Social Media – what’s the point?
by James Ruddick [jamesruddick@summertownclinic.co.uk]
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, are you bored of hearing about them? They seem to be everywhere, but what are they and why do businesses use them?
I’m often asked by patients “ how do you market your business?” and I reply honestly and explain “ most of our patients come to us through ‘word of mouth’”.
This has always been our best method of advertising, and I’m sure always will be, however people have started communicating differently. Word of mouth now takes place in these cyber networks, and many users, tweet, and facebook to hundreds and thousands of their friends several times a day. This new method of communication gives us an opportunity to encourage our patients, and people connected to our clinic, to share their experiences and help their friends find us without ever having to ask.
Some of my older friends don’t see why this is important, but if our primary method of marketing has changed we have to keep up with it. I’m not suggesting people will stop talking, but when it comes to recommendations finding out what worked for your friend, or even their friend is a good start.
Tweeting is a bit different this is more of an information highway in my opinion, as tweeting is used to give snippets of information and links to where more can be found to large groups of people. This post is a good example, how are my patients ever going to find me, or this article? What if there were patients out there who loved to hear what all the expert practitioners in Summertown Clinic said about a wide range of conditions? Well then they might follow us. This process involves having a twitter account and following people or groups that interest you. They post tweets everytime they come across something interesting and you can follow them, or re-tweet to your followers. For us its a great way of updating our followers with when we’ve made new blogs or changed something about our clinic or website.
So how can you do this? Well you can look us up and take it from there… just click on the icon of the social media you choose to follow us through on the sidebar on the left.
Twitter: @SummertownClin
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Summertown-Clinic/155654741120892
