Facebook has become a part of over 750 million user’s daily lives. There is a pretty high chance that you have a personal account to stay in touch with your family and friends, but have you ever thought of having a Facebook page for your practice? Studies in healthcare marketing have shown that Facebook can increase revenue and loyalty. Plus, it’s a great way to connect with your current patients, referring physicians and community partners. If you’ve wanted to set up a business page but have not been sure how to do it we have some tried and true techniques to help you set-up a successful page and begin engaging your audience.

The Beginning of Your Business Page

• The first and most important aspect of creating your page is determining the email address that will be associated with the account. The email that you use to create the page will be used for the administrator of the account. Make sure this email is one that will be with the company for the long haul. We’ve heard horror stories of practice manager’s assigning an employee to set up the account and the employee ends up doing so with their own personal email. Unfortunately, if the employee leaves the practice, they can take access to your Facebook account with them. Use your administrator email to set up a personal page first on the Facebook Homepage.  You need a personal page in order to set up a company page.

• Once you have your personal page setup with your administrator email and login, go to this page to create an “Official Page.” This is where you will need to determine if you want to appear as a local business, a brand product, or organization.

• Now it is time to name your page. It’s usually best to use your company brand name. After you have the main components of your page, fill out the information tab, your profile picture and a short summary about your company. Here’s your chance to really share who you are and what you have to offer as a practice. Your company summary should include links to your actual website and provide useful information to people who may come across your page. Your profile picture is a simple, yet important part of your page. Make sure that it is creative and speaks for your clinic or brand. A logo works but you can also use a picture that shows what you offer at your practice.

How to Get People to “Like” You and Your Brand

The more people that you get to “Like” your brand will increase the amount of people that you can reach through Facebook and increase awareness about your practice. The first step to getting your current customers to “Like” your page is letting them know that you have set up a page in Facebook. Most companies send an email to their customer base announcing that they have set up their Facebook page and request that their customers “Like” their page. Place the Facebook logo on your advertising, marketing materials and website to let everyone know they can connect with you. With your website, make sure the logo links directly to your Facebook page.

How can a blog help to market your practice?

Utilizing a blog on your clinic website can be a great way to promote your business. You can use a blog for any number of marketing initiatives. We will cover the benefits of using a blog for your business and some best practices to help you get started.

Using a Blog to enhance your patient experience

Many patients probably have questions about their diagnosis, their treatment, and their Home Exercise Program.

Obviously, you cannot use a public forum to address a specific patient, but you can supplement their experience in your clinic with educational items they need to know. Imagine being the resource for your patients if they need to brush up on proper form with their HEP, or getting tips on how to keep their young baseball player from injuring their shoulder. Blogging in this manner does a few key things.

1. First, you are able to add value to your practice. Not only are your patients going to get regular therapy sessions from you and your staff, but they also have a great resource to maintain their health and prevent further injury. They will appreciate the added value and the fact that their treatment doesn’t stop the second they walk out the door.
2. Secondly, you are establishing your expertise in a relevant and helpful way. You patients will be thankful for you advice and, more importantly, they will trust you for rehab related issues. Building customer loyalty in important when there are so many choices for therapy related services. The idea here is to have people associate your brand directly with physical therapy.
3. The final effect, and probably the most important for your business, is when your patient encounters friends or family who are in need of therapy they will recommend your practice. People love to share knowledge with their circles and they do not forget their good experiences. With the increase of Direct Access availability, word of mouth can be a huge revenue stream for your clinic.

By now, everyone is aware of the financial incentives available for clinicians who switch to Electronic Medical Records. The incentives are supposed to help clinics offset their costs while they digitize their entire office, including getting rid of those awful filing cabinets.

Before too much excitement sets in, you should also be aware that while Rehab professionals (Occupational and Physical Therapists) are required to make the switch under the mandate, they are not eligible for the financial incentives. The reasons for this exclusion are confusing, but we will save that for another blog post.

The lack of funds for Physical Therapists highlights a big factor in all of this. The EMR system they choose to put in place must increase profits or save the clinic money.  The system must add productivity and lower costs without having a large start up investment. Most Therapists don’t have a large capital reserve to put up $30,000 to $60,0000 to get up and running with a new system.

A great article from Plus91, recently put forth some practical ways an EMR can drive up clinic revenues:

Social Media has revolutionized the ability for people to connect with one another. While great for connecting with friends and family, it can also be a huge asset to your business.  Contrary to what you may think, social media is not just for posting random thoughts or crazy videos. 

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube are avenues for marketing, clinic name recognition, and networking.  It is the new generation of communication that can't be ignored.  If you are hesitant and don't know where or how to get started, here is some food for thought: 

5 Things to Think About Before Using Social Media for Marketing

1) Don’t believe the hype; at least not ALL of it 

It's important to assess the social landscape and see what is going to work for you. Healthcare and specifically Physical Therapy has never been a competitive market in advertising. So, it is not important to blast on to the scene with as many forms of social media as possible. It's more important to be organized and calculated about time, strategy, and staffing. Social media can be time consuming, so choose wisely. If you aren’t keen on jumping on all the bandwagons, simply choose one and focus on it. Creating a profile and then never updating it is worse than not being there at all. If you are already familiar with Facebook for personal communication, start with it for your business marketing as well.  If the almighty Twitter speaks to you, check out this presentation by Dale Boren Jr. and Casey Kirkes on how to use it for professional advancement.