Medical Technology Blog

Everyday new ideas and articles come out about social media and how to use it. I still see many companies struggling with getting this started so I want to keep revisiting a few main ideas. I continue to test social media campaigns on my own business. It is key for you to understand your target market and how they interact with social media sites such as Facebook. I don’t think there are too many experts on the subject but there are alot of hacks who want to get to your wallet.

Continue to keep marketing best practices in mind as you develop any new marketing campaign. Do you know your audience? Have you done your research? Do you have a budget set? Are you going to be able to measure it? Who is managing the campaign? I see so many people at companies start campaigns only to let them stall out and not even analyze the data. Social media marketing is not for every company today but it will be a channel in the near future you will want to be involved with.

Much like David Letterman’s Top 10 countdown, I am only going to discuss 5 reasons.

Reason # 5: Your website deserves to be more than a sexy billboard.
Your website is just a billboard. How are you driving eye-balls to your website. People want to work with with experts. It will be critical in 2009 to show that you have thought leadership. Do you know if anyone else but your mom is coming to your site?

Reason # 4: No boundaries = more sales and revenue

Social media marketing will eliminate geographic boundaries. I can’t tell you how many clients I have met with that want to get outside of their state or event country and not be dependent on the local economy. Social media will allow your business to reach out to larger groups.

Reason #3: You need a good vacation.

More Social media will equal more search and more search will equal more customers which equals you sitting on a beach during your first vacation in 3 years.
One word: Content. Content, valuable, expert content is what people want to read.

Reason #2: Do you want better ROI?

It can be done on a low budget and it social media marketing is measurable. Yes folks, measurable. The ever famous term R.O.I. Which many of us are sick of hearing. What does that really mean? Social Media Marketing ROI = Will equal customers at a lower cost of sales. Using social media marketing as part of your marketing campaign, you can have a much lower cost of sales. The idea is simple. You can easily put a budget together for social marketing, test it over a period of time, 30 days and make changes. What are you measuring? Clicks to your website, phone calls, dates, sales, ect. I have been doing a couple of tests: Testing social media campaigns in two different states and also targeting 5 different companies on various social media channels. I wanted to see if I would get a lift on my website, if my specific offers would be downloaded, would I have an increase in email and blog traffic? If your interested in more details, let me know. I will gladly share the data with you.

Reason #1: Let 2009 be the year of “show me the money.”

People close to you are doing it. I say people vs companies as companies don’t blog or twitter but people at companies do. Your vendors and suppliers are twittering, responding to blogs, talking to their customers on social media channels. I understand, not every client will be communicating through your new very cool social media phone but studies and research is showing this is starting to gain. Dell states they made a million dollars using Twitter to sell overstock items. What a way to communicate to the masses. Get them to follow you on Twitter and when you have a link of a great offer, post it. Do you know what your competition is doing in the market place in regards to social media communications? Maybe you should find out.
That is a quick list, many of you probably have seen these items before. I think you could list out 100 reasons. My company is helping medical technology companies open up social media channels. Look for future information on this. It is interesting to put together an open line of communication in a well-regulated industry. There are a few more rules and monitoring that must be followed.

Wishing everyone a great 2009.