Social Media Vital Signs: How Urgent Care Centers Can Connect, Interact and Build Relationships with Patients Urgent message: Social media such as blogs, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube can help urgent care operators better understand patients’ needs and communicate the value of urgent care medicine―ultimately driving more visits to their centers. Author: Caroline Ryan and Jan Sisko Author Information: This article was presented as a white paper at the 2012 Urgent Care Association Conference. Caroline Ryan …
Read MoreMarketing to Local Schools
Offering preparticipation physicals to student athletes is a win-win-win proposition. It can be lucrative. It renders an important service. And because of the exalted place of school sports in American society, ensuring that young athletes are healthy enough to participate spotlights your urgent care in your community and makes people aware of the many other services you offer. The key to profitability is effective marketing. Area school children who participate in sports are required to …
Read MoreThe Unsociable Network
JOHN SHUFELDT, MD, JD, MBA, FACEP I work with a non-physician professional in the emergency department. She is very intelligent, practical, and always helpful. There is only one small issue: many of her posts on her Facebook page are overtly anti-patient. She frequently rants about the stupid patients, how “bad” the clientele we treat act and how, ultimately, they get what they deserve. Despite her obvious intelligence, she has not realized that what she posts …
Read MoreUsing the New Media: A Modern Plan
Adaptability is defined as the ability “to adjust to new conditions or a different environment.” It is a word that should be ingrained in the mindset of any sales-minded urgent care clinic. I believe that lack of adaptability is the primary cause of less than stellar sales and marketing initiatives. In a business world that is changing daily, yesterday’s approach is, well, so yesterday. You need to adapt quickly to our rapidly changing environment. Right …
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Utilizing Social Media to Drive Visits to Your Website and Urgent Care Center
In Creating a Web Presence to Raise Awareness of Urgent Care (JUCM, July/August 2009), we described how a well-designed website, optimized for retrieval by major search engines, enables highly targeted and localized promotion of an urgent care center. But establishing a web presence is just the beginning; driving “clicks” to the website and “feet” to the center is enhanced by creating “buzz” in online communities. Historically, word-of-mouth – spread in-person or by telephone – has …
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