RatePoint Business Reviews
Turbo Social Media

Archive for review sites

Medical Review Sites Where Your Practice Needs To Be Listed

Posted by: | Comments (1)
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

I often preach about the importance of being listed on medical review sites. I want to take a moment to mention the main sites that you need to be listed on and promote…

Medical review sites:

  • Ratemds.com- This site has been around since 2004 and is highly publicized as one of the top review sites for both doctors and dentists. You don’t need to be an MD to be listed here. Chiropractors, Acupuncturists, and even psychiatrists & psychologists can be listed.
  • Healthgrades.com- A popular site for reviews of physicians, dentists and hospitals. Most of the listings are for MDs, but they do have some unique specialty listings for sports therapists, optometrists, and a few other fields.
  • Vitals.com- This site is strictly for doctors (no dentists); however, they have many different specialties listed here, particularly hospital-related doctors and surgeons.
  • Doctorbase.com- This is a much lesser known site that I want to bring up because it offers both a free listing, where patients can review you, and a paid scheduling and follow up software. The software, known as PANDA,  can automatically email patients after appointments to not only ask for reviews, but integrate those reviews with social networking websites.
General Review sites:
  • Yelp- The most popular local business review site on the Internet. Keep an eye on this because many of your reviews will come from Yelp.
  • Google Places- Arguably the most important place to be listed. At least 65% of people searching online are using Google. More often than not, specific geographic searches bring up Google Places results. While more people are likely to review you on Yelp, more people are searching for you on Google.
  • Citysearch- An afterthought when it comes to local reviews because of Yelp and Google Places. Citysearch offers a very diversified list of professionals that you can review, including all types of doctors, medical degree or not. After Yelp and Google Places, if you’re looking for another local business review site to get listed on then consider Citysearch.
Having a presence on these review sites is a start. However, you need to do more than have a presence to use these review sites to your benefit. You need to promote them actively. Having a link on your website to these review sites helps. Even better, having signs posted in your office and sending emails occasionally asking for reviews (or use a software that does this for you) helps even more.
The best way to get reviews is to simply ask for them directly from your patients. Make sure you do it at the end of your meeting with the patient and after you’ve answered all their questions. You’d be surprised at the responses you get by simply asking.
If you have any questions about review sites and generating reviews then contact Turbo Social Media today, or call 877-673-7096 x2.
Categories : Medical Reviews
Comments (1)

Automate Your Patient Follow Up Process

Posted by: | Comments (1)
Friday, June 24th, 2011

If you’re running a physician, dentist, medi spa or surgeon’s practice then chances are you’re using some sort of scheduling software. If you’re not then you seriously need to consider exactly how much time your receptionists are making appointment reminders and following up with patients. Patient reminder software, like the popular Smile Reminder, allows you to automatically send an email, text and/or postcard to patients letting them know that they have an appointment coming up. This type of software is especially important for dentists, since their patients should be coming in every 6 months.

While this type of automated reminder software is nice, what’s even better is having software that will not only remind patients of upcoming appointments, but also remind them after their appointment that they should write you a review. With most of these types of programs you can schedule a message to go out to a patient 24-48 hours after their appointment. The patient receives an email with links and instructions for leaving a review.  Ideally these reviews integrate with Facebook, Yelp and Google.

Given the rise in the importance of reviews, these automated software programs become that much more valuable. One such program is DoctorBase, based out of San Francisco, they provide a free platform for doctors and dentists to get reviews. However, the real value in their service is their PANDA software that not only allows automated patient scheduling, but also automated patient follow up that integrates with various social media outlets.

Think about the amount of time and money you can save by simply having an automated scheduling software. It eliminates many the hours it takes your secretary or receptionist to reach out to each patient. Now, think about the value of an automated review request sent to every patient. Not only is this saving you and your staff time from reaching out to each patient, but it’s also spreading the word and increasing the amount of reviews online. More reviews tends to lead to higher rankings on Google Places and on Yelp.

It’s hard to quantify the exact value of a review online, but one can be certain that the more quality reviews that you generate online the more visibility and credibility that your practice will receive. Using a software like Doctorbase to generate a review will not only help you improve search engine rankings, but the review could also potentially be integrated with the the Facebook and Twitter account of the reviewer. If the reviewer has, say 500 Friends and Followers, that’s 500 potential patients that are hearing their review of your practice. Pretty powerful.

There are other competitors to DoctorBase out there that provide a similar service, but no matter which one that you pick, make sure that there is an automated follow up process that integrates with social media. If you have any questions about automated scheduling/follow up software for your practice then feel free to contact Turbo Social Media or call 877-673-7096 x2.

 

Categories : Cosmetic Dentist Marketing, Cosmetic Surgeon Marketing, Internal Marketing
Comments (1)

Make Your Medical Practice Stand Out Using Social Media

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Much like when websites grew in popularity and became a must for most medical practices in the early 2000s, social media has grown dramatically in popularity over the past two years. Social media has grown from something that people were interested in, but unsure of the value, to something that medical practices need to get involved in.

Whether you are a plastic surgeon, physician, dermatologist, medi spa/salon owner, cosmetic dentist, or operating any medical-related business, here are some tips to help your practice stand out using social media:

1) Utilize a blog: I recommend creating a blog as an extension of your website. It can be a page within your site, a sub-domain or a completely separate domain, but it needs to match (or somewhat match) the look of your website. Try to incorporate the navigation strucure on the blog so that people reading can easily link back to your website. More importantly, you need to use the blog at least a few time a month. Write articles, optimize them and syndicate them to social bookmarking sites such as Digg, Reddit and Delicious. The optimization is key as you want your articles to mirror questions, concerns and tips patients are looking for.

2) Promote review sites: Notice I didn’t say get set up on review sites because that’s not enough. You need to actively promote the review sites to your patients. Consider sites such as:

  • Ratemds.com
  • Healthgrades.com
  • Makemeheal.com
  • Vitals.com
  • Yelp
  • Google Places

Make sure your profiles are completely set up and accurate. Then your job is to promote these sites and make it as easy as possible for people to leave reviews. Consider creating a work station with a computer in your office where patients can leave a review before they even leave the office.

3) Set up & custom brand your social networks: You need to have a presence on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Furthermore, you should try to use the same name for each network. All three social networks also allow you to customize your page look with your logo, colors and other text. I highly recommend this as it extends the branding our your practice and give it a more professional look.

4) Be active & promote your social networks: Make sure you have a message going out at least every other day on Facebook & Twitter. The key is to not be overly promotional, but provide a lot of value in terms of advice and tips. With YouTube, aim to add at least one video every monthly or every other month. The videos can simply be the doctor speaking about a procedure or interviewing a happy patient.  More importantly though, just like the review sites, you need to actively promote your social networks. Have signs plastered throughout the office, promote them on your intake forms, promote them in email marketing or newsletters. Give people a reason to find you on Facebook or Twitter too, and that can be a simple discount or promotional giveaway.

If you follow the steps above you’ll have a very solid foundation for improving the visibility of your practice, not only on search engines but also with current and former patients. If you have any questions about how to get set up on or utilize a blog, review sites or social networks then contact Turbo Social Media today, or call 877-673-7096 x2.

 

Categories : Medical Marketing, Social Networking
Comments (0)

How Doctors Should Handle Negative Reviews Online

Posted by: | Comments (3)
Friday, May 13th, 2011

One common concern with doctors when it comes to social media is review sites. Many think that if they simply avoid review sites they’ll avoid any bad publicity that comes from them. This is a common misconception that couldn’t be further from the truth.

In a previous blog post I explained the importance of being active on review sites. Being inactive will likely only bring about the small number of disgruntled patients. Emphasizing the presence of the practice on sites such as Google Places and Yelp, as well as other medical review sites, will help build up your reviews so that the positive reviews far outweigh the negative reviews. But what do you do when you do get a negative review? How do you respond?

Well you don’t want to do what this doctor did and try to sue. Word got out through social media about what this doctor was attempting to do and that sparked a firestorm of even more negative reviews!

Apparently one person posted a screenshot of the situation on Reddit, and wrote: “This dickface doctor from my hometown is suing a WWII veteran’s family for $50,000 for rating him poorly on the Internet.  Perhaps he deserves a few more poor ratings …”

Reddit, which is a social bookmarking  site, or a very large collection of blog articles, gets about a million page views per day. Needless to say, this one comment sparked a wave of many more negative reviews, and while the initial review that sparked the lawsuit may or may not have been legitimate, the one’s that followed were definitely not.

So how exactly do you respond to a negative review? Well, you can see the first name of the person who left the review and try to figure out who it was. This can be very time consuming, and chances are that any apology or follow up will be unwelcomed anyway. Trying to remove the review may or may not work either. Keep in mind that Google, Yelp and other review sites claim to monitor the content of the reviews, and thus, can determine if a review seems “invalid.” If you truly feel like the reviewer is being untruthful or their comments irrelevant then contact the review site to point this out. It’s worth a try.

In short, there is really no way to “respond” to negative reviews themselves. Most review sites simply don’t allow for any follow up comments to address the reviews. You can deal with and overcome negative reviews by making it as easy as possible for patients to review you online. Simply suggesting patients find you on Yelp is not enough. Consider follow up emails with links to your review site profiles, or even setting up a work station with a computer in your office where patients can review the doctor.

No matter how good of a doctor you are you’re bound to get a few negative reviews. However, if you help facilitate the growth of positive reviews these negative one’s will seem insignificant.

If you have any questions about review sites and how your practice can utilize them then contact Turbo Social Media today, or call 877-673-7096 x2.

Categories : Medical Marketing
Comments (3)

Medical Marketing Strategy (Part II)

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Thursday, April 7th, 2011

In my previous blog post, Medical Marketing Strategy (Part I), I discussed the tools that need to be in place in order for you to implement a monthly marketing plan (the set up pieces). In this article I’ll discuss everything your practice should be doing on a monthly basis.

1) SEO: While some people think social media will make SEO irrelevant over time, I couldn’t disagree more. The content that you have on the internet needs to be structured in such a way that Google, Yahoo and Bing can index it quickly. As the internet becomes more accessible, more people are doing their research before they make buying decisions, and they’re doing this research on search engines. What will they find about you and your practice? You need to be able to answer to this question. After your website is optimized (see step 1) you should create your monthly SEO plan, and it should include:

  • Blogging- Aim for at least 1 per week to start. Make sure you optimize these articles and syndicate them to social bookmarking sites, as well as your social networking sites
  • Link building- Simply put, this means building the number of links from other websites that link to yours. It helps to make your website look more popular to search engines, thus helping it to rank higher. Keep in mind that you need to be careful when you do link building. There’s no value building links from poorly ranking websites.

2) Build your presence on social media sites: While SEO is very important, social media is where the relationships develop online. Start by creating a Facebook, Twitter and YouTube account for the practice. Make sure to custom brand each of these networks to mirror the look of your website. Also, consider using a scheduling software, such as Hootsuite, to help post messages to these networks. Once you’re established on these social networks, make sure you actively promote them on your website, in your email marketing, and at your practice. Offer incentives for patients to become Fans. Your goal should be to engage your Fans and Followers. The more interaction your have between you and your Fans the better.

3) Get set up and start promoting your review sites: Not only does this mean setting yourself up on Yelp and Google Places, you should get established on medical review sites and communities such as Real Self, Make Me Heal, and Doctor Base, if applicable. Consider utilizing services such as Ratepoint, which integrate with your website and allow patients to write a review which you can approve before it gets published. Best of all, clients can publish their Ratepoint review to their Facebook, Yelp and Google accounts. I encourage you to set up a station in your office where patients can go and write a review before they leave.

4) Record your happy patients: Ask your VIP patients if it is ok if you take a quick video of them talking about their experience the practice. Not all patients will feel comfortable being recorded, but many will. The key is to ask them simple questions, such as how did your find the doctor? How was your consultation? Why did you decide to go with the doctor? Who was the surgery? Are you happy with the results? You don’t need fancy, expensive equipment to do this. You just need:

  • A Flip Cam, Kodak Zi8 or handhelp camcorder (all can be found for under $200)
  • A tri-pod (helps to keep the camera steady)
  • Sufficient lighting
  • A background that is not too busy (don’t want viewers to be distracted)

Once you record your patients then you’ll want to edit the video, optimize & post to YouTube, and then syndicate the video to other video marketing websites, such as Viddler and Vimeo.

5) Get set up with an email marketing software: This step is critical for your business’ success. If you structure your website properly you’ll start to generate leads from potential patients that you need to follow up with. They may not come in immediately for a consultation, but they’re interested. This is where email marketing works wonders. Consider sending at least one email per month to your list offering a different promotion. One word to the wise, make sure the software that you’re using gives you the ability to track the effectiveness of your emails. You should know how many people are opening them, clicking on links in them, and opting out of your list.

Other ideas:

  • Direct mail: Like email marketing you’re utilizing the list that you already have. In many ways direct mail can be more effective than email marketing because people are less likely to throw away physical mail than delete an email.
  • Directories: It’s always a good idea to be listed in different online directories. They often show up in search results.
  • Magazines & other publications: Depending on your area, this could be a good place to advertise.
  • Write a book:  There’s no better way to brand yourself as an expert in your field than to write a book. It is also a great marketing tool. Talk to Turbo about our publishing services.

If you need help preparing a monthly marketing plan then contact Turbo Social Media today, or call 877-673-7096 x2.

 

 

Categories : Medical Marketing
Comments (0)

Aesthetic Physicians’ Reputations Are Formed On Review Sites

Posted by: | Comments (0)
Thursday, November 25th, 2010

With the growth of social media over the past few years, more and more physicians, surgeons and doctors are finding out what others are saying about their practice before they know. Like any profession, these medical professionals are susceptible to reviews.

More importantly, the availability of these reviews to the average consumer has increased the amount of research that people do online before they entertain a buying decision. Studies back this up. According to Pew Internet and American Life Project, Sixty-one percent (61%) of American adults look on-line for health information. Forty-nine percent (49%) of Internet users report researching a specific disease or medical problem on the Internet.  Forty-seven percent (47%) report seeking information about their physician or other healthcare professionals from on-line sources.

The study also says that five percent (5%) of “E-Patients” have posted a review online of a doctor. These reviews, that come from a relatively small fraction of a physicians total number of patients, help to form the doctors online reputation.

In a previous blog post, Importance of Review Sites for Your Cosmetic Practice, I outlined several different review sites that every medical professional should look into. The point of this article is to re-emphasize the importance of a physician’s reputation online.

In the medical field, physicians may be faced with, at some pint in their career, legal action. It’s just the nature of their work, and all you can do to prevent this is take legal precautions and perform good work. Well, physicians who are faced with any kind of medical malpractice suit could have their online reputation scrutinized by the plaintiff’s attorney. In fact, any wise attorney will look online first.

According to Geoffrey Vance, a 38 year old partner at McDermott, Will and Emry: “We used to run Lexus Nexus; we still do that. We always look at cases, and now we use the internet – Google, and social networking sites.”

What’s the bottom line? Your medical practice needs to have a reputation online, and it starts with positive reviews. More importantly though, your medical practice needs to have a comprehensive social media strategy online, to help keep patients coming back. YOU NEED TO BE PRO-ACTIVE with ALL OF YOUR ONLINE EFFORTS. This startegy will lead to returning patients, increased revenue and an outstanding online reputation.

If you have any questions about establishing a social media marketing startegy for your practice, contact Turbo Social Media today, or call 877-673-7096 x2.

Categories : Cosmetic Surgeon Marketing
Comments (0)

Importance of Review Sites for Your Cosmetic Practice

Posted by: | Comments (3)
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010

Every successful cosmetic surgery center should always be actively looking for patients. However, your practice should also be positioned so that patients can find you (without you having to find them).

I’ve mentioned in a previous article the importance of SEO for your aesthetic practice. I’ve also touched on what you need to know to build a successful cosmetic surgery website. These are two basic starting points. But what’s next?

You’ll want to begin to put more content out; blogs, videos, etc. You’ll also want to get a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn page set up. However, before you even begin to do any of this you need to get your review sites set up, and you need to start pushing your patients to these review sites.

At Turbo Medical Marketing, we understand the power of social networking websites. However, the problem is that many surgeons associate “social networking” websites with mainly Facebook and Twitter. By doing this you overlook several very important review websites, such as:

  • Doctor Base
  • Real Self
  • Doctor Score Card
  • Steady Health
  • Vitals.com
  • Plastic Surgery Reviews
  • Ratemds.com
  • Yelp

    • These websites typically provide unbiased reviews from actual patients, whereas Facebook and Twitter comments by others can be deleted by the owner of the page. Facebook and Twitter pages are great for patients who have already found your practice. Patients typically want to stay in touch to find out more about your practice or find out about any specials that you have going on. The review sites may often be the first impression for your potential patients. Therefore, it is vital that you are established on these websites.

    Make sure that you incorporate this step in all of your follow up procedures with every single patient (or at least every happy patient). Make it as easy as possible for them to write your practice a review online by giving them the website addresses to go to. You can even go a step further and offer discounts or prizes for those who write a review for you. Get creative! The bottom line is: get your patients to your review sites.

    If you have questions about how to get set up on these review sites, or you’d like to learn more about how you can incorporate social networking into your overall marketing startegy, contact Turbo Medical Marketing today to speak to a consultant. Or you can call 877-673-7096 x2.

    Categories : Cosmetic Surgeon Marketing, lead generation
    Comments (3)
    Learn about social media for your aesthetic practice...we wrote the book on it


    Subscribe Now!

    Subscribe to Turbo Social Media for Medical Professionals

    Get the latest updates delivered via email

    8605 Santa Monica Blvd #58582, Los Angeles, CA 90069 • Call Us: 877-673-7096
    © Copyright 2012 Turbo Social Media Marketing - Turbo Social Media, Inc • All Rights Reserved