How to Use Social Media for Healthcare Marketing

It seems like almost every day, there is some sort of new social media website or app that hits the market. It's a sign of the times & how social media is ubiquitous in our society. For your healthcare practice or company, social media can be a vital tool for your marketing. This blog post will explain how you can use social media to help market your healthcare company.

Empower Current Patients/Customers To Promote Your Social Channels

Social media is an extension of word-of-mouth marketing. However, instead of conversations being one-to-one, they become one-to-many. Word-of-mouth is helpful across all industries, but especially when it comes to the healthcare industry. People take their health very seriously, and many do extensive research before choosing a doctor. They hold others' opinions of the doctors at a high value. With that said, if your current patients praise your practice on social media, you are more likely to receive new patients from those referrals. 

Some ways that you can empower your current patients/customers to promote your social channels are:

• Having signs throughout your office to 'check-in' on social media sites like Facebook or Foursquare. 
• Create video testimonials of satisfied patients/customers & share them
• Incentivize posting on social media about your practice/company

There are several ways for your to empower your current customers to promote your social channels, but having some type of referral program in place helps to encourage your customers to continue to promote your social sites.

Share Content

Sharing content is a must for your social channels. It is always best practice to keep a blog that has high-value information, and you should certainly be sharing that content on your social channels, but make sure you are also sharing content that isn't on your website. By doing so, you don't come off as a spammy account, but rather, an informational one. The types of content you can share on your social channels are endless. For example, you can share blogs, ebooks/white papers, webinars, videos, etc. Videos are especially valuable when it comes to the healthcare industry. People like to hear directly from healthcare professionals, so videos are of high value.

Promotional campaigns are also good to share. Maybe your practice is currently running a special on physical exams. Or maybe a piece of healthcare equipment you sell is on sale for a special price for a limited time. Those are items that you should certainly share on your social channels.

Social Ads

Advertising on social media is starting to become the norm for several companies across all industries. By using social ads, you can:

• Define very targeted markets that you'd like your healthcare company to reach
• Promote to only certain locations
• Promote special deals or content that you think are valuable

Because you're able to be so granular with who you target on social sites, it obviously isn't free, so that is something to keep in mind. Some social sites will charge you by how many impressions your ad receives, while others will charge you per click that you get. Make sure to read all of the fine print before deciding to go down this avenue.

Communication

One of the biggest positives of using social media for your healthcare company is that it is such a valuable communication tool. Like we said above, you don't want your social accounts coming off as spammy and only promoting your company's content. By using social media as a communication tool, you're preventing your account from looking 'spammy.'

You are able to communicate with current and potential customers/patients. Patients and customers can inquire on hours, which doctors are available which days, if certain time slots are open, etc. By opening up your social media websites as communication tools, you create a more convenient way for current and potential customers to reach you.

Social media is a vital marketing tool, and one that your healthcare company should not ignore.

Which social media website has your healthcare company seen the best results from?