Yes, You Can Profit From Social Media

In Physician's Practice this week, C. Noel Henley M.D. explains how your practice can benefit from social media.

But let's face it, nowadays there aren't too many businesses who can't benefit from a little online word of mouth. This is hardly news. The big question isn't whether or not you can grow your practice using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other networks, but how to do it.

Henley suggests you start by setting up profiles on all the major networks. Easy enough. What he doesn't tell you is that merely setting up a profile won't drive new patients to your practice.

Fact: the graveyard of Facebook is littered with fan pages starving on "likes." 

"Likes" won't feed your reputation or your practice. They're like monopoly money. Colorful and worthless.



So what's a good Doctor to do?

Think of the last time you discovered something new on Facebook. Did you stumble upon it? Probably not. More likely, you saw it on a friend's page.

That's how you get noticed in social media. Show up in your patients' news feeds.