Social Media | Beyond Indigo Pets Veterinary Marketing & Websites

Archive for the ‘Social media’ Category

Introduction to Facebook for Small Business

Wednesday, February 6th, 2013

Facebook – When people think social media the first thing that tends to pop to mind is Facebook. It is the most climbed “social media mountain” for marketing journeys. The highlights of Facebook to know are as followed:

Founded: In 2004

Numbers: As of October 4, 2012 there are over 1 billion active users. In the USA 137.6 million users.

Business Only Platforms: Yes, there is a separate business only pages vs. Personal.

Time Per User/Per Month: 7:45 hours a month in the US

Business Needs to Devote: Minimum of 5 hours a week on their Facebook Page.

Mobile: 54% of month users access Facebook through a mobile device.

When starting your marketing efforts in social media Facebook is one of the first ones to approach. Why? Because the sheer number of people using it and the amount of time they spend on Facebook. In eight years Facebook has become integrated into people’s lives. It is where they are building and maintaining relationships. (more…)

Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets Marketing, Digital Marketing, Facebook, social media, Veterinary Websites
Posted in Content, Facebook, Google, Search, Social media, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off

Your Marketing Journey – Part 2: Where to Stop

Wednesday, January 23rd, 2013

Many times at Beyond Indigo we talk to people who are moderately to extremely overwhelmed with their marketing Journey. For most veterinary hospitals they do not even know where to start, what to do or how much time it is going to take. I don’t blame people for being overwhelmed. There is significant amount work, time and knowledge involved in a marketing program. If you are on the overwhelmed train, here are some points to consider that I have gleaned from 1000‘s of veterinarians about why planning for this Marketing Journey can be so overwhelming. Maybe you can relate to some of them.

Overwhelmed Issue Number One: Since most veterinarians and their staff have had to conduct very little marketing until recently, there is a steep learning curve to get up to speed. Most veterinarians still tend to be between 1996 and 1999 in their online marketing initiatives. Hospitals still try to build websites themselves, have servers located in their physical buildings and are struggling weather to use Yellow Pages or not. The problem is how to quickly learn 15 to 17 years of knowledge in a short period of time? Where to start?

Overwhelmed Issue Number Two: Who in the heck does the marketing program? Many hospitals are trying to tackle it completely by themselves and noticing it causes a juggling problem. Multiple people are tapped to do different aspects of the marketing program but nobody really is in charge. Then the message from the hospital is not consistent either in tone or timing. Or the marketing program goes really great until a new problem or focus comes into play and it is forgotten for awhile. This causes gaps with building and growing relationships which is the primary function of online marketing today. The problem is how to have the staffing resources and time to keep the marketing program ongoing. (more…)

Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets, Beyond Indigo Veterinary Marketing, Content, Digital Marketing, Facebook, Positive Based Marketing, social media, social media marketing, Veterinary Websites
Posted in Content, Facebook, Google, Marketing, Social media, Social Media Marketing, Veterinary Marketing, Websites | Comments Off

Your Marketing Journey – Part 1: What to Pack

Wednesday, January 16th, 2013

When a person goes on a Journey we think of a trip that has multiple stops and extends over a period of time. Other times we use the word “Journey” to mean a process that is an every changing that allows us to grow and develop. It is time to think of your marketing program as a “Journey”. A process that involves more than one “stop” and is every changing and every growing. Why? Because frame of mind is everything to embracing a process. If you are still in the mentality that you check the box once a year on your marketing and then go back to medicine, then your business has a higher chance of not maintaining and gaining new relationships. Lack of maintaining relationships could mean less customers and that would be suboptimal.

For your marketing Journey there are a few essentials to sneak into your travel back pack that will be your roadmap and guide along the way. Every aspect of your marketing should fall into these guidelines.

(more…)

Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets Marketing, Beyond Indigo Veterinary Marketing, Facebook, Search Engine Optimization, social media marketing, traffic, Veterinary Marketing
Posted in Content, Digital Marketing, Facebook, Google, Marketing, Social media, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off

Getting Started with Google+

Wednesday, June 20th, 2012

Google+ is a social media site, a search engine, and a news feed all rolled into one. In addition, content that is found in your Google+ pages and circle of friends is used to offer search results in the part of Google called Search Your World. Having content that is current is a must to keep your readers interested and secure a solid placement in the Search Your World feature. Here are a few tips to keep in mind when crafting content for Google+:

Update regularly. Posting one to two times per week on Google+ is sufficient to keep your page looking fresh and relevant, but don’t be afraid to post much more often than that if you’d like to devote a little more time to the site.
Create posts that are unique to Google+. If you already have Facebook and Twitter accounts, don’t just recycle the same content on Google+. While it’s okay to share some content, you should create posts that you haven’t shared elsewhere to give users an incentive to add you to their circles.
Share content. Similar to Twitter, Google+ is a great place for sharing links to useful blog posts and articles, whether they’re yours or someone else’s. When you’re sharing content from other people, be sure to add a short comment along with the link to make your posts more engaging.
Post links to online coupons and offers. Google+ doesn’t allow you to host promotions or coupons directly on their site, but you can link to special offers or promotions that are hosted elsewhere online, such as your blog or website. This is a great way to encourage people to spread the word about your business because they can share your posts with their friends.
Be engaging. Reshare content that your followers have shared on Google+, and request that people reshare your relevant posts as well. Don’t be afraid to ask your followers questions about what they’d like to see. Google+ is still a new network, so everyone is feeling their way around to determine what they want it to become.

Tags: Beyond Indigo Veterinary Marketing, Google, google + pages, google plus, google plus pages
Posted in Content, Digital Marketing, Google, Social media, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off

Facebook Timeline for Business Pages: What does it mean for your brand?

Tuesday, March 13th, 2012

Facebook is making a major change to brand pages with the introduction of Timeline for Pages. The new layout is available immediately to all businesses with Pages on Facebook, but there is no need to rush in just yet. You have some time to preview and make edits to your Timeline to make sure you get it looking just right before you publish. Then on March 30, all brand pages will automatically be published as Timelines.

On its surface, Timeline is a new, more image-centered look. But one of the best features is that it allows you to backfill your Timeline with earlier events, so you can easily tell the story of your business online. It’s like a virtual online scrapbook for your business.

Five changes to look for:

Your page will look very different. Your cover image will be front and center, like a billboard for your business. It’s a great place for promotions, or to tie in your website. If you don’t add one, you’ll just have a blank space, so take advantage of this new opportunity.
Profile pictures dimensions will change to be smaller and perfectly square. Make sure yours looks great.
You can “pin” a post to the top of the timeline which allows you to highlight a special event, a coupon or a contest.
Custom landing pages will disappear and everyone will be directed to your wall. This may change the way you market your page.
Your fans can contact you directly. Now people can contact you privately using messages rather than having to post on your wall. Notifications about new messages will appear right in your admin panel.

Join Beyond Indigo’s Social Media Specialist, Melanie Burger, for our customer-only webinar on Friday, March 16, 2012. You will learn the ins and outs of the new Timeline layout including all of these new features and many more. The transition to Timeline doesn’t have to be painful. Let us help you through it.

No time for your Timeline?

Let us do the work for you! For only $299, we’ll make sure your Timeline looks great. We’ll adjust your logos, create a great cover photo and make sure all of your tabs and custom features are in place for the switch. Already a Beyond Indigo customer? Bonus! We’ll do yours for $199. Contact Melissa Neff at melissa@beyondindigo.com or 877-244-9322 x 100 for more information.

Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets Social Media Marketing, Facebook Business Pages, Facebook Marketing, Facebook Timeline for Pages, Timeline for Pages
Posted in Digital Marketing, Facebook, Marketing, Social media, Social Media Marketing, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off

Social Media Pitfalls to Avoid

Thursday, March 1st, 2012

Many people don’t start a social media campaign for their business because they don’t even know what NOT to do. We are here to help. As long as some of these basic rules are followed, you should be “safe” to venture out into the world of social media.

Don’t ignore your fans. If you’ve set up a Facebook page, Twitter, or Google+, be sure to check it daily so that you can respond to any fan questions or comments that may have been left there.
Keep the negative. If someone says something negative, don’t delete it. Doing so will sometimes prompt the person to come back onto your page and complain about it, which never looks good to other fans. It is possible to “hide” posts rather than deleting them, which is preferable but should still be used sparingly.
Don’t panic. Remember that the majority of the people who are on your page are fans because they like you. Most of them have already formed their own opinions of you based on their own personal interactions, and a stranger’s negative comment on your Facebook page will not likely be enough to sway them.
Use negative interactions as an opportunity. Keep in mind that if someone has something negative to say about you, they will say it. By having a Facebook page, you’re providing them with a way to say it directly to you, in an area where you can listen and respond, rather than somewhere else where you may never even know about it.
Don’t feel like you need to be perfect. If you or a member of your staff messed up, apologize. People are human and they make mistakes. A sincere apology can diffuse a bad situation pretty quickly. If no one messed up but the customer is upset anyway, you can still apologize for the situation, but then offer your side of the story.
Keep content focused on the business. With this being an election year, it is important to keep the content of your social media focused on the topics that relate to veterinary medicine—and not politics and religion. Discussing content that is not related to your Facebook page can confuse people and turn them away from reading future posts.
Seek professional help. When creating your social media marketing, if an overwhelming feeling descends, it is time to throw up the white flag and call in professional help. Seek out a company to either create your platforms or manage them—or both. If you just need a little help, check into online classes to teach you or your team the basics of social media.

Having your business on a social media platform used to be a fun thing to do for your practice. Today, it is a must have. How your business is found in search engines and where people are searching and engaging are now intertwined with social media. Make a commitment to yourself to get started. Give us a call, we can help!

Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets, Digital Marketing, social media marketing with beyond indigo, social media pitfalls, tips for successful online marketing, what not to do in social media
Posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, Online Reputation Management, Social media, Social Media Marketing, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off

5 Reasons Why Facebook is NOT a Replacement for Your Website

Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012

We’ve heard several clients ask us in recent months, “Why do I even need a website anymore? Can’t I just use my Facebook page?” While this may seem like a logical thought on the surface, when you dig down into what this will mean for your business’s online presence you’ll realize that Facebook alone is not enough.

First, let’s take a look at why some people may think that a Facebook-only approach is the way to go:

Facebook does have more than 845 million active users as of this month. By putting your page within the realm of this monster of a network, it follows that you may be more likely to gain some traffic, which will then build on itself as people ‘like’ your page.
It’s also very true that Facebook is a great place to start building your identity if you need to have something up and running while you’re website is in the works. Having an identity on Facebook as well as Twitter, Google+, and any of the other Social Media sites that are out there today does increase the SEO of your website and will help people to find your business. Though ‘OF YOUR WEBSITE’ is really the operative phrase there. If you don’t have a website, then your business could be on the cutting edge of all of the Social Media sites and still not see any SEO benefit.
Facebook pages are also much easier to maintain than a website. Clicking the ‘edit page’ button on your page will allow you to change anything and everything that you could want to change. Everything is presented as WYSIWYG, or ‘What You See Is What You Get,’ so there is no confusing code to contend with. It’s simple.

So Facebook is good, right? Absolutely! Facebook is a wonderful tool to have in your online marketing toolbox. However, making it your only tool is a really bad idea. Why? Keep reading…

We’ve already mentioned SEO, but I want to expand on what was said a little bit. It is true that your Facebook page may turn up in some search results, but only if a user is searching for your business name. If you are the type of business that relies on keyword searches to find new clients, and as a veterinarian you are, then you will likely not be found without a website. Why? Because on your website you control what search terms and keywords will help people to find your page. Your website content can (and should!) be written with search engines in mind. Your Facebook page, on the other hand, can not be as easily optimized. Your search results are at the mercy of Facebook.
Functionality is another problem with Facebook. Sure, Facebook will allow you to add tabs, photos, and video to your page. You can post content to your wall, or use the Notes app to create a mini-blog within Facebook. The drawback is that Facebook decides how all of these things will be displayed once you’ve posted them. You have very little control over the look and feel of your page. Yes, you can design 3rd party tabs to install onto your page to help reflect your brand, but those tabs all need to meet Facebook’s requirements. And if, as it has recently with FBML Tabs, Facebook decides to no longer support a format that you’ve installed on your page, you will lose all of work that you put into it.
Now let’s talk about analytics. You can add Google Analytics to your website and get a wealth of information about the visitors to your site. How many visits have you gotten? What page has the most views? What links get clicked the most? Which pages tend to lead people into your online store to make purchases? Age, gender, location, what browser they’re using, what search term they used to find you, how long they stayed on each page… The list goes on and on. Facebook has a similar offering with its Insights tool, which has generally improved in recent months, however it is still nowhere near as robust as the options that you have to track site traffic and conversion rates on your own website.
On to paid advertising. Your website provides your customers and potential customers a place to learn all about you without being distracted by paid advertisements. And if you do choose to allow advertisements on your website, you also get to choose who will be allowed to place their name and logo on your site. That same choice is not available to you with Facebook. On your Facebook page your information will be sharing the screen with paid advertisements selected by Facebook. And because of the way Facebook ads can be targeted to people with certain interests in a certain geographic area, chances are good that your page may be sharing space with your competitors’ advertisements. This would never happen on your own website.
Last of all, remember that Facebook is still just Facebook. It is a Social Networking site that happens to be the largest in the world right now. But the same could have been said about Friendster and MySpace at one point in time. Oddly enough, we do not hear many clients asking whether or not it makes sense to replace their website with a MySpace profile. There are more and more social media sites being introduced all the time, and the chances of Facebook staying on top forever are pretty slim.

So should you steer clear of Facebook for your business? Absolutely not. Again, it’s a fantastic tool for your online marketing toolbox. It’s a great way to help find and engage with your customers and potential customers online. The point of Facebook, as is true with all social media sites, is to help share content that you’ve created and are hosting on your own website.

On your website you have total control of your content. You can decide when, where, and how it is being displayed. You can optimize it for whatever search terms you decide are best. And when you have great content, you can share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, and on any other site where you have a presence to ensure that it reaches the maximum number of people possible, and steers them back to your website. Because your website is where the party is. Social Media just provides people with an invitation to come over and join in.

If you’d like help with your online presence, contact us for a free consultation.

Tags: facebook vs. website, Online Marketing with Beyond Indigo, social media marketing, Veterinary Marketing, veterinary websites with beyond indigo pets
Posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, Social media, Social Media Marketing, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off

Building Your Online Marketing Empire

Tuesday, February 21st, 2012

Ten years ago, people perceived brands differently. We relied on businesses to supply us with information, and we accepted what they told us. Now, we have choices and can perform our own research before making purchasing decisions. This means that online research dictates how we perceive different companies.

We now use multiple “touchpoints” when making purchases. A touchpoint is a place where people go to research information. Many pet owners start with Google, online reviews, corporate websites, Facebook, Twitter, and blogs. When strung together, these touchpoints form a “marketing circle.” At Beyond Indigo, we strive to keep pet owners in your marketing circle. All aspects of your marketing circle should be consistent. This means that one person should be in charge of your brand and your content. Many people can implement your message, but one person should oversee it.

Google now focuses on local search for businesses, which offers a complete snapshot with online reviews, Google+, Facebook posts, Twitter feeds, and blog comments. Facebook and Twitter aid brand recognition and consumer engagement. A new study by aytm.com found that people prefer brand updates via Facebook and Twitter instead of email. It also found that 58% of Facebook users have liked a brand, 42% of people have mentioned a brand in a status update, and 41% have shared a brand link, story, or video.

Remember that your brand’s reputation is crucial to gaining and keeping clients. It’s an investment that takes time, effort, and money — but it pays off handsomely. The first step is taking an inventory of your online brand reputation. We’re here to help. For a free personalized consultation, visit beyondindigopets.com/contact.

Upcoming Free Webinars

Facebook Alone Is Not Enough

February 22, 2012: 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. CST

Even if you have an active Facebook page that engages regularly with fans, you still need an interactive website. This free 30-minute webinar will discuss what works for your business on Facebook, what should be on your website, and how to cope with changes in the social media landscape.

Online Reviews

February 29, 2012: 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. CST

Now more than ever, people rely on online reviews to make all sorts of purchasing decisions. Join this session to learn everything you need to know about creating, generating, and maximizing online reviews. We’ll also cover how and where people review your practice, how the “review cycle” works, and how to improve your overall review rating.

Visit www.beyondindigopets.com/webinars to sign up.

Connect With Us

Like us on Facebook at facebook.com/beyondindigopets, follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/beyondpets, and visit our blog at beyondindigopets.com/blog to stay current with veterinary marketing trends.

Tags: Beyond Indigo Pets, Building your online brand with Beyond Indigo, digital marketing with beyond indigo, Online Marketing
Posted in Digital Marketing, Marketing, Social media, Social Media Marketing, Veterinary Marketing | Comments Off

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