The Internet is social – with many web offers, users can communicate with each other. Social networks, forums, and blogs have in common that they bring people together on computer screens.
The Internet thus becomes a presentation and communication space.
It is also a challenge for medical societies and associations, which they have to face in view of the impressive number of users and the associated importance of these modern media. This is where new marketing and communication opportunities arise: organizations can engage in dialogue directly with doctors – and vice versa.
However, this fast-paced, connected world also has one drawback: no one is immune to anyone else in the network talking about him. Not even if you are not even active on the net.
As long as it is a positive statement, this is not a problem. It is annoying and possibly even harmful to the patient as soon as patients negatively assess medical services or the service in rating portals or forums.
Unfortunately, there are real “hate groups” in the social networks where people, businesses, and products are criticized and mauled. Only when you hear about it, you have a chance to react.
Social Media Marketing at a Glance
Social networks have been around since the mid-1990s.
However, they remained a marginal phenomenon for a long time, which was mainly used by smaller groups for the care of acquaintances. For example, school friendships could be continued over long distances.
With the triumph of the Internet in the private sector, the networks began to boom in 2003. The social networks are the big climbers of recent years and no longer a playground for teenagers.
In the age group 35 years and up, all Internet communities have grown particularly fast for years. Therefore, social networks are also interesting for your communication.
The best known and most significant is the industry leader is Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook in the spring of 2004 – just under eight years later, the company was listed. In 2014, Facebook purchased the messenger service WhatsApp.
What is a social network?
Before we go deeper into the individual instruments, the term and the meaning of “social network” should be explained again here. “Social networks are Internet portals where users can profile themselves and communicate with other users.”
The profile is, so to speak, your own home in the network and at the same time a kind of profile that provides information about its owner. A portrait photo, name, place of residence and contact details, occupation, often also details of the life path and to likes and dislikes are typical components of such a profile.
Each user can decide through their own security settings how much of this information should be publically visible.
Users with profiles can search other users on the network. At Facebook, this is called “friends”, the business network Xing is “contacts”. It does not have to be a known person.
By the information of private preferences, such as the enthusiasm for a music band or a football club, or of business interests, such as the offer of certain services, find here quickly new contacts. For these permanent partners, more details of the profile are usually visible, and with them, you can keep in regular contact via the network.
The many millions of users make the portal in facebook for marketing purposes very interesting. However, to benefit from this, you first have to become part of the network. Suitable for medical scientific societies.
As a pure network of private individuals, Facebook would have quickly reached its limits. For example, celebrities, companies, and brands have the opportunity to be present with pages in the network.
On the page, Facebook users can register as “fans” by clicking the “Like” button. From now on, these fans will receive all information published by the site’s operators on the “pin board” directly in their Facebook profile.
The Facebook Page has quickly become a useful tool for customer communication. The big advantage: While classic marketing addresses many people who are not interested in the brand message at all, the site only communicates with genuine brand ambassadors – with fans.
Many larger companies create such pages for themselves or their products. The page of Nutella counts nearly 32 million fans from all over the world, who not only learn the latest news from the spread-universe but also on the side also chocolate cream praise songs in the most different languages leave.
Create your own Facebook page
“Facebook for business ” explains step-by-step how organizations set up their own Facebook page. In general, every user can create pages that have a profile on Facebook as a private person.
In the first step, you ask for an internet address on Facebook, such as “facebook.com/Name association”, which makes it easy to find you.
By default, Pages initially consist of two main pages:
The Info Page, Here are the most important basic data of the organization. Here you can enter the address, contact details, and description texts. This should be done in detail because even with this page you can be found by new potential members or other interested parties on Google.
The pin board, On the pin board, all kinds of news, tips, appointments, such as seminar announcements, and statements can be published. These “posts” are sorted chronologically and will be preserved long term.
You can also insert pictures, videos or link recommendations on the whiteboard. All registered fans receive the news posted here automatically. And unlike press advertisements, you are sure to attract the attention of the recipients, who have a proven interest in your activities.
Google+
At the end of June 2011, the internet giants Google launched a social network: Google+ (or “Google Plus”). Already in the first four weeks of the test phase, the project wants to have registered more than 20 million users. This social media platform has many similarities to Facebook, but also some important differences.
Of course, the integration with other Google services, such as the search engine, Gmail, Google Maps, Google Drive, Google Chrome, Google Play, Google Earth, Picasa, and YouTube, should be emphasized.
This of course ensures a fast distribution of the network and its own profile. However, Google already has the compulsory requirement of a G + profile as an identity to sign up for YouTube and this could soon apply to other Google products. And what do the Google+ numbers look like? Officially, this is not known.
By linking Google+ to other Google services, many users are forcibly bound to Google+ without actively using it.
YouTube
YouTube is one of the biggest social media success stories. It was founded in May 2005. The platform allows billions of users to watch or share their own videos. YouTube is a Google company.
Facts about the company itself: YouTube has more than a billion users. According to Allensbach, it should be only in Germany four million users who use YouTube frequently or regularly.
YouTube is available in 88 countries and 76 languages. Every day, videos with a total duration of several hundred million hours are played back and billions of views are generated.
As a digital address book and network for business contacts, many use the business network Xing. In 2003 the company was founded under the name openBC, since 2006 it is listed on the stock exchange. XING AG has about 900 employees.
In total, Xing counted 11 million members in January 2017 in the core market of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Professionals from all sectors network here, looking for jobs, employees, assignments, cooperation partners, technical advice or business ideas.
LinkedIn was founded in 2002 and went online in May 2003. After only about a month, the international business network had 4500 members. It went public in 2011 and since December 2016, the network is part of Microsoft.
Currently, it is available in 24 languages, in over 200 countries and has over 400 million members. In Germany, LinkedIn is still behind XING: At the beginning of 2017 LinkedIn can boast 6.3 million users in German-speaking countries, although the intersection of those who use both platforms is probably quite large. LinkedIn has recently focused on the target audience of students.
In addition to the social networks in the narrower sense, there are numerous other offers in the social web that live from the interactions of users. In March 2006, Twitter Inc. was founded as a microblogging service provider. In 2016, there were 320 million monthly active users worldwide.
Twitters principle is simple: Each registered user can write messages on the platform twitter.com, which may be a maximum of 140 characters. These “tweets” are received directly by anyone who has registered with the sender as a “follower”. In 2016, there were 500 million tweets daily. The brevity of the news makes it possible to permanently send small news particles into the Follower World.
In 2014, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers estimated that 1.8 billion photos per day were uploaded and shared across social networks and apps. In 2008, this number was still at 19 million images per day.
This extreme growth is closely linked to the rise of the smartphone, which has become the dominant camera in everyday life. For example, photos were also posted by the Instagram service, which was founded in October 2010 – a mix of microblog and audiovisual platform. In April 2012, Instagram for mobile devices appeared with the operating system Android.
An app for Android, iOS and Windows Phone is available for use. Users can filter their photos and videos. The photos and videos have a square shape. The photo app is growing rapidly: There are now around 500 million users worldwide, and 300 million people are expected to use the service on a daily basis.
Pinterest is a social network where users can attach picture collections with descriptions to virtual whiteboards. Users can share images, express their favors or comment on them. The platform was founded in 2010 by three Internet entrepreneurs. The name Pinterest is a mixture of the English words pin = pin and interest = interest.
At the beginning of 2016, there should be 100 million users worldwide who post regularly on Pinterest.
Wikipedia
Also, the well-known Wikipedia is as a Community lexicon part of the Social Web. Anyone can create articles there and modify existing ones. No community project on the internet is more successful.
The search engine presence of Wikipedia is overwhelming: 샌즈카지노 쿠폰 If a search term contains an article in the online encyclopedia, it usually appears among the first hits in the results list.
Conclusion
Do not confuse communication measures in the social network with advertising. Flat self-promotion does not interest the users – they can even upset. The users want to be taken seriously and receive concrete reactions to their questions and criticisms in a timely manner.
The engagement in the network should therefore go hand in hand with a clear decision: to seriously engage in direct communication. There is one drawback to this: while social media strategies have different levels of complexity, they all require personal commitment and continuity. And communication takes time.
Therefore, consider carefully whether this investment is worthwhile or whether you can actually afford it in terms of personnel. Once you have decided on it, 바카라사이트 you should be consistent: communication through these channels is not a casual job but a permanent commitment. If successful, you can enjoy active and loyal followers as well as members and referrals
I am Parveen an Assistant Professor of Web Technology for Ashford University’s Forbes School of Business and Technology where I teache technology courses and social media guidelines for company’s employees . I also provide money-saving tips.