Social media provides opportunities to market audiological practices online. The author recommends using Facebook to build relationships, Twitter to share links and engage with followers, blogs to provide advice and expertise, and Google+ for search engine optimization. An effective strategy curates quality content, engages audiences across multiple channels, and positions the practice as an online community resource to attract new patients. Addressing customer complaints respectfully is important to managing social media marketing.

1. Social Media & Marketing For
Audiological Practices
Geoff Cooling,
Author, eoff Cooling has worked in hearing health care for a number of years and in his
G
Just Audiology Stuff Blog
spare time is author of the Just Audiology Stuff blog, which covers commercial
Correspondence
E: geoffreycooling@ strategies for health care and specifically hearing health care. Geoff has experi-
gmail.com
Web:
ence of working as a hearing health professional for a large national retailer, and now is
www.justaudiologystuff. employed by a large hearing aid manufacturer. An advocate of social media, Geoff offers his
com
advice for using Web 2.0 for information provision, community engagement and marketing
Declaration of
Competing Interests
purposes.
None declared.
Online marketing strategy - how & I had an hilarious conversation a while ago
why with my seventeen year old son pertaining to
In this article I would like to lay out my argu- the phonebook. After trying to explain the
ments for engaging in non-traditional online concept I settled on telling him it was Google
marketing channels for audiologocal practices. before the dinosaurs died! There is nothing like
I’ll discuss the multiple channels available, the children to make you feel old.
content type on each channel and the As we know, some of our demographic still
measurement of results. I realise that many of use the Yellow Pages but they are few. More
our profession believe that our demographics and more of our patients are turning to the
are not online. Hence any online marketing is a web and the ubiquitous Google to supply
waste of time and money. I believe they are their required information. Not only are they
wrong, in fact I know they are. So let us explore using search engines but many of them are
social media and marketing together in rela- using social networks to communicate and
tion to marketing for audiological practices. becoming involved in communities with
shared interests. This fact is borne out by
The why? research results from around the world.
We have moved into the age of disruptive I present in Table 1, thanks to Pew Research
technology, the truth of that statement is easy Centre, the survey stats of internet users in the
to see around us every day. Our attitudes and USA. I would like to point your attention to
habits as a society are changing, particularly the age demographics results. Ninety-one
the channels of communication that we use. percent of individuals between 30 and 49 are
More and more, people are communicating active on the Internet. These are the children
through social web channels, and we build of your prospective patients.
online communities that increase our social Seventy-seven percent of adults in the USA
connections beyond family and friends, to aged between 50 and 64 are online, and these
friends of friends and even strangers. Perhaps people should be viewed as your long-term
Seventy-seven the explosion of this type of engagement is prospects. In fact, some of them are your
rooted in a combination of our need to relate prospective patients right now. Don’t forget,
percent of adults to our friends and family members who are our customers are getting younger due to
removed from us by distance and also as a better education and increased lifestyle expec-
aged between reaction to the lost sense of community that tations, so people are searching out treatment
appears to prevail in our society. for their hearing loss earlier and earlier at a
50 and 64 are The World Wide Web, whether it is used for much younger age.
searching or communication has become the Fifty-three percent of USA 65 year olds and
online, these go-to tool. Whilst initially this phenomenon
was driven by tech people and the young, it
older use the Internet. These are your potential
patients and indeed some of your existing
has become accepted throughout society in ones. Who reading this would not like to be
people should be every demographic. As I grew up, if I wanted to able to reach 53% of their possible target
search for a business that provided a particular market?
viewed as your service I picked up the ‘Yellow Pages’. This is an
action that admittedly some of our patients Your motivation
long-term do seem to do. However, I cannot remember Marketing to our demographic is not just
the last time that I looked at the Yellow Pages about newspapers, magazines and direct mail
prospects and my children do not even know what it is! anymore. Nor though is it just about online
62 Article first published in ENT & audiology news | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 | VOL 21 NO 5 ©Pinpoint Scotland Ltd

2. feature
marketing channels. I have heard it said that Table 1. Demographics of Internet Users in the USA.
traditional marketing is dead and has been
replaced by online marketing but I don’t think % who use the Internet
that is truly the case. However, I think that we All adults 82
as an industry have to become smarter and
more adept at targeted marketing across all Men 83
available channels. Women 82
I think that it should be a combined
Race / ethnicity
approach using the best media for your busi-
ness both traditional and new. I also think that White, Non-Hispanic 84
both of these channels should and can be Black, Non-Hispanic 77
mixed and combined across individual
campaigns. I think that this synergy can Hispanic (English- and Spanish-speaking) 75
increase your exposure and engagement and Age
supply a constant flow of business to your
18-29 97
practice. In effect, it can reduce the cost per
lead over time allowing you to better cope 30-49 91
with the pressure on margins that are to the 50-64 77
forefront of everybody’s mind at present. So
65+ 53
where does social media fit in our industry’s
marketing mix? Household income
Less than $30,000 / year 71
The channels
First let us look at the most prominent online $30,000-$49,999 87
channels used right now. There are four main $50,000-$74,999 93
channels that are being used by other indus-
$75,000+ 97
tries and indeed some members of our own
industry. They are Facebook, Twitter, Google+ Educational attainment
and blogs. So, how are these channels used to No high school diploma 58
a commercial advantage? Each channel is
different, the goals and usage profile tend to High school grad 75
be quite different across the channels. Some College 90
However, before we do, I caution you, the
College + 95
single most important online channel for an
audiological practice is their website. The use Above is the percentage of each group of American adults who use the Internet, according to our April
of social media channels is especially impor- 2012 survey. For instance, 82% of women use the Internet.
tant to support and boost your website
Sources: The Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project’s Spring Tracking Survey conducted
search ranking through keywords. March 15th – April 3rd, 2012. N = 2,254 adults age 18 and older, including 903 interviews conducted by
cell phone. Interviews were conducted on both English and Spanish.
Facebook
The management of a Facebook page tends manufacture. It’s where you supply content advisory platform and less as a promotional
to be a mix of content curation, finding and that shows your professionalism, knowledge channel. In order to do this, you can mix and
posting links to information that you judge of your subject and dedication to your match content from third party pages such as
may be of interest to your target audience, patient. A blog is where you provide good hearing aid manufacturers and hard of hearing
and content manufacture — the manufac- quality articles on your subject, give clear associations around the world. In fact this
ture of good content that you deem will be of advice and discuss the latest developments. approach actually will leverage those pages to
interest to your audience and will show your your advantage by allowing your page to be
professionalism and expertise. Facebook is Google+ visible in the stream of the third party pages.
also a place where you may build relationships Somewhat of a cross between Twitter and This allows you the opportunity to connect
with people. Facebook users actually tend to Facebook. An important channel because of to some of their followers. Those followers
spend quite a bit of time on the site. the Search Engine Optimisaton (SEO) obviously have an interest in your products
advantages of having a presence and sharing and services or else they would not be
Twitter on the site. It is also a mix of curation of followers of these third party pages.
Twitter is much more about content curation content and posting links to your own The content does not have to be strictly
and some sharing of links to your own website. hearing related, as our patients’ hearing loss
content. The following that you build up on does not define them. Our patients are
Twitter will expect more engagement and will Channel Strategies people with lots of life interests and hobbies.
probably engage with you more. Promoting items such as gardening tips as
Facebook part of your strategy may lead to engagement
A blog On Facebook, the first thing to do is to set with people you may have not reached
A blog is where you and your business can up a business page, the content strategy for before. The posting of local information on
shine. A blog is all about content this page is to position it more towards an your page is also ideal, as is ‘liking’ local club
Article first published in ENT & audiology news | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 | VOL 21 NO 5 ©Pinpoint Scotland Ltd 63

3. feature
pages and re-posting their content. These are
an excellent source of both localised content
and possible new followers.
Facebook adverts as a medium are highly
targeted and not nearly as costly as you may
think. The benefits over traditional marketing
are that it is live, vibrant and you have complete
control over who it is delivered to. You can
target the adverts by age, interests and even
geographic areas. So in other words, I could
place an advert and target it to every Facebook
member over 55 in Dublin. How cool is that?
Twitter
Twitter is a different type of platform, which
is used to deliver links to content, be it yours
or others that you think is fascinating. You
post those links in the hope that your
followers will find them fascinating and will
engage with you in a deeper way. It’s like Again ensure that you answer as directly, G When a disgruntled customer posts a
when you were five and found a ten inch honestly and as openly as possible. Your blog negative comment, how are you going to
worm in the garden. You just had to show it is not a news section, although it is okay to deal with it?
to everybody. Twitter is a bit like that. repost content that you find really interesting G If somebody complains on one of your
There is a thriving audiological commu- once you reference it and discuss why you find channels, how will you deal with that?
nity building up on Twitter. I am consistently it interesting. I didn’t say it was going to be easy! Just
on the site and a lot of my connections offer looking at the last few questions it becomes
really valuable information. A lot of the Google+ obvious that social media channels are some-
content I use and some of my ideas for blog Google+ is an interesting channel. and there thing that you need to outline a strategy for
posts have come from Twitter. So in this way are millions of accounts, but hardly anyone and not one that fits on the back of a postage
your use of Twitter actually feeds into your uses them. However, this is not a reason to stamp. Having said that, it is worth it, it is fun,
combined online strategy. ignore this channel. As we know, Google is it is quite exhilarating, it helps you to engage
Twitter is really important for learning ubiquitous across the web. So purely for SEO with your customers and potential
from others, passing on useful information reasons having an active presence is probably customers for free! Running the social media
and listening in. The last one is probably the a good idea. Again this site can be used to channels for my company has been an inter-
most important, Twitter can be effectively post links to interesting content and more esting experience.
used to listen in to conversations pertaining importantly links to your own content. The experiment so far has been a success;
to products you supply and your brand in a Those are probably the most used chan- the very fact that I am writing this article is
local and targeted way through its search nels out there, however there are many more. testament to that. I have engaged with
facility. Even though Twitter is limited to 140 A recent addition is Pinterest, it is becoming people worldwide, I have introduced new
character posts and messages, I can truly say quite popular. It is a visual site, a site where customers to our brand. Several people
I find it the most engaging of platforms. you post visual content as opposed to around the world now are customers of my
Your Twitter strategy should be to tweet worthy prose. company because of their engagement with
links of interesting content with your own Before you rush into social media, sit down us on the web. I have faced most of the ques-
observations intermingled with links to your and outline your strategy for the elements of tions I mentioned earlier, and in fairness I had
Facebook page and blog content. You your online media and the content that you not thought of them before they occurred.
should engage with your followers, thanking will provide. You should research and think So when they did happen I had to think very
them for their follow and any re-tweets of carefully about the following questions: quickly and without prior planning. Not
your posts they undertake. This engagement G What are your key areas of expertise? Are something I would advise for you, reader.
will build into a community of sorts over a they different in any way from others? My comments, answers, advice and offers
period of time. G What can you tell your customers that of help offers were just right to deal with the
others can’t? What is your unique selling situations that came up. I would not recom-
Blogging point? mend that course of action to you though;
As I said earlier, a blog is where you get to G Can you better inform customers about think very carefully about every angle before
shine, where you get to show everybody hearing loss? If so, how? you set off on your journey.
how professional and caring you are. In order G Where will you draw information from for The exercise is not only worth it, it has
to do this you need to give direct, honest your content? Other users, traditional become an imperative. For SEO reasons you
and undiluted advice. Write in your own media, manufacturers? need active social media channels. These
voice, being true to your own thoughts, if G How will you manage your social media channels will assist you to drive and leverage
you do not, your content will be stilted and channels? What technology will you use to your website in the organic search rankings.
your viewers will see through you. make it easier? Because that is the core strategy, social media
You should also invite credible comment G Who exactly in your organisation will involvement is about supporting your core
on the posts that you place on your blog. manage it? online marketing channel. Your website.
64 Article first published in ENT & audiology news | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 | VOL 21 NO 5 ©Pinpoint Scotland Ltd