Fruzsina Toenniessen, Author at Medical Marketing Enterprises, L.L.C.

About Fruzsina Toenniessen

Your Friends and Followers, Keep Them From Becoming Fickle

January 31, 2011 by Fruzsina Toenniessen

Is a Friend by Any Other Name Still a Friend?

Connections. Friends. Followers. These are terms that we use a lot when we discuss social media but as you have likely learned by now, they don’t necessarily mean the same thing in the offline world as they do with social relationships. They suggest a depth to the relationship which may not actually exist and needs to be fostered.

Offline followers may be willing to listen to a speaker for a period of time, perhaps on TV or at a conference. However an online follower may give you a single second of their time before deciding whether or not to move on.

Relevance Breeds Authority

Who wants to listen to someone trying hard to sell themselves? We have to continually gain and keep respect by sharing good ideas and interesting content. Relevancy matters and we have to earn the right to share whatever message we have. Relevancy can breed respect and authority, and respect can generate traffic to your website and connect you with prospective patients.

I follow several physicians because they are sharing something of value; information and perspective from a professional on topics of interest to me. What I give these physicians in return is my loyalty. When I have the opportunity to refer someone, I’ll first turn to a practice I follow.

Friends Are Not Always Here to Stay

The Internet is a fickle environment and assuming that once you have connections they are there for good is risky.

The terms and definitions will evolve or be replaced over time to better capture the ways we relate online but the necessity of relevance will only increase.

There Are Real Connections Out There

My advice, be yourself. People will be more likely to listen to you and respond positively. And don’t forget that many of these connections are genuine and that real, valued relationships (and patients) can grow out of social media associations.

Market Research: Meeting the Needs of Your Patients

January 31, 2011 by Fruzsina Toenniessen

Market Research: Define the Needs of Your Patients

Marketing experts spend countless hours researching the customer to understand wants, needs and behaviors. As a Physician or Medical Practice Administrator, you are tasked with the key business issue of growing the practice, but you can’t grow the practice until you’ve defined the needs of your patients. If you have not yet begun to implement a marketing strategy, you are likely still trying to figure out the best approach for your practice. Sounds like it’s time for some simple market research.

For instance, there has been a lot of talk here and elsewhere about the benefits of developing a web presence for your medical practice using social media, but do you really believe the hype? Maybe not and perhaps this is holding you back. Why not use the people you know, and trust, as a baseline to understand how prospective patients find and commit to new physician relationships?

Poll the People You Know

Start with people outside your practice. Develop a list of questions focused on how these people might approach the problem of finding a new doctor. Pose your questions to a variety of people; young/mature, locals/transplants, low-income/wealthy, those with time on their hands/ those who are extremely busy, those you know well/those you just met.

Use the feedback you received to craft additional questions that are relevant to your practice or specialty and ask your patients for their input. Consider asking about what they would like to hear about from you and what relevant topics they find of interest. This can be as easy as an in-office questionnaire or simply asking for input verbally.

Make sure that you ask your favorite patients and those who may be a bit more difficult to serve. Sometimes the most important feedback comes from those who tend to see the glass as half empty. Most people like to give their opinion and the feedback you gather can be vital to your approach and success.

Talking to Yourself about Yourself is a Short Conversation

Developing your strategy in a vacuum will prove ineffective. For you to be successful, research and then meet the needs of your patients. Above all, listen.

Resist the urge to move forward (or not move at all) based solely upon your biases and misbeliefs . Truly considering the wants, needs and behaviors of those you are trying to reach and incorporating their feedback into your marketing efforts will help you effectively reach and retain the attention of your patients, referring physicians, and the overall community.

Social Media Marketing: Make the Time

November 12, 2010 by Fruzsina Toenniessen

Is the Day Ever Long Enough?

A fantasy of mine is to have a personal assistant who will take care of all the things that need to happen in my life, but don’t necessarily need my personal attention. He or she will waltz in each day and know just what I need to accomplish and will tackle it all with ease. Like I said; fantasy. In the medical practice industry, there are office staffs, teams and business partners who successfully do the tackling on a daily basis, yet the struggle to manage one’s own schedule effectively continues.

I Can’t Find the Time

For years, I thought I needed to “find” time. I have recently come to believe that the idea that we can “find” time is a cop-out, we have to make the effort. There is no easy way to do it, we have to commit and it takes focus and attention. When we decide to make a commitment and what it means for the outcomes we’re seeking, establishing a routine can be a pretty important consideration. It can also be anything but “routine” to get started…

I struggle with this myself. I’ve noticed recently that my priorities have shifted in a few areas of my life and I am devoting more time to the things I want to accomplish, rather than the things that seem to get in the way. (Insert applause here.) The biggest challenge has been maintaining some semblance of my daily routines, personal and work- related, while finding enough hours to make sure that these new priorities have a place a place, too. Sound familiar? I don’t quite have a routine yet, it’s going to take…. wait for it…. time.

Investment is not Just Money

We tend to forget that investment is not always monetary. Any investment that your medical practice makes in an effort to expand and provide a return will also be time. In this context, time often includes education, research, planning and implementation. The process is cyclical and as the effort progresses, the amount of effort invested tends to decrease as efficiency increases. Once you establish a process and a web presence/following, the ratio of time to return changes in your favor.

Time is of the Essence

We’ve all read statistics about the year over year increases in people joining social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and others. And who knows, in a few more years they could all be passé as we shift to ever more progressive methods of interaction and communication. My point is this… if you believe that social media can be a marketing tool to help you grow your medical practice, there is no time to waste. The medical practice industry is one last industries to embrace the web as a means to improve the return on marketing investment.

Making the Best Use

At the risk of being cliché, I’ll wrap this up with a quote from Ben Franklin who officially coined the phrase “Time is Money” long before the rise of industry and technology which we rely upon so heavily today. “In short, the way to wealth, if you desire it, is as plain as the way to market. It depends chiefly on two words, industry and frugality; i.e. Waste neither time nor money, but make the best use of both.”

Finding Patients with Social Media

October 12, 2010 by Fruzsina Toenniessen

“Who am I reaching with my online marketing strategy?”

Anyone focused on medical practice management should ask this each time a marketing strategy is researched, planned or launched. And as you are keenly aware, the primary goal of marketing by most medical practices is to attract new patients and keep current patients coming back. With online targeting on a steady incline, it’s no surprise that everyone is looking for the best way to carve out a piece of the pie. The many options available to you should be carefully considered to optimize your results.

Missing the Obvious… Duh

Ingrained in any step of this process is a common thread so obvious that we often forget to take it into consideration. It is the audience. By taking the time to thoroughly consider who you want to reach, you will increase the likelihood that anyone will listen and take action.

Attraction

I did a little research today to understand the current stats on the number of marketing messages an average person in the US receives on a daily basis. Most of the seemingly reliable information I found informed me that the number is between 3,000 and 5,000 messages per day. You read that correctly, per day! Because I am a natural skeptic, let’s cut that in half… the numbers are still huge.

A successful medical practice marketing plan to attract new patients will aspire to cut through the clutter and get them to interact with and come to your website. The first step is to assess and determine the optimal methods to put your message in front of them and create an overall message that speaks to them. By customizing the right message, in the right place, to the right audience, your content can intrigue and draw people to you practice.

Attract… Capture… Measure… Repeat…

Your ideal patient has arrived at your website. Now what? Keep them on your site and get them to come back! Measuring audience interaction, page visits and time on site can help you to understand how search engine optimization can work for you to improve your results over time. This is not a “set it, and forget it” endeavor, but the good news is that if I can learn it, you can learn it.

A Secret Ingredient: Your Audience

“Who am I reaching with my online marketing strategy?” Now you know a secret ingredient to boosting the return on your marketing investment online. Audience. Understanding the ideal audience will empower you to reach them with a compelling message at a time when they are either looking for you or open to the information you are sharing. This will ultimately grow your practice’s brand and keep those new and returning patents coming through the door.

Social Media is the New Yellow Pages

September 16, 2010 by Fruzsina Toenniessen

Social Media Turns a Physician Listing into a Needle in the Yellow Pages Haystack

Finding a new doctor, despite the Internet, is still too difficult. I am surprised to find most doctors don’t use the Internet to grow their practice. I moved a little over a year ago and have been looking for a primary care physician ever since. I started where everyone does and asked my friends who they recommended. Four of them saw the same person and raved about her, so it was a “no-brainer.”

As I tend to do, I took my time in making an appointment, and while I dallied she left her practice and has not joined another. Now we’re all looking for a new doctor, and we’re having a difficult time.

Missing Out on Your Target Market

Last month, I turned 38, and I keep hearing about how my physical condition is pretty much a slippery slope from this point forward. I’m an upwardly mobile professional with a flexible schedule and great health insurance. I was raised to believe that preventative care and regular visits with a doctor are important. I am probably your target market… but I can’t find you because you don’t have a Web presence!

Finding a New Doctor

Let me explain what I mean by “find.” I’m not talking about the Yellow Pages. And yes, I did receive a few cards in the mail from one practice or another welcoming me to the neighborhood, but I found they smacked of desperation more than anything. The listing of physicians that have a partnership with my health insurance company is obviously important to my search. But when I say “find,” I am specifically looking for more than your name, phone number and location. I am looking for information that indicates you have a strong reputation and you’re open to sharing information, learning from others, and interested in having a dialog with your community.

I am interested in learning something about you, and I want to learn it on the Web.

Social Media for a Medical Practice

The use of Social Media can allow potential patients to find you by increasing your internet search rankings. It can also build your practice’s reputation, help both you and your patients stay up to date on credible industry news and information. Engagement and dialogue are becoming paramount in the way that people are making decisions. If you are not participating in the discussion, you will increasingly be overlooked.

So, while I continue my quest for a physician that I can get to know a little before making an appointment, I challenge you to consider what you can do to put yourself out there and invite a conversation with your community. And if you are part of the small percentage of physicians who have already headed down this path, I’m just sorry we don’t live in the same town.