Social Media: Industry with no apparent engagement?

[HashtagHustler]

Hey Mozzzzzzzzzzzzzzers!

I work for a high end rehab. We have a Facebook page with 800 fans, twitter with 5,500 followers, and a linkedIn with around 1,000. I noticed that the previous CEO probably bought our twitter followers, so that explains our minimal engagement. The part I am having a hard time grasping is that all of our competitors, including the big guns in the industry are struggling as well.

I see numbers like these all the time:

• 30,000 facebook fans with posts getting 5/6 likes and a comment here and there.
• 7,000 twitter followers with every 10th tweet getting 1 or 2 favorites, a RT is a blue moon
• Experts in the industry with high blog views, high credibility in their field, huge fan base, and engagement like the engagement above.

If I look back since 2005, we have accrued 250,000 hits on our website... 236 are from facebook. Our best month was last year in December and I honestly can't figure out why, there was nothing done differently.

I am a firm believer that if there is no audience then it's not worth the time. That being said, I can't help but think we are all missing something in the addiction field.

I guess my questions are:

• What do I do in an industry where there appears to be minimal engagement across the board? (Dr. Drew doesn't count.)
• When do you/have you decided to cut your losses on social media and just use it as a place to have representation and not as a place to drive profit?
• Is there always a way to get engagement? Do you believe some industries are just doomed? (That's an unfair question isn't it?)

Anyway, just food for thought. Would love to hear your opinions! I also would love to know about any marketing and or social media forums you all participate in that I can direct some of the more social media/marketing specific questions towards. I don't want to make things too convoluted.

Thanks everybody!

[DanielMulderNL]

I have worked for a mental health institute treating addiction and associated problems. There is no way to engage with clients or have people that suffer from it participate in open forum discussions like social media. Maybe it's an option to niche it with a related but not the same theme like: things you can do the stay mentally fit tips Tweet channel (I like short names you see). Not associating it directly get's attention and people not bothered to participate in discussions like: how not to feel dead tired and empty when not working tips. This is a prelude state to becoming a client so its prospecting nevertheless.

A more seen and practical alternative is to start expert communities with doctors and other experts that post and interact in a community for example about staying mentally fit. It's a double edge sword as the experts can build online authority and people in real need for medical attention can linger and interact around general items like news clippings on new treatments etc. Why not send a PM to the doc that was discussing e-cigarettes about you not being able to quit smoking pot?

communities recommended:
Social Media Strategies (Google+) with 133K members, high quality posts and moderation
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/100354381402619402956
And of course my very own community on everthing Google + marketing:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/114482540072196914877
But i'ts in Dutch but he where else do I get a change to mention it once i a while on all these EN media:)

[EGOL]

When do you/have you decided to cut your losses on social media and just use it as a place to have representation and not as a place to drive profit?

I think that only a very very tiny number of people are getting profits in excess of their spend on social media.  About the only ones who are are a few very lucky people and a bunch of social media evangelists who talk people into hiring them.  And there are a few people who think they are making money but they really aren't.

Sit on the sideline, wait until you see people pulling in buckets of money and then learn from them.  Right now, lots of money is being poured into it and not much is coming out.

[HashtagHustler]

Thanks guys.

That was where I was leaning. Social media is tough. I don't want to give up on it because it's such a huge pool of data that there has to be SOMETHING there. At the same time, I personally would NEVER go to facebook/twitter/instagram to look for rehab. If I was drunk or hungover that's the last thing I would do.

However, it's just too big to be ignored. It does provide a nice place to expand our community with professionals and potential referrals, which in the long run, does help.

Thanks