Care Practice is one of the first practices in the country launched almost exclusively through new media platforms like Facebook, Yelp, and Twitter. We made a very early decision to refuse all traditional media until we had proven the success of our model. We viewed traditional media as a distraction for a fledgling start up that needed to focus on patient care.
We felt that we would be far more successful if we could harness this new power of social media as an extension of what people traditionally call word of mouth growth. We believed that one patient putting a message out to their 500 local Facebook friends or on their Yelp site that Care Practice was an amazing and affordable experience was more valuable than any article we could ever get in a local newspaper.
The goal was to build a medical practice that served patients first and incorporated and internalized Dr. Blackledge’s belief that every interaction is an opportunity to demonstrate your character and the character of your business. In the age of social media these interactions are magnified by ten.
We decided on the Mission Dolores location and not Pacific Heights because we wanted to put it in a place where young people would talk about it and mention it on their social media sites. Dr. Blackledge had heard about Tommy Hilfiger opening stores in urban areas and basically letting people shoplift from him, and that was sort of the thinking. Get people in the door and blow them away. It’s not what you come in with that matters, it’s about what you walk out with. We are building Care Practice as an entity that resonates in the entire community.
