Medical experts, ranging from plastic surgeons to cosmetic dermatologists, have developed monolithic web marketing strategy: get top ranking on google. With social media, doctors need to shift to a patient-centric marketing effort where less time is spent pleasing the robot (google) and more helping consumers get informed. Accompanying blog post is here: http://www.medibeauty.biz/doctors-seeking-patients-should-think-social-seo/ Slides annotated from the Cosmetic BootCamp meeting, July 2012.

1. SEO is dead.
Social is alive.
Shifting to a Patient-Centric Marketing Strategy
Tom Seery, CEO/Founder
July 2012, Cosmetic BootCamp

2. For dermatologists, marketing was once never a consideration.
Patients came via word of mouth or doctor referrals.
Do you like your
dermatologist?
Dr. Taylor at the
PolyClinic is great

3. Yellow Pages was the first step into marketing, because she
could find you without relying on a friend’s recommendation

4. Then came the WWW, and doctors built a website to reach
her with greater detail than afforded by phone books

5. With the first search engines, it became clear ranking mattered

6. Google shifted doctor’s entire online marketing attention
to pleasing the robot, away from her information needs
Image: Robot courtesy of SEOmoz

7. SEO consultants made big
promises: #1 Google ranking
…but never explained how
they got robot love

8. With SEOs driving, doctors developed a web presence solely
to please the robot (Google)
Link Keyword
schemes stuffing
Multiple
websites

9. Stuffing

10. Link Schemes

11. Copy written to trick the robot…

12. And terrible articles designed to get a free link, not to inform

13. Many of you still have link schemes that hurt you, live on your site

14. Google has 1000 PhDs determined to outsmart an SEO consultant

15. Evidenced by SEO-scheme sites traffic pattern

16. Social media is back to WOM, but on steroids. The robot and
you feel marginalized or stay marginal
Social media

17. What’s taken share from SEO-plays? Social (RealSelf is the
leading social site in cosmetic aesthetics)

18. RealSelf is patient-centric, which focuses doctors on helping her,
not the robot
Doctor Patient
Q&A stories
Photos

19. “The world is in the middle of an
ongoing conversation. A marketer’s
challenge and job is to enter that
conversation.”
--John D. Hayes
Chief Marketing Officer, American Express

20. It’s easy to conclude social media is silly

21. …or downright inappropriate

22. Social has significant value to aesthetic consumers who want
to reduce risk of making a bad decision

23. 3 REASONS
Practices Should Become Socially Engaged

24. Your reputation

25. Doctors dread these

26. Leaving doctors to often see the web as a mob that’s
determined to burn reputations

27. There is no angry mob
87% of RealSelf doctor
reviews are positive

28. Online reviews contradict the law of
"large numbers" that would imply a
normal distribution
http://archive.nyu.edu/bitstream/2451/14951/3/usedbook1.pdf.txt

29. The answer to
bad speech
is more speech
Matt Cutts, Google

30. Aesthetic consumers are also social buyers

31. We all use social data to make decisions

32. Social information is inescapable in search because
people love it

33. Over half of women 18+
share both good and bad
experiences online

34. 36% share to help
others make smart
purchases

35. Clearly, doctor reviews are important to
the decision making process
90%+ consider doctor
reviews important or
very important
Source: RealSelf survey, 2012 Q1

36. ✪ Tips
Making the Shift to Patient-centric marketing

38. ✪ EMBRACE REVIEWS, THEY ARE
YOUR BEST WOM MARKETING

39. Post-op patients are your most important form of marketing
SOURCE: http://www.hotelmarketingstrategies.com/marketing-an-hourglass/

40. Embrace reviews because
your patients are happy
87% of RealSelf doctor
reviews are positive

41. Make it easy for patients to post with cards or emails
sent pre and post-op

42. Review quality when started Review quality when
Post-op started Pre-Op

43. RealSelf makes it easy for patients to start talking before
their treatment or procedure

44. 87% positive

45. ✪ OWN YOUR “NAMESPACE”

46. Even if you hate them, update your bio and contact information
LinkedIn
Twitter
Facebook
RealSelf
Four Square
Yelp

47. ✪ BE HELPFUL (not promotional)

48. Power comes from sharing
information, not hoarding it…
To gain influence and status, you have to
give away your expertise and content.
Gary Hamel, Strategist

49. Power comes from sharing
information, not hoarding it…
To gain influence and status, you have to
give away your expertise and content.
you must do it quickly;
if you don’t, someone else will beat
you to the punch—and garner the
Gary Hamel, Strategist
credit that might have been yours

50. Answering questions is a great way to be helpful and to signal
you’re patient-centric

51. Answering questions is never seen as advertising (which is good)

52. “I think a surgeon who takes the time
to respond to patient questions on a
forum without any fee is a good
indicator of integrity.
I am interested in lipo of
abdomen…would like to know how to
proceed with consultation.”
--A real patient inquiry to a plastic surgeon active on RealSelf.com

53. Constant self-promotion in social media never works
FAIL

54. ✪ FACEBOOK IS UNPROVEN

55. 1 IN 10 SEE YOUR POSTS

56. POSTS LAST UNDER 20 HRS

57. NOBODY VISITS YOUR PAGE

58. LIKES ARE SCARCE

59. ✪ INVEST IN LEAD TRACKING
SOFTWARE

60. Call back in <2 hrs
Twice as likely to schedule consultation
Source: mymedleads

61. Thank you.
Email: toms@realself.com
Blog: mediBeauty.biz