Social Media For Doctors Office Help!

[christinarule]

I have a client that I am doing web-work for...I recommended for him to claim his Facebook Place page as well as create a twitter account. He's a little skeptical and doesn't think that a doctors office needs a Facebook and twitter page. I strongly disagree with him and would like to show him some facts. Has anyone ever done social media for a doctors office before or know where I can get some good information?

Thanks in advance!

[optimiz1]

I think everyone needs a social presence regardless of the the niche your in. I have worked with a number of orthodontists who have and understand the importance of social media. For example being there to remind followers about the importance of appointments, the best way to brush, what food to eat etc and the beauty of this is it can be done at a local level and find people who are within there catchment area.

[RyanKent]

Even if your client is not actively trying to build his practice, grabbing his social media sites is still recommended. What happens if another person grabs those names and begins using them? It can cause a headache for your client to explain to his/her patients the social media site is owned by someone else.

Worse, what if the owner of the social media account offers bad advice or otherwise acquires a negative reputation. A facebook or twitter page with the same name as the doctor's office could build the page to rank higher then the doctor's website is SERPs.

Another consideration is connecting with patients. You can reach out to patients via phone, mail and e-mail but people move and many may not remember to update contact information with their doctors. Social media allows patients to connect with the doctor rather then having the doctor's office to connect with the patient. A doctor's address/phone number change, vacation and other information can be communicated once via social media and reach many patients who otherwise might be missed.

[EGOL]

Grab appropriate social sites to gain control of the real estate.

Post all valuable content on the main website.   If you believe that people will like for a doctor in the SERPs then that should be the focus of best content.  If you think that they will get a doc from social media then it might be worth doing.

If the physician has bought into social media and has a practice that would look engaged there then you might try it.  However if the Doc is an old fart like me he might look out of place on social.

[EnhancedPath]

At a bare minimum this is a "Brand Grab" issue. As some people have mentioned here already, you want to have your name, and you want to get it yesterday. I have seen clients who waited to long, and now they have to settle for some string of characters that does not match the business name very well and is far from optimal.

As far as data goes, check out this article from earlier this year:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/facebook-twitters-influence-google-search-rankings

Beyond that, it just comes down to creativity so far as how to use it.

Example: Ask them if they could they benefit form filling a slot where someone calls in a cancellation short notice (for most offices, that is just lost money). If the answer is yes, then note how if that slot opening was to be announced on Twitter and Facebook accounts, where clients were explicitly told is the place information like this will be announced in the future, someone might see it and call in "Hey, I saw the opening, can I bring my kid in today?". Happy clients, happy doctors. Now ironically, even if no one uses it, the fact that you offer it would make some people say "yet another reason why I like the doctors office I go to".

Brian

[mickey11]

why not do a search on facebook and other web 2.0 media websites find pages from other doctor's offices or even similiar "professional" professions like laywers ,accountants etc. and show him those pages as examples. These pages do not have to be local doctors, lawyers. They can be from anywhere - even thousands of miles away. Show him what others are doing.