How FarmVille Teaches You To Be A Better Marketer

If you have a Facebook page, you’ve probably had a friend’s FarmVille update streamed across your newsfeed or maybe you play FarmVille yourself. This popular online game boasts 85 million active accounts and has been advertising in real life (IRL) through a partnership with 7-11.

Today, I just "hid” a friend on my Facebook newsfeed. I like the guy and all but he was sending FarmVille updates 20 times a day - super annoying.  I really don’t care how many virtual lettuce patches you just harvested or how many pigs you have. 

However, it did make me think about how many social media posts/tweets are enough to reach our target patients ... or when does it feel like too much? You certainly don’t want your practice to be “that annoying Farmville guy.”

You have to know where your audience is, and where you need to reach them in the locations they like to be reached. If you are able to engage regularly with patients on Facebook, that is a great place to be. If you feel all alone in the Twitterverse, you may want to ask your patients what social networks they like, and meet them (and others like them) there. 

As to how often you should reach your patients, that’s totally dependent on them – If I start to see people unfollowing, or not replying, I know to back off. The thing that makes social media different from all types of media before is the INTERACTION. Social media is not a platform for broadcast but of genuine interaction with others.  Treat your social networks like you would a cocktail party. If you only talk about yourself, eventually, you will be talking TO yourself. If people stop conversing with you or "hide" your posts and updates, they will miss all the good stuff you have to say.  I believe that in social media, you always want to UNDER-push than OVER-push.

How often do you interact with your patients? Let me know in the comments! 

- Sarah 

5 Easy Ways to Use the i-pad for Health Care Marketing

The i-pad has been on my mind a lot lately. Not just because I was just in the store playing with one, or in the first month they sold over 1 million units, but because I think they could be an excellent tool in health care marketing.  

Let’s take a look at five ways you can spark interaction with your patient that increases engagement by using an i-pad.

1. Load it with before and after pictures, articles, and testimonials.
2. Make your social media pages available so patients can "check in" at your practice on social location sites (Gowalla, Foursquare, etc). 
3. Create a referral program so patients can email an invitation from your practice to their friends while they are still in your office.
4. Show educational videos to your patients when explaining treatment or while they wait. 
5. Present treatment using the i-pad to show mock ups, design, or function. 

What am I missing? How would you use an i-pad in your practice? 

Photos, Photos, Everywhere.

Have you ever looked through a magazine, seen a picture, and suddenly, you find that you've gotta have it? Maybe you've been walking by a billboard with models and thought, "I wish I looked like that".

That is exactly the experience and response that we want to create with your patients! Pictures are excellent triggers to remind people of what they want out of life, and using them in your practice is a great way to get patients excited about their treatment.

I've been in a physical therapy program for several months recovering from an ACL reconstruction. (I tore it during a bad slip in a dodge ball game, but thankfully, am now back to normalcy and running everyday.) In my physical therapy center, each wall is lined with giant, glossy photos of former patients doing their favorite activities. There are cyclists, ballerinas, lacrosse players, you name it. Each of them is signed by the patient with a nice thank you note to the physical therapists at the center.

When I was first diagnosed, looking at these pictures made me feel pretty grumpy. I was still very injured and had just learned it would be 6 months before I could think about participating in my normal activities. I didn't want to think about the active life I was putting on hold.

A week after my surgery, I was back to looking at the photos and a thought popped into my head - "soon that will be me." I looked at the photos nearly everyday for 6 months, and each time, I felt that I was getting stronger and mirroring the healthy people in the pictures. When I felt bummed about my crutches, I'd think about the picture of the recovered skier ripping it up on the slopes. When my friends went to play basketball and I stayed at home, I'd think of the image of the soccer player racing past an opponent. What I've come to realize is that those pictures gave me the inspiration to work hard everyday at my own recovery. Those strangers on the wall motivated me to follow through with my treatment.

How can you harness the power of photos for your own practice to get your patients excited about working with you?

Pictures of your happy patients should line your walls, your reception area, and clinical operatories. Depending on your practice, before and after photos can be a great way to showcase your best work. In venous disease treatment for example, when people see the difference between a leg covered in varicose veins, and a leg that is smooth and beautiful, they will be much more receptive to treatment options. A nice comparison album makes a great addition to any reception area and makes it much easier to sell your services.

I like to include captions with the photos. In dentistry, you could show a porcelain veneer case with the caption, "Porcelain veneers - done in 2 visits." That would impress almost anyone.

My team can help you create an excellent before and after book that works very well. Call 206-419-5407 and we can get started today!