Most practices today realize that they “should be” using social media. What they commonly misunderstand is the real reason that this powerful tool is essential. Therefore they miss out on the actual benefits.

Today’s health-care practice typically ends up spending a lot of time, effort and advertising dollars on marketing with mediocre or subpar results at best. They ask themselves, “Is this worth it?” and don’t see a significant return on their investment.

Sound familiar? We get it. During our early days in practice, we were there too. As always, we don’t gate-keep! We’re here to share how we pivoted our marketing mindset so you can, too.

A SUCCESS STORY

Once upon a time, our practice had excellent Google patient reviews, and we felt like our online brand reputation was just about as good as it could be. But we were missing something. We didn’t understand the role that social media played in not just managing but building our online reputation. We were struggling on social media and seeing limited results, not knowing the power at our fingertips.

Then we changed our perspective on the whole point of social media, and the floodgates opened.

We began using social media to create the perception we wanted in our community and built a brand reputation that was unmatched. We became known as the “eye experts,” and perceived as the most likable and trusted name in ophthalmology in our entire state. In 2 years, our practice grew from an audience of 1,000 to 14,000 fans and followers on Facebook with an annual social media-generated revenue of more than $2 million in cash pay. We were growing like crazy.

ONLINE REPUTATION AND BRAND PERCEPTION — NOT JUST REVIEWS

The driving force behind our success is people, and their perception is reality. We think of online reputation as just online reviews, but, in fact, online reputation includes brand perception (see our previous article here: bit.ly/3PEVJ51 ), which extends into wherever people are online.

This is happening with or without you. Just like the online reviews that we cannot control, we cannot censor what people say on social media about us or our practice. While it may feel scary, this is also where the beauty and power of online voices come from.

People trust other people more than anything we can possibly say about ourselves online. If you ignore it, you’re only missing out on the benefits. If you embrace it, now you have a voice in the conversation — which is a game-changer.

AN ISLAND VS MAIN STREET

If you were offered a free billboard for powerful patient testimonials on a remote destination island or on Main Street, which would you pick? The obvious choice is Main Street!

Online patient reviews are on the destination island. They only impact the people out there who are there on purpose: already aware of your practice and services. If you’re familiar with the Larger Market Formula (how any target audience breaks down in the funnel of awareness and decision-making), this is only 20% of your potential patient audience: people who are in “schedule now” or are in “information gathering” mode.

We don’t know about you, but impacting just the bottom 20% of our potential patient audience wasn’t enough for us. It certainly wasn’t enough to grow like we wanted.

Social media is Main Street. It’s where people already are every day. They aren’t going out of their way to look for you here, and they might not even know who you are or what you offer. That is where we want to be to reach the other 80% of the market: people who are “problem aware” (they want what we can offer but are not looking yet) or “unaware” (they’ve never considered our services but, once aware, are a target market). By focusing our efforts on social media instead of relying on patient reviews, we were able to grow faster than we imagined.

THE MAGIC IS IN THE MESSAGE

You picked the billboard on Main Street. Smart! But wait, that’s not enough. Location is not everything. What is? Messaging.

Just as a bad billboard in the center of town can do more harm than good when it comes to the reputation and perception of your practice, so can a tone-deaf social media presence. To quote David Ogilvy (the “Godfather of Advertising”), “On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent 80 cents out of your dollar.” Messaging. This applies not just to ad content, but content in general.

What is your message on social media? What is the ‘headline’ — or on social media, the ‘hook’? Is it created by real people? Validated by real people? Shared by real people? That’s where the magic happens.

START YOUR ENGINES

Ready, set, go! If only it were that easy.

Successful online reputation must be a constant priority. It requires time, attention, strategy, execution and resources — especially now that it includes social media. When done right, it’s a full-time job. The return on investment is so high that many practices end up with a team of people involved in the process of social media engagement.

It may sound obvious, but in order to build authentic brand awareness and reputation, you need people. This includes an ongoing program to engage influencers, ambassadors and patient advocates through social media and curate user-generated content. If this is a new world for you (like most health-care practices), don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. Let’s back it up.

Influencers, ambassadors and patient advocates are patients who are engaged to create content about their experience in your practice on their social channels, representing your practice to their friends and followers. Programs range from formal ambassador agreements with local influencers to informally capturing “regular” patients’ journeys (with their consent, of course) through videos or photos and asking them to share their experience on social media. This allows other people to build your reputation and introduce you to people who trust them. When someone is introduced to your practice before they are even in consideration mode, they are more likely to turn to you when they are ready for what you offer because of the trust that has already been built through their connection.

User-generated content is created by the patients we just mentioned — or it can also be content (ie, photos or videos) captured by you that looks like it was created by the patient. You can then use this to repurpose on your social media channels to your audience (either organic or paid) to validate the perception you want to create.

Of course, make sure you’re following all HIPAA and PHI guidelines and always obtain appropriate patient consent when posting or interacting with any patient content online.

You can also build your reputation as the “eye expert” in your area through your practice or public social media profiles when done correctly. (Remember the messaging secret?) In health care, we have an incredible opportunity to educate our community in meaningful and interesting ways. This not only does good in the world but builds a reputation of expertise and even likability when we add in a bit of our personality.

THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAILS

Messaging, remember? Define the reputation you want and work backward. What do you want to be known for, synonymous with or thought of as? Then, focus on these attributes in the patient engagement programs we outlined above. Lead with emotion, and then offer facts.

Want to be known as the practice with the best technology? Lead with why it matters. Focus on how that made the patient feel then highlight the technology that accomplished this.

Everything is about the patient and their emotions when it comes to organic and promoted brand and reputation-building content. Social media takes a lot of time and effort, and it needs to be worth your investment. We’ll say it again: Focus on emotions first, then offer the facts.

Beyond patient content, the art of emotional messaging and how it affects your brand reputation carries over into your own practice’s social media profiles. Does your cover photo feel authentic, inviting, informative and on-point? Is your Instagram profile a clear snapshot of what you want people to think of you? Social media users know the difference between someone who is an expert at social media and who’s taking the “do-it-yourself,” low-investment route. This affects perception, which affects your brand reputation. Do you want to be perceived as an expert or an amateur on social media?

Most of us don’t have a whole team of experts at our disposal, so we need to prioritize our time for maximum results. Depending on your target audience, you typically want to start with Facebook and Instagram when it comes to building your reputation online.

CONCLUSION

The idea that reputation management is just monitoring your online reviews is obsolete. That’s not how we grow or build a reputation that reaches people before we do. True online brand reputation happens on social media first. That’s where people are, it’s Main Street. Then they want to visit your destination island of online reviews and, finally, end up right there in your practice.

This is the new frontier in health care, and it’s exciting! Don’t get left behind. If you don’t fill this space, someone else eventually will. You’re the expert, the go-to, the place that they can trust. Claim this reputation on social media — it’s yours for the taking. OM

REFERENCES

1. BrightLocal. Local Consumer Review Survey 2023. https://www.brightlocal.com/research/local-consumer-review-survey/ . Accessed September 26, 2023.
2. Influencer Marketing Hub. 17 Key Influencer Marketing Statistics to Fuel Your Strategy. https://influencermarketinghub.com/influencer-marketing-statistics/ . Accessed September 26, 2023.
3. TurnTo Networks. Hearing the Voice of the Consumer: UGC and the Commerce Experience.
4. Neuroscience Marketing. Emotional Ads Work Best. https://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/emotional-ads-work-best.htm . Accessed September 26, 2023.
5. Statista. Social media app usage among Generation Z in the United States as of January 2023. https://bit.ly/464Smud . Accessed September 26, 2023.
6. Gitnux Market Data. Millennials On Social Media Statistics And Trends in 2023. bit.ly/3LsDE7V . Accessed September 26, 2023.
7. Gitnux Market Data. The Most Surprising Generation X Social Media Statistics And Trends in 2023. bit.ly/451Fgwi . Accessed September 26, 2023.
8. BusinessDIT. https://www.businessdit.com/baby-boomers-and-social-media/ . Accessed September 26, 2023.
   
   

CHRISTINE SCARLETT and Lauren Weaver are the co-founders of The Patient Whisperers (www.ThePatientWhisperers.com ). They earned the handle by building one of the busiest and most successful refractive surgery practices in the United States together. They bring a combined 12 years of practice management and an energetic, outside-the-box, results-driven approach to their coaching programs and virtual courses.

LAUREN WEAVER and Christine Scarlett are the co-founders of The Patient Whisperers (www.ThePatientWhisperers.com ). They earned the handle by building one of the busiest and most successful refractive surgery practices in the United States together. They bring a combined 12 years of practice management and an energetic, outside-the-box, results-driven approach to their coaching programs and virtual courses.