Get moving with social media and blogging
Use your team or outsource to maintain momentum
Web savvy dentists are beginning to understand the importance of blogging and social media as key components of an effective on-line marketing strategy. The days of improving Google ranking just by building website links in bulk are over and new, complementary techniques are needed to help build a broad on-line footprint and propel a site forward in the search rankings.
Two of the main techniques are blogging, to add new relevant content to a site and social media, to broadcast your content, seek engagement and build the “social signals” that Google is building into its ranking algorithm. Whilst link acquisition is still extremely important, website owners who neglect “social” and blogging should expect their Google positions to decay over time.
However, many dentists, even the ones who understand the importance of these techniques, don’t have sufficient time to manage the process. In fact I discussed with a guy last week who advised that he “didn’t have the time, inclination or motivation” to get involved with social and blogging! This is understandable but given the importance, what options are available to get the process running and then maintain the momentum?
Step 1 – build the infrastructure
Setting up for blogging and social media is quite straightforward and very cost-effective. Adding a customised WordPress blog to your website and setting up three of the main social channels, Twitter, Facebook and Google+, can all be done for less than £500.
Step 2 – get the process up and running
It’s important to get your blog populated with good quality articles quite quickly. Google favours websites that generate quality content for their users and will reward this with improved rankings. We recommend adding ten articles within the first month to establish a degree of “authority” for the blog and then add to this at a minimum of one article per week to maintain the momentum. Each article should be broadcast to social media to encourage link generation, direct traffic and hopefully, spawn social interaction.
Step 3 – the importance of maintaining momentum
We’ve all seen blogs and social media channels where the process has been started with gusto but then within weeks, slowed to a trickle and then nothing at all. As Google becomes increasingly more sophisticated, its almost certain that they can pick up on websites and blogs that generate good content consistently and equally websites, blogs and social channels which show reduced effort or worse, complete stagnation. Quite simply, those who work hard at it win, those who don’t slip away.
Getting your team involved
A number of our clients have been successful with their social media and blogging efforts by integrating it into their team, at least to some degree. For this scenario, typically we will build the blog and social channels, set the ball rolling with some example posts, train the team and then hand over. We then provide remote mentoring and assistance to the practice to help keep the process running properly. We are also starting to see more and more practices including web marketing management as part of the job descriptions for new administrative recruits – the message is certainly sinking in for these guys.
And if you simply don’t have the resource to get involved….
Like the dentist I mentioned earlier, if you simply don’t have the time or inclination to get involved, then we offer a part or fully managed option whereby we blog and look after your social media on your behalf. This also delivers excellent results.
Need more advice?
If you’d like a detailed, no-obligation discussion about blogging and social media and the benefits for your practice, please call us on 01332 672548 and we’ll be pleased to help.