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BUSINESS
The Four Keys to a
Great Facebook Page
Patients are depending more and more heavily on the Internet to
make a decision about a new healthcare provider. And they aren’t
just looking at your website or online reviews. Today, 40 percent of
consumers say information found via social media affects the way
they deal with their health.
Having a Facebook page not only allows your practice to be a so-
cial media health resource for patients, it also helps increase your
search engine optimization, and improves overall search results on-
line. But it only helps if you do it right.
Here are the key things you need to do to ensure
that you get the most from your Facebook page:
1. Design it to match your practice brand/identity. Everything
you do should have a consistent look and feel. This is your brand or
identity. Patients should know it is you—whether they are looking
at Facebook, your website or online ad. Make sure everything you
do is consistent and conveys the core message you are trying to get
across. If you want to be seen as warm and welcoming then be sure
your overall design and images convey that.
2. Make contact information, location, and hours easy to find.
Your practice location, phone number, website and hours should be
right on the home page and easy to see. People have a short attention
span and get frustrated easily. Don’t bury key information on an-
other page.
3. Post regularly. Many practices find it hard to post every day,
but try post at least once or twice a week. If you can post daily that set up and manage. In addition, the return can easily be new patients
is even better! Share posts from others as well as your own content
44 San Antonio Medicine • June 2016
By Lilly Ibarra
like a blog article. Mix these with posts about new services, locations,
or hours, and other fun updates like a happy holidays post. Balance
promotional posts with more informational content and always be
professional.
4. Show patient reviews. Patients both like and trust reviews. Ac-
cording to Rock Health, 50 percent of patients looked at reviews
for doctors or health services. Share reviews from patients on your
Facebook page.
Many physicians are hesitant to get into social media. However,
there are many practices that are already out there and doing a great
job. A recent list of the 20 Best Medical Practice Facebook pages
shows some great examples across several specialties. Look at some
of them for inspiration:
MDCore Urgent Care has more than 1,300 likes on Facebook.
They post almost every day, share reviews on their page and make
it easy to see hours, location, and a link to their website. Best of all
when you click through to their site they have a scheduling tool for
booking an instant appointment.
Dr. Rob Lamberts: Dr. Lamberts has nearly 2,000 likes on Face-
book. He posts pretty often, but the best thing about his page is the
way his personality comes through. One look and you can tell this
is a fun and likeable guy — someone you’d be comfortable telling
your problems to.
What’s nice about Facebook is that it costs virtually nothing to
since over 75 percent of patients are conducting an online search
before booking an appointment with a new provider.