How You Can Get Maximum Benefits from Social Media in Healthcare
Social media has become an integral part of everyone’s lives. Whether it be sharing a funny meme or getting some healthcare information, social media has become a new medium of communication with customers and brands. Nowadays, every healthcare provider has a presence on social media. But is it optimized enough to reach your targeted audience?
There are plenty of examples where healthcare providers have self-serving social media feeds. This sometimes doesn’t go well with their followers. We agree that followers don’t translate into patients, good social media presence helps in more ways than you can imagine. But first, let’s take a closer how healthcare organizations use social media.
How Healthcare Providers Use Social Medias
Every healthcare brand has a different strategy for social media handles however, certain patterns are common. These includes:
Updates about the services they offer
Promotions activities
Photos of their hospital or centres
Featured healthcare services
Updates for regular or holiday hours
Yes, these all are important for your followers and also for your prospective patients. And, yes it is also a great way to put forward your company’s vision and your work culture. But, will this help to build your loyal audience on social media? Probably not. This is because your followers are not getting the right information from your social media handles.
So what should you post on social media?
Now, that is an interesting question! By no means are we saying that you should avoid posting important updates about your organisation. However, it is equally important to share content that is helpful to your followers and your potential patients. You should send out a clear message to your followers that you are always here for them. Furthermore, one should also share informative, accurate content that nullifies the misinformation that is doing rounds on the internet.
You should always think about those topics that can come in handy during emergencies and more. So, for example, you can talk about the benefits of getting COVID-19 vaccine or give the statistic about many people are suffering from depressions, and so on. Topics like these will drive more engagement on your social media handles and this will help your patients and followers with the crucial information, which they were not aware of.
How social media marketing will help you to attract more patients
Although having a great number of followers on social media platforms is great, will it attract new patients? Probably not. Patients generally search for healthcare providers online using search engines. They don’t typically go on social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more to search for healthcare providers. However, that does not mean that you can attract more patients from social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
This is where social media marketing comes into play. We can divide this into two categories: organic and paid. Organic social media posts mean that you are simply posting content on Facebook or Instagram. However, paid social media ads gets you one step closer to your potential patients. Facebook lets you boost posts to get highlighted in people’s feeds. However, this is not it. It also helps you to target your audience at the right time with a relevant CTA. So, for example, you can easily target those audiences that visited your website. This will increase your chance of conversions.
So, if you use this combination of organic and paid social media, you have a higher chance of reaching your prospective patients with these platforms. However, don’t expect it to be a great turnover as compared to other mediums. So, if you have limited time or budget for social media, you can focus on building your company profile on these platforms by regularly posting informative content. However, we suggest that you should hire an expert that can curate personalized Facebook ads for your patients, constantly monitor them and readjust them to the best results. If you are struggling to find out the right strategy for your social media, our digital marketing experts are there to help you. We, at Healthcare MarTech, provide top-of-the-line social media strategies that will help you find your prospective patients with ease.