Where Practices Go Wrong On Their Social Media Marketing

When it comes to social media marketing, most medical practices make the same mistake as other small to medium businesses: they try to copy what the big corporations do and spend a crap-load of money and resources on likes and follows.

Why It Matters:

This is a mistake because big businesses use social media for a totally different reason, according to Jason McBride, a marketing consultant. They do it for brand awareness. They don’t invest in social media. But they have big enough budgets to warrant this strategy. You don’t.

Unfortunately, when a medical practice hires an external marketing agency, social media marketing is one of the first things that is recommended.

But here’s the rub:

social media marketing is easy to do
because it is easy to do, your competitors are likely doing it, too
agencies will typically measure results with what are called ‘vanity metrics’ such as likes and clicks
likes and clicks on their own have no calculable value

Now this is not to say that you shouldn’t be using social media. It just shouldn’t be the major thrust of your marketing investment in time and resources.

Bottom Line:

Unless social media marketing is part of an overall strategy with measurable and trackable marketing funnels, then you are merely spending money on activity that might make you feel good but doesn’t really put money in your pocket. Click To Tweet

As McBride points out, You can’t pay bills with dopamine.

Peter J Polack MD FACS

Founder of Emedikon Marketing Systems and a practicing cornea specialist in a large multispecialty practice. Peter specializes in refractive laser and cataract surgery, cornea, and external diseases.

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