You don’t have to be a software engineer to realize that millions of people turn to the Internet every day to research products, services and the businesses that provide them. That’s true for shoes, consumer electronics and, increasingly, for health information. In fact, according to a new study from the Pew Research Center, 72% of [...]
Tag Archives | social
4 More Takeaways from Nielsen’s Latest Social Media Report
When it comes to tracking consumers’ views on media — traditional, social or otherwise — few companies have a better handle on the current state of affairs than the longtime trend-trackers at Nielsen. So when they publish a report called “State of the Media: The Social Media Report 2012,” rest assured there are plenty of [...]
Positive Outcome: Nielsen Report Highlights the Bright Side of Social Media
Why do consumers participate in social media? To hear some doctors tell it, they do so mostly to grouse and gripe but the reality is that the majority of people are not complainers online. In fact, if you were to ask people to describe their feelings after engaging in social media, 76% would respond [...]
3 Steps to Social Media Management and Measurement
At RealSelf, we often talk of taking a three-step, Crawl-Walk-Run approach to engaging with online consumers through social media. As CEO Tom Seery explains, Most doctors are at what can be called the Crawl stage, where they see the value of protecting their online reputation but aren’t ready to promote on the web. A growing [...]
Aesthetic Consumers Are Smart, Social and Increasingly Analytical
It’s often said that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing but that’s not a problem for today’s consumers. According to a new report from IBM, consumers are not only digesting a lot of knowledge; they’re also taking an increasingly analytical approach to it that helps them make more informed decisions. For doctors, the result [...]
Infographic Friday: Who Ya Gonna Trust? Peer Recommendations Rule the Influence Roost
Forget banner ads, billboards and the bevy of celebrities touting brands of every type. When it comes to influence, as in who people listen to when researching products and services, they turn to one source more than any other. Their peers. Check out the “wheel of influence” in this infographic from the influence marketing company [...]
Buzz Index: A New Year, A New Body?
Maybe it’s the time of year. At a time when millions of people resolve to lose a little weight, those who have already lost a lot of it are more than happy to share their experiences. Case in point: aesthetic consumers who have had or are considering a body lift. In fact, according to the [...]
Infographic Friday: Social Health Care Is Set to Soar
With 2012 now in the history books and 2013 just a few days old, it’s only natural to look to the future and contemplate what’s to come. Much, of course, is unknown but one thing is already clear: When it comes to health care, social media is poised to inform every aspect of how patients [...]
3 Rules for Remaining Relevant with Younger Patients
If you’ve been looking around your waiting room lately and thinking your patients and prospective patients are looking younger, you’re not alone. With more people in their 20s and early 30s opting for cosmetic surgery, doctors face a demographic shift that promises to impact every aspect of their profession. It’s a shift that’s both subtle [...]
10 Tips: Marketing to Women Means Less Talking, More Listening
“Women are from Nordstrom, men are from Sears.” It’s a bit of a cliché but like most clichés, it also contains a large kernel of truth: The sexes shop differently and that’s as true online as it is in the store. For doctors engaging in online marketing, the significance of that difference can be summed [...]
Create a Circle of Engagement in 3 Steps
If you’re like most doctors, you probably spend more time thinking about how to get clients in the door than you do thinking about them after they leave. If that’s the case, you may want to rethink your position as nothing carries more weight with the former than the experiences shared by the latter. That’s [...]
Facebook’s declining reach poses a dilemma for doctors
Now that Facebook has topped 1 billion users, its reputation as “the place you have to be” in social media might appear to be stronger than ever. After all, when a site attracts one of every seven people on the planet, its reach would seem to be nearly infinite. Then again, maybe not. In fact, [...]
Infographic Friday: Search vs. Social. And the Winner Is…
Doctors who understand that utilizing both in tandem is a winning strategy in the rapidly changing arena of Internet marketing. That’s the gist of the following infographic from MDG Advertising. It may not be the prettiest image we’ve ever seen but it offers compelling evidence that betting your entire marketing budget on one strategy over [...]
Smart Doctors Think Community, not Audience
If you’ve been having some difficulty building an online audience for your practice, we’d like to offer a simple, one-word suggestion. Stop. The fact is that the people you want to reach aren’t an audience at all. They’re a community and while the terms are often used interchangeably, understanding the difference is key to getting [...]
Internet Marketing: Experts Offer Insights in Latest ASAPS Webinar
It’s almost 2013: Do you know where your Internet marketing plan is? If not, you should probably start thinking about it as next year and the years to come promise to be ones of rapid and major change. Keeping up with those changes is the key to staying ahead. That was the focus of a [...]
Infographic Friday: Social Media and Small Businesses — Do You Measure Up?
If you’ve ever found yourself feeling overwhelmed by the demands of your social media marketing efforts, you’re not alone. Turns out many small business owners feel the same way. Consider a just-released survey from VerticalResponse.com, which asked 462 small businesses how much time they spend on social media activities, including finding and sharing content on [...]
Doctors Should Use the Social Media Compass to Find the Route to Good ROI
“What is the ROI (Return on Investment) of social media?” It’s one of the most commonly asked questions in marketing today and one of the toughest to answer. The fact is, there is no one right answer, and even as the analytics improve, it ultimately comes down to what you hope to achieve. As Susan [...]
Dermatologists Seeking Web Marketing ROI: 3 Takeaways from the ASDS Annual Meeting
As cosmetic dermatology embraces new technologies like ultrasound skin tightening devices, practices are starting to deliver a greater number of services that go beyond the face. Patients are also asking their dermatologists for minimally invasive body contouring procedures, amongst other non-traditional requests. I’ve observed that this shift in the dermatology market is driving a marked increase [...]
The Consumer Decision Journey: 5 Contact Points for Doctors
Unless you’re a student of marketing in your spare time — Spare time? What’s that? — you’ve probably never heard of David Edelman. However, if you’re a doctor hoping to connect with today’s aesthetic consumers, you might want to listen to what he has to say. As a partner at McKinsey & Co., Edelman is [...]
For Doctors, Social Sharing and Site-based Content May Trump Search
Search engines, social media and blog posts, oh my. Given the plethora of platforms and channels that constitute the digital universe, it’s not surprising that some doctors find Internet marketing about as appealing as a haunted forest full of flying monkeys. The solution, of course, is not to run for cover, but rather, to recognize [...]
