Leverage Social Media to Draw More Patients and Advance Your Business

Social media platforms can be more than a treasure trove of baby pictures, cat videos, and inflammatory political rhetoric. Some urgent care physicians have become adept at utilizing their features for the good of their patients, their practices, and even their careers. Tyeese L. Gaines, DO, MBA is one. The founder of NOWMed Urgent Care in Jersey City, NJ was quoted extensively in a recent post on the AMA’s website, detailing how Facebook, Twitter, and other free services can be used not just for fun, but literally for profit. In it, she reminds other providers that you as a clinician are your own “brand” (even more so if you’re an entrepreneur who, like her, founded an urgent care operation); getting your name out there where potential patients are already looking is a low-cost, efficient way to advance your reach and to give online readers a sense of your perspective as a healthcare professional. In the same vein, social media allows you the opportunity to directly address the public with educational messages that can help them help themselves—again, while demonstrating your own expertise and eagerness to share it. JUCM has addressed this topic numerous times, from several perspectives specific to urgent care. Visit our archive to read Use Digital Marketing and Social Media to Attract and Engage New Urgent Care Patients; Don’t Post That! Protecting Patient Privacy in the Age of Social Media; and Calculating the Value of a Like: The Muddled ROI of Facebook Advertising.