Introduction
Social media is an integral part of the marketing process for most businesses. Companies should adopt the trends that are available in the market to ensure that all customers are reached at any time of the marketing process. This paper will focus on how social media can be exploited by small-scale businesses to integrate to their marketing plans. The case study will be for Healthy Eyes Vision Center which is located in Texas.
Eye clinic background
The eye clinic deals with optometry and eye services. This is a private eye clinic that is located in two locations: Mexia, Texas and Fairfield which are both in Texas. The eye clinic has had no marketing in their services. It is important to understand the role that social media is playing in the marketing experience. There are many improvements that should be done on the eye clinic’s website in order to improve the presence of the eye clinic on the internet. The eye clinic does not have an active social media presence. The eye clinic has a basic site that has little information. The site has little information apart from the services that the eye clinic offers. The eye clinic also has little information regarding promotional activities that will make the website be found (Hung, &McQueen, Ku, & Chang, 2011).
Proposal for Healthy Eyes Vision Center
One of the proposals that will be given to be used for the eye clinic is to ensure that there is presence of the eye clinic in the leading social media platforms. The eye clinic should ensure that there is the use of Facebook, and Twitter to communicate to clients. This will ensure that there is efficient communication between the customers and the Healthy Eyes Vision Center. There are many customers and people who are now using social media. This trend should be a platform and an advantage for the eye clinic to ensure that they make use of social media as a marketing platform. Many organizations make use of Facebook as a social communication tool while Twitter is used to make official communication with the customers. These two social media platforms are important and should be used in the eye clinic to enhance the communication between the clients and the eye clinic. This has proved to be an effective way of passing important communication between the clients. The activities that take place within Healthy Eyes Vision Center should be posted on the eye clinic website. This will improve the activities of the eye clinic so that they are able to promote the participation of the customers on the social media.
Another proposal is to have social media staff that will be dedicated to customers who are found on social media. With this, the social media staff will be required to engage the clients on the social media platform. This will increase the chances of the clients in participating on the activities of the organizations. Social media will help the website to have increased traffic. This is because the staff will direct the clients to visit the website of the eye clinic. With this redirecting of the traffic, there will be increased visitors to the site (Dale, 2007).
Building customer relationships with social media
Healthy Eyes Vision Center should try to build relationships between the clients and the eye clinic. One way in which this can be achieved is to have engagement with the clients. This will ensure that the clients will be free with the staff, and with the eye clinic website and social media. It is important to have clients who will feel free to ask questions. It is important to understand the requirements of the clients and solve the problems that they have. There are different ways in which the clients can be engaged with the use of the social media.
Linking website and social media
One of the proposals for the Healthy Eyes Vision Center is to link their website and social media presence. This will ensure that there is better management of the relationship between the two sites. Many people would rather visit eye clinic social media pages for information. This will be achieved with the use of links for Twitter and Facebook pages that are placed on the eye clinic website. This should be done with the Healthy Eyes Vision Center website. There are no links that will direct visitors that come to the website to the social media links. This is one way in which marketing can be done. It is important to understand the requirements of the customers. One of the social media platforms that have been found to be effective in spreading electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is Twitter. The use of the internet to pass information is faster than the traditional word of mouth. The marketability of the eye services that are offered by the eye clinic will be effective with the use of electronic word of mouth. This will be achieved with the use of the social media platform.
The use of electronic word of mouth tool will increase the performance of the eye clinic and the marketability of the eye services that are offered by Healthy Eyes Vision Center. The eye clinic can ensure that there is brand advocacy with the use of social media. Customers will be able to post their views on the eye services that are offered by the eye clinic. This will bring the engagement and the activity that will enhance the advocacy of the eye clinic on the internet. Social media are known to be effective in the enhancement and the development of the marketing that is required in this aspect.
The use of the connection between the social media and the website will increase the marketability between the two connections. The use of social media will increase the social relationships between the eye clinic with the patients and the old patients. One way on reaching out and checking out on the patients is to have a way of ensuring that the patients who have gone through the center are doing well. This is a better way in which the clients are engaged. This is advantageous to the eye clinic. One of the challenges that companies have experienced in the past is having close social relationship with the clients. The clients want to see the human part of the eye clinic. With the services that are offered by the eye clinic being services that need the humane side of the eye clinic to be portrayed with inclination to the clients, there is a need to show this concern. Social networks are a way that will improve this communication with the clients. The eye clinic will be seen to be concerned about the relationships and the concern of the clients regarding the welfare after getting the services. This is not only a good way of engaging the clients but will also be a way in which the clients will be assessed on the performance and how they are doing in the eye clinic (Simmons, Armstrong, & Durkin, 2008).
Healthy Eyes Vision Center should take advantage of engaging with the clients and ensuring that the clients have a good image of the eye clinic. It is simple and easier to build a good relationship between Healthy Eyes Vision Center and clients because of the nature of the services. The eye services that are offered by the center will need to have after service for the customer. It is important to have the clients communicate with the organization.
Conclusion
The social media integration that has been suggested for the organization will ensure that the customers will be engaged. This will be achieved through persistence of the engagement. This will develop the social interactions that will enhance the relationships with clients and potential clients. The use of Facebook and Twitter as social media platforms will ensure that there is integrated communication with the clients. This will also bring the closeness that the eye clinic will require in their quest to do enough marketing. This is an important concept that will enhance the communication process. The social media technologies should be adopted by Healthy Eyes Vision Center so that they will be able to take advantage of marketing using the social media. This will also be a way in which traffic will be built in the website. The clients that will visit the Facebook/Twitter page will be redirected to the eye clinic website. This will increase the activity of the website; this is one way of undertaking the marketing of the website.
References
Dale, L. (2007). Website workshop for small business entrepreneurs. Journal of Entrepreneurship Education. 10. 63-72.
Hung, W., &McQueen, R., Ku, C., & Chang, L. (2011). Aligning websites with enterprise success: An evaluative approach. Journal of Computer Information Systems.
Simmons, G., Armstrong, G., & Durkin, M. (2008). A conceptualization of the determinants of small business website adoption: Setting the research agenda. International Small Business Journal. 26. 351
