You’ve acquired another practice. Integrating them into your digital brand is a vital step for a cohesive feel and to ensure patients find their providers.

Update your website

We recommend a press release added to your news or blog section and then update any references to locations on your site including footers and contact page. Search your website by address or another identifier to ensure you catch them all. Be sure to include the physical address, phone numbers, hours, services, and providers at that location. Don’t skip the providers! Patients will often search for providers by name, so it’s a great way for them to find your clinic, especially if the acquisition included a move of location.

Additionally, evaluate what to do with their website. If they have excellent content and traffic, consider integrating it into yours. If not, do a simple redirect from their website to yours.

Facebook page

If the practice has an existing page, evaluate the value.  If they have positive reviews and followers, consider claiming or transferring, then update to your branding.  Update any previous content to fit your brand.  If they have negative reviews or would be otherwise unhelpful to brand, claim and transfer and then delete the page.

If there is no existing page, create a Business page.  Select imagery and color scheme consistent with your brand. 

Create Editorial Calendar based on services and start scheduling content.  Aim for posting at least once a week.  If the former brand has warm fuzzies, create a campaign around the transition and be sure users understand that the good things about the previous clinic will stay the same. Share what will be improved.

If you are updating branding on an existing page, respond to reviews less than 6 months old and any new reviews.  If prior reviews are negative, be sure to mention new ownership.  If they are positive, stay silent to changes or use verbiage around the same service with a new name.

Google My Business page

If the practice has an existing Google My Business page, evaluate the value.  If they have positive reviews, consider claiming or transferring, then update to your branding.  If they have negative reviews or would be otherwise unhelpful to the brand, consider reporting closed and starting fresh.

If there is no existing page, create a Google My Business Page.  Select imagery and a color scheme consistent with your brand.  Go through the process to verify the page.  If the practice does not use a phone tree, a phone call is the quickest way to verify.  If they do use a phone tree, use the postcard method with an on-site clinic contact.

Respond to reviews less than 6 months old and any new reviews.  If old reviews are negative, be sure to mention new ownership.  If they are positive, stay silent to changes or use verbiage around same service with new name.

LinkedIn company page

Add location to your LinkedIn company page. Ask employees to update their employment to the current LinkedIn company page.

If the practice has an existing LinkedIn company page, evaluate its value. If they have any followers, it is likely worth going through the process to merge the pages with LinkedIn. If they do not, delete the pages. Be sure to check for duplicate pages during this process as well. Delete or merge any duplicates.

Yelp

Determine if the acquired clinic has a Yelp profile.  If positive, claim or transfer and consider updating branding.  If negative, mark as closed. Yelp is fairly aggressive with its interpretation of the “same business,” so if you don’t want to be tied to the former business, err on the side of closing and possibly waiting before creating a profile for the new business.

Respond to reviews less than 6 months old and any new reviews.  If old reviews are negative and you are updating branding, be sure to mention new ownership.  If they are positive, stay silent to changes or use verbiage around the same service with a new name.

Additional profiles

If you want to be thorough on branding, search for existing profiles for the practice and individual providers on platforms like Healthgrades, Vitals, and WebMD, then claim, update, or close them.  It can be time-consuming but is not difficult work.

You might also consider updating any profiles that strongly correlate with mapping to the practice such as Waze, especially if the acquisition included a move of location.

And, be sure to update other social platforms like Twitter an TikTok. If your brand doesn’t have these platforms, decide if they are valuable and should be updated. Or, close them.