Now with events across the globe isn’t it time your veterinary business got involved? In honour of Social Media Week, AddVet are offering 3 FREE veterinary social media marketing packages. This includes Twitter and Facebook set-up along with 1 month’s free maintenance (including status updates and tweets). Apply now using our contact form using “Social Media Week” as the subject.

@

The ‘at’ sign is more familiar to most of us in email addresses. It actually performs a similar function on Twitter. It is used to denote who you are talking/replying to.

For example:

User1 posts: Does anyone know of a good veterinary practice in Leicester?

User2 replies: @User1 I do. The Park Veterinary Group is fantastic!

By using the ‘@’ User2 ensures User1 sees their post, as it will appear in the ‘Mentions’ section of User1’s Twitter profile. It also means anyone following User2 can easily track the conversation by clicking through to User1’s profile in order to put User2’s reply in the context of the original question. If User2 had been really clever, she could have posted:

@User1 I do. @ParkVetGroup is fantastic!

This would have provided User1 with a link straight through to The Park Veterinary Group’s Twitter profile.

#

The hash tag is used to signify what you are tweeting about, such that it can be grouped with other tweets on the same topic. For example, pet lovers often give a shout out to their favourite Twitter users on a Wednesday. Such posts are given the tag #WoofWednesday or #WW for short, and are usually followed by a long list of @s. It is the topics that are tweeted most often in this way that will be shown as ‘trending’ on the Twitter homepage. So, look out for WoofWednesday trending next Wednesday!

Top tip: as a vet on Twitter, you may wish to add the tag #vet to your tweets, you can even break it down further with more specific tags.

For example:

CaringCreatures: Don’t forget the importance of regular #worming. We recommend that you worm your #dog every 3 months.

RT

In the Twitterverse RT stands for retweet. Retweeting is something you can do if you find a tweet that you particularly like. By retweeting someone else’s tweet you are showing that tweet to all of your followers, allowing it to reach a wider audience. There is now a retweet button, and this will post the original tweet content, prefixed with RT and @ the username of the person who posted the original tweet.

Example:

RT @CaringCreatures Don’t forget the importance of regular #worming. We recommend that you worm your #dog every 3 months.

So there you have it: @, # and RT. I know Twitter can all get a bit confusing but stick with it. The easiest way to learn how to tweet without making a twit of yourself is to join the conversation!

Pet owners used to have to go to a fair amount of effort to find a suitable veterinary practice for their pets. They would have to dig out their copy of the Yellow Pages or similar phone directory, leaf through the fat unwieldy book to the letter ‘V’. With ‘van and truck hire’ just a few pages behind them, they would then begin the laborious task of choosing a vet. Even this was easier said than done. What was there to choose between the rival practices? The font or colour palette of that year’s advert, perhaps? But neither would give a reliable indication of an individual practice’s expertise. What about the practice’s postcode? Maybe, but we all know most pet owners are willing to go the extra mile for their much loved pets. Vets simply could not convey enough information in a single square box to set them apart.

Now…

The Internet means veterinary practices can no longer afford to hide in square boxes, let alone in closed books. Potential clients can now make use of search engines such as Google to find a list of their local vets. They can easily choose between them too. How? Well, the web allows forward thinking vets to outshine their rivals by demonstrating their expert status through blog (web log) posts and social media (e.g. Twitter and Facebook).

So…

The old game of hide and seek is over. The Internet killed it by empowering pet owners to make an informed choice. However, in doing so it created a new ‘game’ with different rules.

Never fear! AddVet is here to guide you through the world of web 2.0 and social media marketing, such that when clients seek, you are found.

1) You will need the username and password for the account under which you registered your domain name. Commonly this will be with a company such as GoDaddy. If you have lost these details you will need to contact your ‘domain registrar’ (e.g. GoDaddy) in order to retrieve them.

2) You will have received an email from a member of AddVet’s technical team telling you that they have set up hosting for your veterinary practice’s new site. Hosting is effectively the plot of land on which your site is to be built. However, your domain needs to know where this plot of land is. To this end, the email you receive will contain the domain name server (DNS) information that you need. There will be a primary and a secondary name server.

3) With your domain name account information and your new name server details to hand, you should now log into your domain name account. Enter the domain management section of your account. Select the relevant domain and pick the option “Change Name Server” or “Change DNS” (or equivalent). On this page, delete the current name servers and change them to the ones given to you in the AddVet email (typically ns23.crucialdns.com and ns24.crucialdns.com).

4) The change may take up to three days to have effect; however, it is often much quicker than that. Please do let the AddVet team know as soon as you have successfully changed the DNS/name server for your domain. This will allow us to continue developing your veterinary practice’s website in a timely manner.

This is where AddVet can help. Our team of marketeers knows exactly how to minimise your cost per click while maximising the reach of your ads. We can optimise your ad placements and provide you with maximum return on your Adwords advertising investment.

If you are interested in finding out exactly what AddVet can do for you and your practice, why not book a free consultation below.

“All indications are that it will be essential for all practices to have their own website as well as a significant social networking presence within the next two years.”
                                                                                                       Susan Beeley, In Practice, September 2010.

Times are changing; your clients are living in a digital world. From buying their weekly shop online to comparing insurance companies, household purchasing decisions are increasingly being made via the web. This trend is reflected in the way pet owners select a veterinary practice.

It makes perfect sense: why would your potential clients dig out the Yellow Pages when they can quickly and simply search online to find a local vet? At the touch of a button, they will have access to a wealth of information about the services you or your competitors provide. Together we can ensure that it is your practice they find.

At AddVet our background in veterinary medicine and web development means that we understand the importance of engaging with both potential and existing clients online. This is best achieved not only through your own dedicated website, but also through the ever expanding world of social media. After all, who hasn’t heard of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube? However, in the current economic climate, only corporate chains can afford to fund their own in-house team of web designers. What is more, it is asking too much of a busy Practice Manager to expect them to create and manage a successful web presence on top of their many other day-to-day tasks.

Don’t panic! With AddVet you can compete. Whether your practice is just starting out online or already has a website, we can provide a marketing strategy tailored to your individual needs. Our services are not just limited to the initial set-up period; we provide long term, veterinary-specific solutions to make the web work for your practice. After all, AddVet exists to help you get the best possible return on your marketing investment. To this end, we can set-up and manage a comprehensive social media marketing campaign and optimise your site for search engines, including; Google, Yahoo! and Bing. In this way, your marketing spend can provide a greater impact than traditional strategies by immediately engaging with a broader client base.

So, get AddVet-ising your veterinary practice today by claiming your free consultation on www.addvet.com or call 07593 842379. Best of all, until 30th November we’re offering 10% off all our web solutions, simply quote “AddVet2010” when placing your order.

Yours sincerely
Ben Hanning
Sales Director

In her article, Susan draws the attention of practice managers to the importance of social media marketing. Indeed, she writes:

“All indications are that it will be essential for all practices to have their own website as well as a significant social networking presence within the next two years.”

This is something that we have been advocating at AddVet for some time now. However, we understand that despite their best intentions, many practice managers simply do not have the time or the resources to devote to creating a successful web presence for their practice. What is more, outside of the big corporates, few practices can afford to fund their own in house team of web geeks. However, as Susan goes on to note, doing nothing isn’t an option:

“There is a significant and growing population who like to buy on the internet… If your practice is not online, they will buy from someone else!”

Don’t panic! This is where AddVet comes in. Not only do we have the industry-specific know-how to create a website that works for your practice but we can also set-up and manage a comprehensive social media marketing campaign for you. Our service covers Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as standard at an affordable rate that provides fantastic return on investment (ROI).

For more details, simply claim your free web marketing consultation using the form at the bottom of this page.

The internet is not new; it’s been around the block a few times, experienced rapid growth,  gone through a calamitous crash and then repeated this process several times over for good measure. So, it is no surprise then that even time-poor veterinarians have felt the pull of the web and made an effort to get online.

However, largely due to their time poverty, this effort to get online has often been half-hearted and has, therefore, produced less than impressive returns. Be it going with the first web services company to knock at their door (or worse still; the cheapest) or taking a DIY approach, vets have all too often fallen victim to the if-we-build-it-they-will-come syndrome that is rife on the web. There are literally millions of sites occupying virtual space that go months without receiving a single visitor, which plays testimony to the fact that potential clients won’t just ‘come’.

Get it right and the web has a lot to offer veterinary business. However, get it wrong with a poorly designed website and this will only reflect poorly on your company, perhaps even producing negative returns. Moreover, fail to market your website once it is in place and you may as well have saved both time and money by not building it at all.

At AddVet we often hear the cry of “But we have a website…” and our response is simply: “But is it thriving?” It surprises many hardened veterinary practice managers to know that a website can be as effective as opening a new practice. This isn’t a myth, it isn’t hype, not, that is, when you have a team that understand what it takes not only to get online but also to get seen.

More enlightened practice managers start the same conversation with: “We have a website but…” They, like us, recognise the ever evolving nature of the opportunities that the internet presents to the veterinary profession and industry as a whole, and they don’t want their business to be left behind.

With AddVet your veterinary company will never be left behind. On the contrary, you will be street ahead of the competition with access to new technologies that they don’t even realise exist.

AddVet can develop a web presence for your practice from scratch or redesign your existing website. We can then maintain that website for you and market it to ensure you reach your target audience.

Learn more about what we have to offer by booking your free, no obligation consultation using the form below.

I look forward to working with you,

Thom Jenkins

AddVet Founder