Social Media Strategy and Tactics for sensitive counselling industry
-
With my business I had always intended kicking social media into gear much sooner but various other pressures put this back somewhat.
Counselling is quite sensitive for a variety of reasons:-
We want to disassociate ourselves from the masses of non- professional folksy type "advice" that dominates the net,
People, particularly in the UK often do not talk about mental health issues nor would we always want people to if they had not protected their privacy enough.
Key marketing messages such as "get the first class service you deserve" (in UK people are more likely to wait 6 months to be seen by a trainee with no choice of who they see or when they see it than pay for counselling, "there are no quick fixes for mental health and counselling can make a real difference to your life if you invest time, energy and cost into it" (in a market where read this 300 word article to never feel stressed again dominates) and "what help choosing the counsellor who is best suited to you" - are not the sort of thing many people are likely to "like" or share with friends.
At the moment I am looking to focus on LinkedIn (for corporate work), Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. I have a blog which is going to be producing excellent daily content including people's positive experiences of counselling, comprehensive self help tips, counsellor advice etc.
On Google+ and Facebook I am looking to autopublish some of the blog posts and there are probably some other channels I will autopublish to but I do not yet know which to go for. Initially I am going to do little else on Google+ to focus time and energy developing Facebook and Twitter.
I am trying to achieve the following:-
Social Legitimacy - having decent number of engaged fans will make us seem more legitimate in an industry where trust is important (only 14 FB likes so far is not a good start)
Engaging with Potential Content Creators - Reaching out to people who have experienced mental health issues so that this content can be used to provide peer support to others and enable them to see benefits of counselling
Creating relationships with people and organisations where we can cross promote each other's initiatives, potentially co-deliver services in the future (community counselling work etc)
Bring traffic to my site that will potentially convert into counselling clients in several cities in the UK through both people finding
Promote my content more widely than is happening with organic search, reach different audiences, engage with potential customers, generate links to quality content I create
Develop the social infrastructure to be able to leverage it for future goals, whether promoting an article, raising awareness for good mental health initiatives (that may have no financial benefit to the business but will help people) etc.
Sorry this is so long but any comments, ideas, suggested tactics etc would be appreciated.
-
I really like David's advice.
Break down hesitancy by sharing yourself. Make yourself approachable, available, understandable, and caring with soft wisdom. Make a video that shows the office where you meet with people and the privacy and caring that you offer.
If you show them the path they will enter it with less hesitation and if you show what they will receive they will desire it.
YouTube is the second most used search engine on this planet. It is not a flat medium like text. It enables you to include sight and sound to build familiarity.
-
Hi Ben, it seems like you've got a pretty solid strategy in place. I appreciate that social media can be a tricky platform to negotiate when you're working in a sensitive industry like this, and maybe you'll find that some networks simply don't work, while others do.
One thing that I might suggest is to spend some time deciding on the niche you want to reach through social media. Connecting with potential patients in this way might be difficult for the reasons you state above (privacy, reluctance to share/like/discuss openly). Establishing your reputation and increasing your visibility among the counselling community could be achieved by joining Twitter conversations, connecting on LinkedIn, commenting on blogs, answering questions and, once you've built a following, sharing your own content.
Perhaps patients are better reached through SEO-promoted posts rather than social media promoted posts (link building, solid guest posts etc.). Having said that, there are probably lots of ways to utilise social media - e.g. awareness generating campaigns, conducting research and sharing interesting statistics and findings etc.
Good luck!
-
Become the sensitive counselling industry 'go to guy'. Be giving advice in all manner of forums and blogs. be the guy with the sensible hat on in the wild and crazy internet!
And then blog about it on a more personal level.
Have you thought of maybe doing a podcast? If giving serious, objective advice is the goal then not everyone wants it on a monitor at work or in their 'favorites' at home. A podcast is also more intimate, your voice going straight into their ears! (Look up the not for the faint of heart 'Dan Savage podcast' as an example, or A Nerd of Advice)
Be a guest on a local radio show - or become their expert. Give free counseling, or at least free counseling literature to anyone and everyone.
Facebook may not be the right place to be as it is a bit discouraging when you see a friend has 'liked' ABC Counseling....
I know this is no SEO advice, but some argue that SEO is turning into ecommerce.
Good luck!
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Does Social Media hold value with SEO? If so then how?
Hey So I've been doing some research and it looks like theres a "human authority" and a "Page authority". I dont know if it is still relevant or if it has all changed because of Panda. Does social media still hold any SEO value? Do social media platforms like Pinterest and Youtube and twitter drive any valuable Anchor texts to your domain boostin your domain's authority or the page that it is linking to's authority?
Social Media | | rpaiva1 -
How do search engines understand what social pages are official pages of my brand? If my Facebook page name is not my brand name (even though there are links from website to page and vice-versa) will that confuse search engines?
My question is about social shares, and how search engines understand what profiles are linked to what businesses?
Social Media | | PlanetDISH0 -
Social Signals, do they help? Looking for a solid Yes or No.
Hi, I've read so much lately about social signals and got basically 3 completely different responses. 1. Yes they are going to over take normal link building in 2013 so get on it. 2. Yeah they do help with rankings but not massively, don't focus to much on it. 3. Na they don't help, you need to gain 1000's of signals and even then it will be a short SERP increase and then back down you go. So... What im looking for now is a straight up Yes or No, should you be on social signals now? Should time spent on gaining social signals be increased? If your doing 10% of your time on social should this percent now shift to a larger percentage? Cheers
Social Media | | activitysuper0 -
How to Start a Social Networking Site
I am thinking about starting a niche social networking site. My question is how big of a team would I need, how much up front costs would I incur and what specific coding languages would my team need to be well versed in? I'm thinking HTML, CSS, php, MySQL but are there any other languages needed for this type of endeavor ?
Social Media | | bronxpad0 -
Social Media Gurus... What would you do, your industry has no presence?
You are tasked with creating a Facebook page for an industry which has a distinct lack of social media presence. During your research for your industry or client you find none of their competitors are using social media to any large degree. Reviewing the whys, you find that the demographics of people using Social Media outlets like, Facebook, Twitter, Pin Interest, and LinkedIn do not really fit with the industry. Do you view this as a great opportunity for your company / client and push forward with creating a Social Media presence? Or, do you inform your company / client based on your research, social media isn't a viable use of time or money? Examples: Plastic Manufacturing
Social Media | | donford
Industrial Laundry
Tractor Trailer Wholesale
Copper Mining Equipment I am interested in how the guru's handle clients / companies that don't necessarily fit the mold of social media, but ask and are willing to pay you to make it happen for them. I am hoping this to be a good discussion as I don't see any right or wrongs in these situations. What would you do?0 -
How to best promote this content via social media to gain backlinks
I have created this content http://www.musicliveuk.com/live-music/the-worst-function-bands-and-wedding-bands-ever in order to promote it via social media. Ideally I want it to be shared across the web in order to gain backlinks. My question is how can I best do this? I know I can post it on twitter, facebook, google plus etc... but is that it? I'm new to social media and don't really understand how to use it to good effect. By posting it on social networking sites am I risking people copying the content and duplicate content penalties? Any help would be much appreciated!
Social Media | | SamCUK0 -
Social media monitoring on SEO Moz
Is there anywhere I can learn about social media monitoring on SEO Moz? For some reason I just get a blank page when trying to access the section on here Thanks!
Social Media | | HugoK0 -
Social Media effects SEO
Looking for Tips on how to improve our Social Media. How to get more people to LIKE US on Facebook and or Share. My understanding is that Facebook Likes are starting to play a big role in Organic Search Results. Any Ideas on how to to receive more LIkes and Shares. Anyone know of any Facebook Tools? If we run a contest, how can we set it up on Facebook for people to Like us prior to entering the contest. Can we track who Liked Us When?
Social Media | | hfranz0