Twitter and StumbleUpon Drive Traffic to your Veterinary Hospital Website

Social Networking for Veterinarians, Veterinary Hospitals and Veterinary Practice Owners – Part 2

Using social media sites such as Facebook drives visitors to your veterinary hospital website. In Part 2 of our series on Social Media marketing, we look at Twitter and the less well-known site, Stumbleupon, two sites that are surprisingly effective at bringing prospective clients to your veterinary hospital website, and the simple ways you can leverage their power to increase your veterinary hospital’s bottom line.

Use Stumbleupon to Attract Readers to your Veterinary Website’s Blog

According to the web analytics firm, StatCounter, Facebook is the primary source of traffic from social media sites to global websites with almost half (48%). That’s not surprising. As we have mentioned in Part 1 of this series, Facebook has over 500 million users. What might surprise you is number 2: The website aggregator site, StumbleUpon, accounts for 25% of the hits worldwide, and is number 1 in the U.S. according to their website. Coming in third is Twitter with 10%.

Stumbleupon works by developing an index of sites or blogs that people “stumble upon.” A dynamic button on your veterinary website blog allows readers to “like” the content, and it is automatically added to the index. From there, it is read by people who are interested in your topic. As people click links back to your site, your Google rankings increase and prospective veterinary clients are better able to find your veterinary hospital.

Tweet about Your Veterinary Hospital Website, Blog and Hospital Services

Using Twitter, or “tweeting to your peeps,” takes very little time and increases the number of visitors to your hospital’s website. There are several advantages to having a Twitter account. Tweeting is an excellent way to announce the publication of a new blog to your followers. If you are adding or updating hospital services, such as endoscopy, ultrasound, boarding or grooming, tweeting is a great method for sending out early announcements. Urgent notices, such as Rabies alerts or Lyme disease warnings, can also be sent to your followers through Twitter. Getting people to follow your tweets is pretty easy if you already have a website or blog. The “Follow Us On Twitter” icon button can be downloaded to your computer, saved, and added to your veterinary hospital’s website or your hospital’s blog. If a visitor to your website clicks on the Twitter icon, he or she is directed to Twitter and can immediately read your most recent tweets. Your actual Twitter followers receive your messages regularly, whenever they log into their individual Twitter accounts.

In order to establish a Twitter following, you need to get followers. The point of Twitter (as is for Facebook) is to create and establish a community. Members of your community can include the local and national SPCA chapters, the Chamber of Commerce, local veterinary specialty hospitals, veterinary emergency centers, universities, technical schools, veterinary schools, veterinary diagnostic laboratories, veterinary manufacturing companies, pharmaceutical reps, other local veterinarians, breeders, kennels, pet stores, etc. When you think about all the pet-related contacts that are either directly or indirectly involved in your life, the list is almost endless. Along with all your immediate contacts, the Twitter site has an easy-to-use search feature to help you find people to follow.

VetNetwork Sets up Social Media Accounts for Veterinary Hospitals

If you’ve never tweeted, the social media marketing experts at VetNetwork can help. We can set up your Twitter account and soon have you announcing your activities to prospective clients in 140-character bites (maximum number of characters that you are allowed to tweet). VetNetwork can also set up your custom veterinary blog and incorporate it into your existing website. Having your blog incorporated into your veterinary hospital’s website not only sends your blog message to a larger audience, but it also increases the rankings of your veterinary hospital’s website.

Setting up your veterinary hospital Facebook account is another social networking service that the experts at VetNetwork provide. Facebook is growing rapidly and attracting more and more users every day. Maintaining a Facebook page for your veterinary hospital is another way you can use the internet to market your practice and strengthen your relationship with your community and your clients.

We are the social media marketing experts for veterinarians and veterinary hospitals. Call VetNetwork today and get tweeting.

Written and Copyright ©
Mark Feltz, DVM and Kay Harrison
VetNetwork, LLC 2010
www.vetnetwork.com