After yesterday’s post, I trust you’ve had some time to sign up with Facebook and take a look around. Hopefully, you’ve also updated your profile and started building your friends list. If you haven’t, I encourage you to do so as soon as possible so that you can start laying the foundation for a more significant online presence.
With that said, remember one thing — your blog should be the central hub of all of your online communications.
Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter are simply an extension to your blog. And, as you’ll soon find out, can be an incredible traffic generator to your blog due to their built-in dominance and high ranking within Google’s search engine results page, more commonly known as a SERP.
Furthermore, if you presently do not have a blog, now is the time to start one! I encourage you to read through the April archives of this blog for a good primer.
Also, for more resources, look to Grant Griffiths series on Building a Successful Blog and Darren Rowse’s series titled 31 Days to Building a Better Blog.
If you’re still stuck, contact me over at Developing Others and I’ll work with you to get things rolling.
Before we dive deeper into this series, I’m going to give you one more day to sign up and familiarize yourself on how to get around within Facebook. If you have any specific questions, feel free to leave them in the {comments} section below, direct message me through Twitter or fill out the contact section of this blog.
In conjuction with yesterday’s post, today there are two main points that need to be addressed:
1. Make sure you post the web address to your practice’s web site or blog within the profile section.
Again, you don’t want to EXCESSIVELY promote your business or practice; however, there’s nothing wrong with providing the URL to your business within this section.
Also, if you’ve created other social media accounts like Twitter or LinkedIn, you can list them right after your blog’s address. This way your friends can find you easier where ever you reside online.
2. Build unique friend lists and categorize them based off of the relationship you have with them.
This is HUGE!
When you receive a friend request, you can choose to place that friend into a specific list. So, for example, you can add a patient to your “Patient” list or a prospect to a “Prospect” list.
What makes this so powerful is that you can send a direct message within Facebook specifically to that list. So, if your practice is hosting a Patient Appreciation Days celebration, you can instantly notify your patients who use Facebook by sending a broadcast direct message to your “Patient” list.
Straight from Facebook’s Help Center:
Friend Lists provide organized groupings of your friends on Facebook. For example, you can create a Friend List for your friends that meet for weekly book club meetings. You can filter your view of each list’s stream of activity separately on the home page. Friend Lists are easy to manage and allow you to send messages and invites to these groups of people all at once. To create and customize your own Friend Lists , please follow these steps: 1. Click the “Create” link that appears beneath the filters on the left side of your home page or your Friends page. Or, click the “Create New List” button from the “All Friends” tab of the Friends page. 2. Type the title of your list and hit enter. 3. Add friends to the list by typing their names into the “Add to List” field or selecting them from the list. 4. Select “Save List” to store your changes. In addition, if you have more than two Friend Lists , you can easily add or remove friends from lists by using the drop-down menu that appears next to their names on the “All Friends” tab of the Friends page.
For a more in-depth discussion on Friend lists, visit Facebook’s Lists Help Center.
In closing, if you haven’t done so already, make sure you request me to be your friend. I’d love to connect with you and see how Facebook aids in growing your practice.
Tomorrow, we’ll discuss how to promote your practice outside of your personal profile and build interactive communities for both prospects and patients. You don’t want to miss it so make sure you either check back tomorrow or subscribe via RSS.
Until then, have an incredible day!
Enhance Your Blog with Thesis
What do you look for in a WordPress theme? Loads of options? Unsurpassed support? A beautiful base style?
Look no further than Thesis, the premier WordPress theme framework from the one and only Chris Pearson.
Rock solid semantics. Bulletproof search engine optimization. Crystal clear typography. And more options than you can shake a stick at. What are you waiting for? Get Thesis today!
