and trustworthy relationships with the companies they associate with. This has made marketing more competitive and active in society.

There are 5 major ways social media is constantly changing our business behavior:

1. Businesses have changed their motive of trying to just simply sell products and have directed their attention to connecting with customers. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter are well known social media sites that companies use to socially interact with people to further promote business by creating relationships and generating trust.
2. Social media has created an easy transportation for businesses to spread information regarding their services, promotions, or advertisements. So now it is easier for consumers to reach companies as well as for business’s to promote themselves to customers. Businesses have gone from being hard to reach to being available everywhere.
3. It is much easier to start and launch a business today due to the expansion of social media. The business owner population is growing because they don’t have to invest as much time or money in space for their company as well as the sources to reach out to customers. Obvious behaviors in these small low-budget companies are less serious owners, lower level of expertise, and not as professional as larger corporate companies.
4. With sites like Facebook and Twitter, almost everyone has their own broadcasting network. Companies begin to realize that instead of spending millions on traditional ads, they can participate in “small acts” through the social web. This allows for more freedom in a company to direct profits towards other beneficial things.
5. Overall the image of companies has always been strictly controlled. Now that we have companies and employees involved in social media, individuality and personal expression is becoming more accepted. The more honest and personal a company is with its customers the more interesting that company becomes to people. This has made businesses feel open to being themselves through social media to capture the attention of potential clients.

We can locate potential coworkers and employees through interest-focused Facebook groups, Twitter searches, and niche social networks. Social media gives people who have time, but little money for advertising, the chance to engage with others and promote their business.

Having relationships with businesses through social media allow for direct promotion with individuals and simply because one is a fan or follower of a company they may receive discounts which would greatly influence their chance of purchasing from that company. As well, the most visited and popular sites are the ones who bring in the most revenue because popularity is a major influence in customer’s buying decisions.

Check out more medical marketing techniques for your practice. 3 of the best medical marketing strategies

Share with us some ways you market your company with social media and how its benefited you.