Marketing your Veterinary Hospital through Facebook
Facebook isn't just a way to connect with long-lost friends-it's a powerful, inexpensive marketing tool for your veterinary practice. With a Facebook page, your veterinary hospital can directly interact with clients and potential clients and spread the word about the care and services that your veterinary hospital offers.
Connect in a Unique Way with Clients
Once VetNetwork has setup your veterinary hospital's Facebook page, it is extremely easy for you to update and maintain. Beyond gaining new clients, your hospital's Facebook page allows you to connect in a unique way with clients and other members in your local community. The busy nature of a veterinary hospital often makes it difficult for you to do more than exchange pleasantries with clients during a scheduled examination. Through your Facebook page, you can share notes about upcoming hospital events, post photos of clients and their pets, add photos of staff and veterinarians interacting with animals, start discussions about animal health care topics, and share inspiring animal stories. Since most of your younger clients are already very active on Facebook, and many older clients are now joining the site, your Facebook page is the place that users can turn to when they want to learn more about your veterinary hospital and you.
One of the Most-Visited Websites in the World
Facebook is the most popular social networking website on the internet. With more than 350 million users worldwide, the idea that Facebook is just a crazy, free-for-all website for adolescents has definitely been put to rest. Facebook is now one of the top three most-visited websites in the world.
Beyond the simple fact that Facebook offers clients and potential clients information about your veterinary hospital, it can also be used for an effective and targeted marketing campaign. Your Facebook page has the ability to reach audiences in two ways.
- Target customers with precision - If you want to reach 30-year-old Golden Retriever owners who live in the Chicago area and have a college education, you can find Facebook groups that fit that niche.
- Facebook "fans" can recommend your hospital to other Facebook users - Let's say your veterinary hospital has a Facebook page and another user signs on as a "fan." Facebook alerts that person's friends of the connection. This results in free marketing to an almost limitless number of potential clients.
Increase your Google Rankings and Drive Visitors to your Website
Search engines such as Google and Yahoo turn to social networking sites like Facebook when compiling their page rankings. For an example, do a Google search for each of the 2008 presidential candidates, Barack Obama and John McCain. The Facebook pages for both candidates show up in the top 10 Google results. This is just one example demonstrating that the greater your hospital's presence on the internet, the better your search engine rankings. Having a Facebook account improves your search engine rankings and drives more traffic to your hospital's website, which in turn leads more clients to your practice.
The following are just some of the benefits of having a Facebook page:
- A Facebook page turns you into a resource for others.
- Your information and photos provide an ongoing view of your practice online
- There is a continuous online buzz about your services and interests.
- Connecting with your clients socially helps develop emotional bonds.
- Referrals and recommendations of your services are much more natural
- Improves your search engine rankings
- Drives traffic to your hospital's website
- A Facebook page provides branding and identity for your business
- You are accessible to a much wider audience.
- Clients and potential clients get to know you and your staff before their appointment.
- Facebook is a great way to partner with other businesses.
- Interacting on Facebook helps you understand who your clients are and builds trust.
New Technique for Marketing your Veterinary Practice
Facebook is growing rapidly and attracting more and more users every day. Maintaining a book page for your veterinary hospital is just one of the many ways you can use the internet to market your practice and strengthen your relationship with clients.