Nope, Social Media Isn’t the Magic Cure-All You Think It Is

You might be surprised to learn how often we get questions about social media. Medical practices—and sometimes larger healthcare providers—want our help to “fix their social media.” The problem isn’t the call; that’s a lot of what we do for professionals.

You might be surprised to learn how often we get questions about social media. Medical practices—and sometimes larger healthcare providers—want our help to “fix their social media.” The problem isn’t the call; that’s a lot of what we do for professionals.

The core issue is that social media (SM) isn’t the bad guy, and not the real problem. We have a case of letting the treatment get ahead of the diagnosis.

The story usually unfolds like this…

Competition is increasingly intense, market share is slipping and/or, for whatever reason, the practice simply needs or wants new patients. The bright, shiny and omnipresent tool of social media, they believe, is the answer. After all, everyone at the coffee shop is actively using Facebook, Twitter or other popular platform. It must be the cure, so let’s jump on that bandwagon.

But when social media doesn’t produce the magic or explosive results they expect, they call us for help. (And, by the way, we welcome these consultative calls. We have a lot of experience in healthcare marketing and in fresh-perspective diagnosis of what works and what doesn’t work.

For healthcare practices, most often, the primary culprits are:

Social media alone is fairly pointless. Yes, SM is popular and widely used. Although social tools play an important role in a complete marketing plan, it doesn’t work as a stand-alone cure-all. Social success is synergetic with, and supportive of, a strong Internet presence.

Social media without a website is an Internet orphan. Perhaps not surprisingly, social media calls emerge in situations where the provider or facility has a bad website. It might be a “set-and-forget” web presence that has never been refreshed or properly maintained. Or worse, it’s an elementary website that was hobbled together with limited resources or direction. (And then neglected.)

Please, if you have questions about social media or your Internet presence, please give us a call at 800-656-0907 today. Or you can begin with a no-cost marketing assessment that leads to a proper diagnosis.

And in addition, feel free to tap into the following related articles from our marketing library:

• 10 Commandments for Success in the Art of Social Media
• Your Social Media Strategy: Get Started (or Get Serious)

Stewart Gandolf, MBA

Author information

Stewart Gandolf

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder at Healthcare Success Strategies

Stewart Gandolf, MBA, is CEO of Healthcare Success, a medical marketing and health care advertising agency. He is also a frequent writer and speaker. Most importantly, he is happily married and a “rock-n-roll daddy” to two wonderful girls.

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