YouTube – The Forgotten Social Network

One of the many services that Plastic Surgery Studios offers is video production and marketing. A big part of that marketing is based on the inclusion of videos to YouTube. Unfortunately, many doctors forget about and ignore the network once the video is posted. What so many people fail to realize is that YouTube is more than just a place to post your videos; it is a social network in and of itself.

Don’t Ignore Potential Patients

Oftentimes, I see comments in the form of questions about the procedure being discussed in the doctor videos.  Sadly, nine times out of 10 these comments go ignored.  While comments like this aren’t a direct lead for your practice, they do open the opportunity to interact with a potential patient and build a relationship of trust.  Even if the person doesn’t follow up for a consultation immediately, you might be the doctor they think of when the time comes for a consultation, simply because you took a few extra minutes to answer their question.

Network with Fellow Surgeons

No business wants to pass off any sort of value to its competition.  However, when you look at the plastic surgery industry there are a lot of relationships that are developed between specialists who focus primarily on specific procedures.  Oftentimes, a surgeon who focuses on breast procedures will refer his patients to a colleague who focuses on facial plastic surgery procedures.  These relationships are a great way to build up a network of people on YouTube with related content, providing you the opportunity to spread your videos even further.  By connecting with other doctors there is a chance they could “favorite” your video, “share” your video, or even post responses to your video on YouTube, which allows your videos even more exposure.

Let People Know Who You Are

Like all Google properties, YouTube offers up a number of profile options, including pictures, an “about” section, and even a link to your website.  By putting a face to the video you have the potential to gain additional trust from your viewers, and by providing more information you may attract further interest in you or your website.  A lot of YouTube users will throw up a video, fill in the minimum information and call it a day.  Most of these users, in turn, are written of. But users who take the time to personalize their accounts can often make a larger impact, even if they aren’t that active.

When it comes to plastic surgery marketing, the most important thing you can do is be available to your potential patients and become as visible as possible. By taking the time to engage potential patients online, you develop a reputation of expertise and build relationships of trust that can ultimate turn curiosity into a consultation.

Posted in Social Media, Video Marketing | No Comments »

Internet Marketing – It’s Not All About Google

When putting together a plastic surgery SEO strategy, it’s easy to want to focus on Google alone.  Google does, after all, hold the largest search market share at nearly 70 percent.  However, this doesn’t mean that Bing and Yahoo are dead in the water or that you should ignore your rankings and traffic that come from these search engines.

Over the years, Google has dominated the search share, causing clients and Internet marketers to quickly forget about Bing, Yahoo, and even Ask. Yet, what they fail to realize is that rankings and traffic from other search engines are just as valuable, if not more valuable than Google. In a recent report from Experian Hitwise it was discovered that from February to March of this year Google’s search share dropped one percent, whereas Yahoo was up three percent and Ask saw a whopping 21 percent increase.  While increases and decreases like this are typical, it goes to show that people are still actively using some of these so-called forgotten search engines.

Another thing to consider is that while Google still dominates the search share, it’s year-over-year percentage of health-related searches is down six percent, whereas Bing is up 125 percent.  Additional factors such as user demographics are also important to look at.  While most searchers are using Google, the predominant age of its user base is aged 22 to 25 years old, Yahoo is predominantly the 50+ community, and Bing’s highest market penetration comes from the 55+ community.

When you compare these numbers to the 2009 ASAPS statistics on cosmetic surgery, you’ll see the importance of looking at your Yahoo and Bing numbers in addition to Google.  The 50+ community totaled 34 percent of the total procedures performed in 2009, where as the 19 to 34 age range only consisted of 20 percent of the total procedures performed.

It is extremely important to look at your overall search engine presence, rather than focus on Google alone.  Rankings in search engines like Bing and Yahoo can carry your online efforts while you make the often lengthy journey to the top of Google, and oftentimes these searches are much more targeted to your user base and the needs of your patients.

Posted in Internet Marketing, SEO | No Comments »