PracticalDermatology

Many dermatology practices today have a dedicated Facebook page to promote local business, but most of them suffer from low activity and lack of social engagement. Gaining the attention of your local target audience and improving the visibility of your Dermatology Facebook business page can be difficult because your focus is limited only to the area you serve.

Here are some useful ideas to significantly increase your local organic reach on Facebook:

1 Post Unique Content

To enhance the presence of your dermatology practice in Facebook news feeds, the first pre-requisite is to post and share original and unique content. Facebook has substantially improvised its algorithm over the years, and it is now capable of identifying content that is different and adds value for the readers.

Support your content with hard data, new facts, and high quality links, and embellish it with a mix of blog posts, white papers, e-books, and infographics as often as possible.

2 Diversify Your Social Channels

Although Facebook offers the largest reach across demographics, it is increasingly crowded and its organic space is shrinking. In a flood of competition, even good quality content from you may get buried under heaps of Facebook user news feeds. You can diversify your social strategy by integrating your Facebook account with Twitter and other social networks.

Distribute and share your content over LinkedIn, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, and Pinterest, in addition to Facebook. This will increase your chances of getting more prominence in Facebook news feeds.

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3 Leverage Personal Facebook Accounts

Facebook’s algorithm is designed in a way to give greater visibility of unique posts from personal Facebook accounts in the news feeds than posts from business pages. Keeping this in mind, you can encourage your staff members and friends to share and like your dermatology content. This is a simple but effective way to maximize visibility by using the power of both business and personal Facebook engagement.

4 Use Compelling Photos and Videos

Facebook’s algorithm will typically give more weight to posts that include photos or videos because these are more popular with social users. Your dermatology “before and after” photos for various procedures can be highly shareable on Facebook. You can create short videos to enhance your reach in the news feed.

Make sure the videos are relevant to your target audience and fulfill their information needs. You may even add a fun video whenever you have a local event. If you have video testimonials of past patients sharing their experiences with your practice, you can use them to your advantage via Facebook.

5 Feature Happy Patients

To add more originality to your content and to gain more visibility in Facebook news feeds, consider sharing images of satisfied patients. If you have group pictures from an event, encourage people to tag themselves in the pictures.

You can also feature images of some of your loyal Facebook fans, who actively support and engage with you. This kind of personalized efforts can win you more attention and visibility on Facebook.

6 Focus on Online Reviews

Encourage your present and past patients to review your dermatology practice or procedure on their personal Facebook page. You can share such posts on your dermatology business page. Reviews will have as much better chance of showing up on the top in news feeds.

Remember that Facebook and other social networks are designed for interaction and two-way communication. Therefore, acknowledge all reviews appropriately and respond to any negative reviews in a constructive manner to address the issue.

7 Incentivize Your Facebook Fans

Facebook provides options at the top of your business page Timeline for “Offers” and “Events.” These will enable you to offer a special discount, coupon or rebate for a limited period of time to those who visit your Facebook page and redeem the offer at the URL you provide.

Facebook gives you the option to promote your offers for free, or do targeted promotion through paid Facebook ads. It will also gives the option of “Boost Your Offer” to widen your reach.

8 Import Contacts from Email and Mobile

In addition to increasing the organic visibility of your dermatology Facebook page, you can also directly reach out to more people if you have a good database of contacts. These contacts could be in the form of an email list or mobile phone contacts or both.

Facebook will let you import thousands of contacts and you can invite them to join your Facebook page. With a large number of friends on Facebook, your dermatology content will become visible in the news feeds of all these people, giving you exposure in their respective social networks.

9 Focus on Facebook Analytics

Facebook provides you with detailed analytics about the performance and activity of your dermatology Facebook page. With simple observation, you will be able to identify what kind of content or posts generate the maximum reach and response and drive engagement.

You can redirect your efforts in those areas where you are gaining the maximum mileage. Following the trends that Facebook Analytics reveal can keep your social campaign on track to achieve consistently high visibility.

10 Repurpose Existing Content

You may not always have the time to create original content for Facebook news feed visibility. To fill the gaps, you can promote high quality user generated content that fits with the philosophy of your dermatology practice.

Interesting blog posts, news items, columns, and articles from leading websites, online books, LinkedIn, major blogs, and other sources can be repurposed for distribution via your Facebook account.

11 Redesign Your Facebook Page

Social media networking is a dynamic field where change occurs at lightning speed. You need to constantly stay ahead of the game not only by posting fresh content, but also by periodically giving a new look to your Facebook page.

Use original or highly creative images, new headlines and description, and give your page a new makeover whenever you can. Each time you make such changes, you may notice a spurt in your Facebook activity and visibility in the news feeds.

These simple ideas, if implemented efficiently, will keep your dermatology practice in the spotlight in Facebook news feeds. The payoff in the long run can be very significant in terms of increased footfalls at your dermatology office.

Naren Arulrajah is President and CEO of Ekwa Marketing, a complete Internet marketing company which focuses on SEO, social media, marketing education and the online reputations of dermatologists. With a team of 140+ full time marketers, www.ekwa.com helps dermatologists who know where they want to go, get there by dominating their market and growing their business significantly year after year. If you have questions about marketing your practice online, call 855-598-3320 to speak one-on-one with Naren.