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Published by: David Nordella 01-31-2013  |  POSTED IN: Traffic Tuesdays

Practice Building by Branding on Twitter

 
“Your personal brand is a promise to your clients...a promise of quality, consistency, competency, and reliability." Jason Hartman, quoted on Kristie Rimmele’s: Branding on the Net.
 
When you engage with prospective patients on any social media, you do so to connect with people as a person. Your hope is that they see what they are looking for in your services and decide to pay you for them. Your brand is what you are promising what your patients can expect from you as a healthcare provider.
 
I am going to share some highlights from articles that will give you some great tips about branding tactics on Twitter.  I want you to step back for a moment from the “how” to the “why”. What is it that you will accomplish with your Twitter brand.  
Which is more important, what you think that your patients want or what your patients want?
 
A quality brand is built on what the customer wants. You are a doctor; we can take it for granted that you are smart enough to deal with the health challenges of the average patient. Is that what patients want; a smart doctor? Does that make you any different than other doctors?
 
What they are most likely seeking has more to do with trust, caring and authenticity. Spend time thinking about these feelings or dare I say feel these feelings. Don’t they convey safety, security and a sense of well-being?
 
Being authentic has another advantage. Being yourself enables patients to know you. You need to maintain a professional demeanor but speak in the voice that you would use in the examination room.
 
Here are the branding tactics that I promised you. Dan Schawbel, author of Me2.0, Build a Personal Brand to Achieve Career Success, shared them on Mashable.
 
1. “Claim your Twitter handle” (before someone else does)
2. “Decide how to brand yourself”
3. “Become known as an expert or resource”
4. “Establish a Twitter marketing plan”
5. “Utilize third-party applications”
6. “Form a Twitter ‘Mastermind, group”
 
American Express has a website called Open Forum. They had some additional branding tips that you should consider in an article, 5 tips for branding your company on Twitter.
 
1. “Have a defined brand voice” (so you don’t confuse patients with who you are or want to accomplish)
2. “Think hard about your Twitter bio”
3. “Choose a background that mirrors the brand” (to convey the same emotional image)
4. “Choose a purpose and stick with it” (same reason as # 1 on the “5 tips” list)
5. “Consider keeping a separate account for support”  
 
Tip # 5 is the only recommendation on either list that I strongly recommend that you ignore. Why? All social media, including Twitter, are not HIPAA compliant. You need a password-protected direct connection if you are communicating specific health and/or billing questions.
 
Discussing a patient’s health on social media is a way to guarantee that you won’t have to worry about practice building because you won’t have a practice left to build!
 
Twitter is a great social media for practice building through branding yourself and your practice. Think of your patient’s emotional needs when sharing your branding story on Twitter.  Keeping the promises that you make in your brand is the most powerful method available for practice building because your patients will market you, even without Twitter.
 
David Nordella guest-posts for LA Dezign. Provider Finance 411 does not provide social media advice. We are adding our guest-posts from LA Dezign's Blog to Provider Finance 411's Blog so that you may learn more about social media and how it can benefit your practice. Learn more about David:
 
@BeneficentGuild
http://www.providerfinance411.com/
http://www.providerfinance411.com/blog/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidnordella
The “Independent Practice Associations Group” on LinkedIn
Thanks for reading. Jason.
P.S. Don't forget to subscribe below to this blog.
 
About Jason Ciment
Formerly an attorney and CPA, Jason has been working online since 1997. His columns on affiliate marketing can still be found on www.Clickz.com and his book on search engine optimization can be found at www.seotimetable.com.

This blog is published 4x per week and covers website design and SEO tips as well as a wide range of tips and advice for working and living online more efficiently and enjoyably.
 

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