Social Media – A Referral Gold Mine

A social media marketing program we recommended for a large group of doctors was questioned by one of them, who thought social media was a waste since he got most of his patients from referrals.  I understand his concern, but it was misplaced.  Social media is a referral gold mine.  It harkens back to the most basic – and probably the most effective – form of marketing, word of mouth.

It gives people the ability to communicate with friends and family whenever they want, wherever they are – and get instantaneous answers to questions such as, “Which doctor should I see?”

Sharing information is the essence of social media and, therefore, the key to marketing through social media.  Of course, you can’t share information if you don’t join social media.

At a minimum you should have a Facebook page, a Twitter account, a blog and be LinkedIn.  If you want to see how Crosby Marketing practices what I preach, go to our homepage www.crosbymarketing.com.  You’ll see that it says you can “Follow Crosby” on Facebook, Delicious, Twitter and LinkedIn and gives you the symbols to link to them.

Having a Facebook page encourages customers to become fans and supports conversations over time.  Twitter, on the other hand, because of its 140-character limit, is more of a real time tool.  Twitter is good for grabbing a customer’s attention and leading him or her to a more robust site, such as a newsletter or a blog such as this one.  Twitter has become a useful customer service connection.

I became acutely aware of the customer empowerment of social media when a Crosby colleague told me that’s how he solved a problem with his cable television reception.  Instead of the usual phone call to a supplier with its interminable wait and potential passalong from one service rep to another, he simply tweeted the cable company and got immediate response and instruction.

The secret to marketing success on social media is participation.  Engagement with your “friends” and regular activity is essential.  No one on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., enjoys having a one-way conversation, receiving unsolicited marketing information, viewing an inactive site that remains unchanged, or receiving no response to inquiries.

If you are engaged with your social media followers, it’s easier to share information about your product, service, or cause.  That makes it more probable that your web “friends” will share your message virally, especially if the content is new, interesting, unique, or motivational.  Thus the referral attribute of social media can become viral as well.  Social media also allows you to link your “friends” to your website to find more information or link them to other sites that support your offering.

A key lesson on social media is – you must keep up.  The fast-moving world of the web has become hand-held and mobile, and your marketing must move forward.  As I tell my staff, in the marketing world, we’re like the French Foreign Legion.  Their mantra was “March or Die.”  Ours is “Grow or Die.”