How Social Media Affects SEO Results

Updated November 7, 2014

© chuck - Fotolia.com

You might be a beginner, a baby perhaps, at social networking right now.  Maybe you’ve heard about it but never looked into how it can help your aesthetic practice.  That’s not a problem!

In this article, we’ll teach you about how you can apply social media marketing to your medical practice and dramatically increase the number of patients and referrals who come in to see you.

You can also get more SEO tips & tricks here.

Participation = More Likes/Followers

Once you have established your social media accounts, you’ll need to engage your likes and followers. You will probably want to appoint someone to approve new followers, fans, and likes. This will keep the momentum moving forward.

As your number of followers increases, so does the number of people who will receive a “feed” of your posts each time you publish something on your accounts.

It's important to note that Facebook now has implemented algorithms that allow only about 6% of your fans to see posts organically. This is why paid reach is something necessary to your overall social media marketing plan.

This means that when your followers like, share, or comment on your posts, they will be automatically sharing their activity with all of their connections.  The implications of this exposure for your practice are obvious; you’ll be reaching more people than is possible through your accounts alone.

Don't forget to use social media sites such as Google+ (personal and business page) as well as Pinterest to become fully engaged in the hottest gathering spots. For aesthetic practices, Pinterest is an especially rich source of traffic to a practice's website.

Best content that gets shared:

• Inspirational quotes
• Anything to do with tummy tuck, breast augmentation, liposuction, or rhinoplasty
• Health tips
• Makeup tips & skin care for anti-aging
• Fashion & shoes
• Hairstyles

How to do this: Blog about lifestyle topics that are of interest to your patients and also have to do with the above procedures. Makeup tips to correct nasal features, fashion that accentuates the bosom or slims the middle, you get the idea.

Web Page Content

Your web page content should include ways for your site visitors to share your posts on all of the major social media sites (as mentioned above) in addition to LinkedIn and email.  This can be an amazing tool to explode the growth of your site and social media activity simply by allowing people to share the content with their own connections.

With some people pushing 500, 5000, or even 100,000 followers on Twitter, your reach is far greater than anything you could ever do by yourself with one single share from the right person.

Using Email Marketing as a Social Media Tool

Your newsletter recipients should always be given a chance to connect on social media.  You can run special offers or giveaways in your newsletter from time to time such as “Like us on Facebook and get entered to win a $100 Amazon gift card.”

This is a great way to increase your social media numbers.  The good thing is that the people who like your page or account in order to get the gift card are those who are already on your email list and are interested in staying in touch.

Please note that it is against Facebook's rules to do a giveaway under the condition that the person "Like" your page, but you CAN hold a giveaway, announce it on your Facebook page, and open it up to everyone who already likes you.  Don't forget to also invite your email list to like your page and enter the giveaway (this is OK because the source of the invitation is coming by email).

Contests on Facebook must go through their Apps tool because they have an automatic checker in that App to stop violations of their terms and conditions prior to the promotion being launched.

By using your social media accounts, web site content, and email list you will quickly increase your social media activity and presence.  This will equate to increased web site traffic and better SEO, too.

That’s why we always recommend medical social media services to our clients.  Even if you live in a small town and gain an average of 5 fans/followers per week, if just one of them comes in for a procedure and then refers someone to you…it will be well worth the effort!

Get Social Media Help Today

Contact us today so we can help make you a plan that will work best for you and your unique medical practice.