Facebook, Twitter and Youtube are usually the first social media sites people think of (typically in that order). Now remember that when I say “social media sites” I simply mean websites or web-based tools that facilitate interaction or user-generated content.
The following list outlines several social media tools every medical practice should be using:
Hootsuite– This scheduling software allows you to schedule out messages to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, saving you and your team a lot of time. The software also allows you to shorten urls and select photos to go with specific Facebook updates. Furthermore, you can easily see who is sending you messages or mentioning you on Twitter in a convenient, easy-to-follow format.
Tweet Adder- Growing your Fans & Followers can take a lot of time. You need to constantly promote your networks and provide quality content in order to get people interested. One way to speed up this process is with Tweet Adder. This software allows you to select influential people (ideally in your industry) and Follow their Followers automatically. The goal is that they in turn follow you back, thus growing the number of Followers that you have on Twitter.
Social Oomph- A lot of the features of Socail Oomph are similar to Hootsuite, and prior to Hootsuite, when people were using Tweet Deck (which doesn’t have the message scheduling feature), people relied on Social Oomph. That being said, there is still one convenient tool Social Oomph provides and that is the ‘auto follow,’ which allows you to automatically Follow someone who Follows you. This isn’t essential, but it’s nice to reciprocate the love if someone follows you, and it’s nice to do it automatically.
Wildfire- As I mentioned earlier, growing your Fans & Followers takes work. One way to engage people and get them excited is through a contest, and one of the best platforms out there to run a contest on is Wildfire. The software is a preferred partner of Facebook, and they have a wide variety of contest solutions that you can use, from the inexpensive, branded solution to the custom, white-labeled solutions. With Wildfire you can run a contest or sweepstakes, and you can decide whether you want to judge the voting or you’d like the Fans to judge (or both). Best of all, the software keeps track of all leads and provides detailed analytics for every campaign.
Flickr- Perhaps the most well known photo sharing site. I recommend Flickr as a tool to make your images more visible online, specifically before & after patient images. Sure, you can optimize the images in your website photo gallery, but adding them to Flickr, and other similar sites, such as Photobucket and Shutterfly, will help increase the visibility of these images, which will in turn make your website more visible.
Camtasia– Does your practice utilize video? Do you think that the only way to produce a video is paying an expensive videographer/producer big bucks? Think again. You can create quality videos yourself or with the help of your staff using editing software like Camtasia. This affordable software can help you edit video, add slides, transitions, voice over, media and much more. All you need is a camera, a tri-pod (to keep it steady), and sufficient lighting and you’re ready to shoot your practice videos. Once you shoot the video use a software like Camtasia to edit it and make it look professional.
If you have any questions about any of the tools listed above then contact TRBO ADvance or simply call 877-673-7096 x2 and we’d be happy to talk to you. Feel free to leave us a comment on any other valuable social media tools that your practice uses.
