We’ve recently seen the number of mobile phone users surpass the number of people who use computers. Even more shocking is that internet use on mobile phone is projected to eclipse desktop PC internet usage. This prediction comes courtesy of Mary Meeker, the managing director at Morgan Stanley, who was once dubbed “Queen of the Net” by Barron’s magazine in 1998. In her latest “State of the Internet” report, Meeker says that mobile Internet usage is ramping up substantially faster than desktop Internet usage did, a view she and her team arrived at by comparing the adoption rates of iPhone/iPod touch to that of AOL and Netscape in the early 1990s.

So what does this all mean? It means more than likely your website wasn’t built to proportionally fit onto a mobile phone screen, and if that’s the case, your practice may not be projecting the best image possible. This may turn potential patients away. Keep in mind that a savvy developer will account for varying screen sizes and browsers used when building a website, but making a website mobile-friendly is another story. A mobile-friendly site will not make the visitor have to zoom in or scroll left to right. Appropriate links should be displayed in an easy-to-read and easy-to-click fashion.

Do a quick test by looking up your website on a mobile phone. Is it hard to read after it loads? Do you have to zoom in a lot to see the content or the correct link to click on? Trouble even clicking on the appropriate link because of the spacing? If you answered “yes” to any of these questions you might want to consider creating an alternative, mobile-friendly version of your website.

Now before you get all worked up about already having paid a lot for your existing website, you should know that creating a mobile version of your website is much easier than creating a site from scratch. You simply have to create new pages within your site that will only show up when the site recognizes that the visitor is using a mobile phone.

To learn more about creating a mobile-friendly version of your website please contact Turbo today or call us directly at 877-673-7096 x2.

In order to gauge the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns you need to first look at each individual investment. What is the goal of that investment? Most of the time the goal will be to generate more consultations, but there are intermediary goals that should also be analyzed, such as search engine rankings, website traffic and Facebook Fans.

In order to track these intermediary goals you need to have basic analytics data. You can easily see if your traffic is increasing, your Google rankings are going up, your emails are getting clicks and Facebook Fans increasing. So what’s next? You need to monetize these improvements…

In order to monetize your investment you need to generate leads, or conversions. These are people interested in learning more about a particular service, and they’re asking a question, requesting a consultation or looking to schedule an appointment.

So how do you track these leads? The easiest way to do this is with conversion tracking with Google Analytics. In order to set this up you need to place forms on your website that can easily be filled out, and once submitted, patients are re-directed to a “thank you” page. This thank you page is tracked by Google Analytics and is counted as a conversion.

You can even dig deeper and see how this “lead” found you. Was it a Google search, a Bing search, a referral from another site or did they type in your website url directly into their browser?

You’ll also want to track phone calls to see how the patients who phoned in found the practice. Once you’ve collected all the conversions then you need to see how many of them led to consultations and how many of them led to new patients.

Analyzing your conversions can be challenging, and requires a little digging, but before you can do that you need to be able to easily track conversions. If you cannot do that then you won’t be able to effectively analyze your marketing investments.

To learn more about conversion tracking, or generating more leads and consultations for your practice, talk to Turbo Social Media today, or call us at 877-673-7096 x2.

In 1996, then-President Bill Clinton signed into law the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act in order to protect health insurance coverage for Americans by making it easier for them to take their health care records to another provider if they lose or change employers. HIPAA works by utilizing electronic health records (EHR), hence the word “portability.”

When most people think of HIPAA, however, they think of the privacy rules and regulations, in regards to their own patient data. Protected Health Information (PHI) safekeeping has become one of the top priorities for doctors.

So what does this mean for you and your marketing? Well, if you’re an established practice then you are probably doing email marketing and/or using some sort of Client Relationship Management (CRM) software. At Turbo Medical Marketing we take HIPAA laws very seriously, and we make sure our client’s are using software that keeps their patient’s information secure and private.

It is important to know that while we understand the privacy part of HIPAA, we also understand portability. As a doctor, you need to be aware of some third party vendors that can potentially “lock you out” of your own database if you decide to switch platforms. These vendors might do this under the guise of HIPAA laws, but truth be told, by not allowing you access to your patient information they’re the one’s violating HIPAA!

At Turbo Medical Marketing we only work with preferred vendors who understand the law and will never withhold YOUR patient information. We also understand the importance of privacy, so we only work with vendors that echo this sentiment.

If you’re looking to expand on your marketing efforts, but you’re concerned about patient privacy, then contact Turbo Medical Marketing today, or give us a call at 877-673-7096 x2.

What does “not set” mean in Google Analytics?

“Not set” appears in the traffic sources section of Google Analytics and it means that you are currently using Google Adwords, but Google is unable to find the matching click from the Adwords account that is currently linked to your Analytics account. In order to check this you’ll want to:

1) Login to Adwords

2) Select the Reporting tab and choose “Google Analytics”

3) Select “I already have a Google Anlytics account”

For thorough instructions on linking your Analytics and Adwords accounts click here.

What does “not provided” mean in Google Analytics?

“Not provided,” like “not set,” appears in the traffic sources section but it has an entirely different meaning. “Not provided” means that the person who visited your website was logged into Google at the time of their search or their visit. Therefore, because of Google’s new privacy policy, you cannot track any of the keywords that they used to find your website. This can be very frustrating for marketing agencies trying to track results from their efforts.

So is there any way around the “not provided” results in Analytics? No, as long as people are logged into Google you won’t be able to see which keywords brought them to your website. However, you can track their average time on the site, bounce rate, and conversion rate, to name a few.

If you have any questions about the jargon in Google Analytics, or using Google Analytics in general, then contact Turbo Social Media, or give us a call at 877-673-7096 x2.

On August 18, 2010 Facebook introduced the Places Page. The Places Page was aimed at small local business owners, since users have the ability to “check in” to that location using their smartphone. The Places Page is very similar to a Business Fan Page, but the key differences are: an interactive Bing map at the top and a different sidebar (with less links than a Business Fan Page).

So what do you do if you have a Business Fan Page and then, because someone checks into your location, you suddenly have a Places Page? You merge the two! Facebook provides detailed instructions on how to do this. It is important to note that you will only be able to merge the page with fewer likes into the page with more likes. The Business Fan Page or Places page with more likes will remain in place. Also note that Facebook claims that you will not be able to unmerge the new Page after one of the accounts is removed; however, there is a new Fan page formed that discusses this very topic, so you may in fact, be able to unmerge Places and Business Pages.

If you have a group page and a Fan Page, and you’d like to merge the two, then you’re out of luck. Your options are:

1) Invite all the members of your group to your new Business Fan Page. Once you’ve done that, and they’ve liked the new Page, you’ll want to delete the group to prevent more Fans from joining.

2) Create an iFrame within your new Business Fan page for your group. This is a much more complicated approach that’ll involve the help of a developer, but it might be a better option if you have a lot of members in your group.

Facebook is always being updated, and while problems frequently arise, they are often fixed pretty quickly. It is important to keep up-to-date with any updates to Facebook both on our blog and within Facebook’s help section.

If you have any questions about Facebook, or Facebook Business Pages, then contact Turbo Social Media today or give us a call at 877-673-7096 x2.

For those who haven’t noticed, Facebook has a section for “recommendations” to the right of your wall. Any of your Fans can leave you a testimonial there and any of your Fans can see the entire list of recommendations.

So how exactly this different than your Fans leaving you recommendations on your wall? It’s not, really, except for the fact that these recommendations are now all in one place, which is convenient for a prospect looking for feedback and reviews about a specific practice.

I would encourage all your Fans to leave your a message in the “Recommendations” section of your Fan page. As the number grows you’ll want to drive more of the potential patients to your Fan page to see these reviews.

Keep in mind that name “Recommendations” denotes that your asking people to leave a positive review. Therefore, while it is important to continue to grow these recommendations on Facebook, do not neglect Yelp, or other third party review sites, as most consumers will look to these sites for more unbiased reviews of your medical practice.

If you have any questions about Facebook recommendations or simply generating more reviews for your medical practice then leave Turbo a message, or give us a call at 877-673-7096 x2.

Turbo Medical Marketing takes a unique approach to social media marketing. Let’s me preface our strategy and approach by mentioning that Turbo Social Media has existed since 2008, well before most of the social media marketing agencies on the web. We are entirely referral-driven, and we provide a level of service that larger agencies simply cannot.

We combine an “old school” search engine optimization (SEO) approach with the “web 2.0″ phenomenon of social media marketing. A lot of agencies see these as separate items, or services. At Turbo, we combine these services. The core of everything we do revolves around the blog, which is the intermediary between social media and SEO. Having a frequently updated, well-optimized blog will not only bring you search engine rankings, but also encourage discussion, which is the goal with social media.

The biggest value that Turbo can provide your practice is a completely customized approach based on your exact needs. We bring many years of experience with medical practices just like yours, and we know what works, which is why we have developed comprehensive packages. That being said, we always look to tailor or “tweak” these packages to your practice.

Turbo Medical Marketing is poised to become the leader in the medical social media marketing industry. By March of 2012 we will have our first book published, so stay tuned for its release and we can send you a free copy! If you have any questions about Turbo or our services contact us today, or call us at 877-673-7096 x2.

VIP programs make patients feel special and important. Most aesthetic patients will see you several times a year, so why not reward them? When I say “aesthetic,” I’m definitely referring to the medical spa practice. Plastic surgery centers and cosmetic dentists offer services that patients will likely use only once a year, so a VIP program isn’t ideal (although you should reach out to patients once or twice a year to maintain that relationship). Chiropractors on the other hand, may consider using VIP programs as they offer services that patients will often utilize frequently.

So what kind of specials can we offer to our VIPs? Here are some ideas for medical spas:

• Discounts on products
• Free Facial once a month
• Last-minute appointment scheduling
• Quick massage after each treatment
• Valet parking

These are just a few ideas. The goal is to make sure the patients know they are valued, and as I mentioned above, the rewards don’t need to be monetary. Sure, we all love getting stuff for free, but there are other perks that can be just as appealing. Once you have a well thought out VIP in place, patients will be sure to rave about you to their friends and family.

Let’s assume that you have a Youtube channel and that you’ve started to post videos there. I’ll also assume you know how to optimize the video. In short, after you do your keyword research you type in the keyword phrase you’re targeting into the title of the video. You’ll also want to incorporate this phrase into the description. Now here’s what else you can do…

1) Backlink to your Youtube channel: Some of you savvy practices may have already been backlinking to the individual videos, which is a really good idea. But did you know that you should also be backlinking to you channel itself? This will help build up the credibility of your channel and each individual video.

2) Include a “call to action” overlay: In previous posts I’ve recommend incorporating a “call to action” with the editing software you’re using by simply adding a phone number or website address to the footer of the video. This is an even better approach. You typically see this overlay in the form of a click-able advertisement on a Youtube video you’re watching, and it’s usually unwelcome and annoying. However, in this instance, the overlay will be an ad for your videos, so it couldn’t possibly be more relevant for the viewer.

Here’s how you set it up:

• Set up a Promotion
• Set your minimum bid to $.01
• Click “promote” and pay the $5 set up fee
• Write your promotion and choose keywords
• Click “Edit” on the video you want to add the overlay to
• Select “Call-To-Action-Overlay” and add the title, body, image, display url and external url

3) Get comments and responses to your videos: Just like comments on your blog articles are powerful, so are comments on your videos and channel. You should encourage friends and fans of your practice to check out the videos and comment on them. You can even have your staff do the same, just watch out for spammers looking to drop a link to their site in the comments!

As I mentioned before, these are more advanced tips for video marketing on Youtube. First you need to shoot the video, then get it optimized, and then start building your presence on Youtube and other video sites. Once you’ve started to do this then I would focus on some more advanced techniques.

If you have any questions about Youtube or video marketing, or Turbo’s services in general, then don’t hesitate to contact us today. You can also reach us directly at 877-673-7096 x2.

Gift certificates: These are especially effective if you have more traditional spa-like services at your practice, such as massages and facials. Even better, you can market the certificates as great Holiday gifts AND offer an extra incentive for purchasing a certain amount. For example, for a purchase of over $150 include a $30 (or less) skin care product for free.

Gift baskets: This offer depends on your practice selling products. If you do, and you have some creative talent in house, you can find cheap (but nice) baskets with stuffing and organize the different products in an appealing way.

 Charity Drives: This offer can be anything from a can food drive to a Toys for Tots gift donation. Offer a discount of a particular product or service in exchange for a gift (or canned good), depending on the promotion. This is a real win-win, or win-win-win to be specific, because needy kids get gifts, your patients give back & get a discount and the practice gets more patients in the door.

Holiday Facebook Sweepstakes: If you really would like a nice boost to your marketing, and you’re willing to spend a little, consider running a Holiday Sweepstakes promotion on Facebook. You can use a Contest software such as Wildfire to manage the Sweepstakes, as well as Facebook advertising to bring in new people who’ve never heard of the practice This will help grow the number of Fans you have on Facebook and reach new potential patients.

There are many different ways you can market your practice during the Holidays, just remember to say “thank you” to all your Fans, Followers and patients who’ve supported your practice throughout the year.

If you have any questions about Holiday marketing ideas for your medical practice, or you simply want to learn more about what Turbo Social Media does then leave us a note here, or give us a call at 877-673-7096 x2.