I have reviewed the Facebook pages of nearly every infertility clinic across the United States and Canada. (Not an impressive bragging point at cocktail parties, by the way). These are the most common mistakes.

5). Having a lot of likes with little to no interaction. It doesn't matter if you have 60 fans (page likes) or 6,000, if only 2 people like your posts on average. It´s your mother-in-law and your uncle and they are not prospective patients.

4). Not Paying for Facebook Advertising. Interaction is more important than fan size because it leads to reviews, recommendations, and referrals which generate new patients. That said, you need distribution and paying as little as $500/month on Facebook will build a community of hundreds of people in your area who are researching your services.

No one has interacted with this fertility center's content on Facebook, so very few people will see it.

3). Too Much Medical Content. But wait, expertise is paramount in REI. You need to establish yourselves as the the best trained and most knowledgeable. Yes you do...on your website and on your blog. This is what Gary Vaynerchuk means when he talks about respecting why people are using each social media platform. People are not on Facebook to research medical advice.

2). Not Enough Community Content. Much to the contrary, people spend record time on Facebook looking at and posting baby pictures. This is why every fertility clinic should be generating plenty of new patient referrals on Facebook. But they´re not. With HIPAA release authorizations and patient generated content, your practice can play to its strengths on Facebook.

1). Not Responding to Positive Reviews Though not the most common, this is the most grave, and it makes me want to pull my hair out. We all know (I hope) that we have to respond to negative reviews. But the vast majority of Facebook reviews for fertility clinics are positive, and we shouldn't ignore them. We have a bit longer to respond to positive comments, let´s call it 3-5 days, but we need to thank these people for being our strongest supporters. These are the patients who refer the most people. Responding with enthusiasm deepens the relationship with the patient and makes them even more vocal advocates of you and your practice.

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