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I have mentioned in many previous posts here that the goal of social media is not to get thousands of people to follow you, but to use the tool as a means of brining people into your clinic.
That said, how do you know if the updates, pictures and stories you are posting on your Facebook page are making it to the News Feeds of your fans?
According to Mari Smith, a well-known Facebook expert, almost 90% of people who "like" your page never actually return to it. All of the interaction that they do with you is done from their own News Feed. So, it is very important that your posts show up regularly in their News Feed and that they encourage participation and interaction with you.
First, you must understand that 30 BILLION pieces of content are shared on Facebook every month. How are you going to be seen with all of that noise? These following tips can help optimize your updates so that your fans will be more likely to see your postings.
1) Less is more! Although you might think that posting more often will encourage more interaction, this type of activity actually can cause people to hide your posts in their feed or even unlike your page altogether. Best practice? Try to post about 2-5 times daily.
2) Less is still more! Don't post LONG postings or updates. Studies have shown that updates with 80 characters or less actually get more engagement than longer posts.
3) Don't focus solely on status updates and links...try posting pictures, videos or even simple questions. You might need to experiment a little, but in most cases, pictures and videos seem to have better engagement rates.
4) When posting links, use the full link instead of a link that has been shortened by a URL shortening app. Three times as many people will interact with a full link as compared to interactions with shortened links
5) Time of day and the days of week are also important. Most interactions occur between 10 am and 4 pm Eastern time. Thursdays and Fridays are also more interactive days. So, consider saving some of your REALLY key updates (like an Open House announcement, etc) for those times.
6) Finally, when posting on Facebook, consider posting manually on Facebook as opposed to using a third party app like TweetDeck, HootSuite, PingFM or others. Although these apps are a time saving device for you, Facebook gives a lower "weight" to updates done through this apps and thus it might be less likely to show up in your fan's News Feeds.
How will you know if you are succeeding? Monitor your Facebook insights and see what postings are gaining the most interactions for you. Remember, a higher interaction rate means that your posts are being seen by more people and will stay "relevant" for a longer period of time. Try to reproduce the type of postings that encourage engagement from your followers.
Some of you might be tempted to use an outside source for keeping up with your social media efforts. Although the reasoning (time) is understandable, most of these social media "companies" do not fully understand your business or your clients. I have real life examples of VNN members who tried that route and actually LOST significant numbers of fans from their pages. It's always best to keep your social media updates in house when you can. If you need help...ask us first. We can help guide you to effective and efficient ways to stay on top of social media without potentially losing the base of followers you have worked hard to gain.
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It's hard to believe that 10 years ago tragic events occurred that have forever changed how we work, how we travel and so many aspects of our daily lives. Like all of you, I can remember EXACTLY where I was on that fateful day. And, like many others all across the country and the world, I will be taking a moment to remember all the victims and the heroes of that day, including the four-legged heroes.
In the spirit of the 9-11 commemoration, a new study was recently released in which 
September is also Happy Cat Month! Helping keep our feline friends frisky is a blog-worthy topic (
