Did you know that only 26% of hospitals actively share content on social media, even though most patients and doctors say that social media has shaped how they seek and provide medical services? With social usage continuing to trend upwards, it’s critical for every business in the medical industry to have a clear strategy for social media marketing healthcare services, treatments, and products.
It doesn’t matter if you are just getting started or are looking to ramp up your social media efforts. You’ll grow your ROI from medical social media outreach when you develop a comprehensive strategy.
Some common benefits of having a social strategy include:
- Expanding your ability to engage with more potential customers and connect with existing healthcare consumers
- Building awareness about care options offered by your practice
- Growing credibility through sharing valuable medical marketing resources, including healthcare marketing videos, blog posts, care guides, and more me big problems
Whether you are a healthcare provider, hospital, pharmaceutical company, medical device manufacturer, or other organization in the medical sector, social media marketing can help you reach your goals by engaging with customers and building brand awareness online.
Keep reading to learn more about what it takes to create a winning strategy for social media marketing healthcare services and products.
What is healthcare social media? How is it different from other types of social media?
There are unique aspects of social media marketing in the healthcare sector that set it apart from other types of patient marketing. One significant difference between social media marketing in healthcare and other industries is the medical community’s need to comply with strict regulations and guidelines set by government agencies.
Additionally, social media marketing in healthcare sometimes involves communicating sensitive health information, which requires the use of specialized tools and strategies to ensure the safety and privacy of patients.
Another key difference is that social media marketing healthcare tends to revolve around building trusting relationships with patients and other stakeholders rather than just promoting products or services. This often involves providing high-quality, relevant content that addresses the needs and interests of your target audience.
What are the best platforms for healthcare social media marketing?
To get started, you need to consider which social media platforms are most relevant for your target audience and business goals.
Once you’ve selected the social media platform or platforms that make the most sense for your organization, you can create social media profiles and start sharing content.
When creating social media content for healthcare, it’s essential to focus on quality over quantity. Share informative, engaging, and relevant content with your target audience. And be sure to monitor social media conversations so you can quickly address any questions or concerns patients may have about your hospital or healthcare organization.
By following these social media marketing in healthcare tips, you’ll see the benefits of increased reach and engagement with potential and existing patients.
What steps are involved in creating a strategy for social media marketing healthcare
Follow these tips to increase engagement with potential and existing patients on social media channels.
Define your social media marketing goals
When it comes to social media marketing in healthcare, it is vital to have clear and defined goals to know what you are working towards. Some possible social media goals for healthcare providers might include increasing brand awareness, building relationships with patients and prospective patients, or driving traffic to your website or social media profiles.
Identify the social media channels where your target audiences are active
Not all platforms will be effective for every healthcare provider, so it is crucial to identify which ones will work best for your specific needs and audience. Popular social media channels for health-related businesses include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, TikTok, and Snapchat.
Invest in creating original, engaging, and informative content
Once you have identified the social media marketing healthcare channels you will be using, it is time to start creating content. When it comes to medical social media marketing, quality is more important than quantity. Always make sure that your content is helpful and interesting to your audience.
Social media is all about interacting with others. You can go even further with your healthcare marketing social media with Facebook Groups. This is an effective option if you are looking to build stronger connections with people in your target audience on a more personal level. However, before starting any new group, check with your practice’s legal team to ensure that hosting and moderating a niche community on Facebook wouldn’t break any HIPPA laws and cause issues with patient privacy.
Once you’ve started a new social media group, your healthcare organization can use this venue for sharing resources and keeping up with what matters most to the people in this demographic.
Utilize social media tools and applications
Several social media marketing healthcare tools and applications can help you manage your presence better and improve your overall efforts.
Some popular social media tools for healthcare providers include:
- Hootsuite
- Hubspot
- Social Buffer
- Sprout
Monitor and measure your social media performance
In order to determine whether or not your social media marketing efforts are successful, you need to monitor and measure your social media performance. This can be done by tracking engagement rates, website traffic, and conversion rates.
Identify organic posts that do well and boost them to reach a wider audience with content already proven to perform well.
Tips for measuring the social media healthcare marketing
When it comes to social media marketing for healthcare services, one of the biggest challenges can be determining how effective your social media efforts are. While social media can be a potent marketing tool, measuring ROI can be tricky when dealing with such a sensitive and personal industry.
One fundamental way to measure ROI in social media marketing healthcare is to track the leads that come in from social media. This means keeping an eye on how many people are inquiring about your services as a direct result of seeing your social media posts. You can do this by setting up Google Analytics goals or using sophisticated lead-tracking software like HubSpot.
Another way to measure ROI is by looking at social media analytics tools, such as social listening and social sharing data. These tools can give you insights into how your social media posts resonate with your target audience and help you identify the types of content that perform best on social media.
Ultimately, creating a successful social media marketing strategy for healthcare services is to continuously test, refine, and optimize your social media efforts over time. By tracking your results and making data-driven decisions, you will be able to create social media campaigns that can help your business reach new audiences and ultimately boost ROI.
8 trends in using social media for healthcare marketing
Some of the current trends in the world of social media marketing healthcare include:
Social listening and monitoring
Healthcare organizations are increasingly using social media listening tools to monitor patient feedback, identify trends and issues in the industry, and stay on top of emerging social media channels.
Greater emphasis on healthcare-specific platforms
In addition to established social networks like Facebook and Twitter, many healthcare organizations are expanding their social marketing efforts to include platform-specific channels, like Doximity and Sermo.
Greater use of social media for patient engagement and education
As patients become more active online, healthcare organizations are using social media to provide educational content and engage with patients on various health topics.
Growth in the focus on live video content
Interactive social platforms like Facebook Live, Snapchat, and TikTok offer healthcare organizations a unique way to connect with patients and promote their brand. Many organizations use live video to give tours of their facilities, host Q&A sessions with doctors, provide educational webinars, and more.
Increase in social advertising
As social media usage continues to grow, so does social advertising. Healthcare organizations use social ads to target specific demographics, promote their brand, and drive traffic to their website.
Targeted use of social media influencers
Social media influencers can be a powerful tool for healthcare organizations in promoting their brand and reaching new patients. Many organizations partner with health influencers to create sponsored content, host social media events, and promote their services.
Implementation of social media policies
As social media usage increases in healthcare, so does the need for social media policies. These policies help ensure that employees are using social media appropriately and according to HIPAA regulations.
Focus on data privacy and security
With social media platforms collecting vast amounts of user data, healthcare organizations need to prioritize data privacy and security in their social marketing efforts. This includes using social media management software tools to granularly control access permissions, encrypting sensitive information in posts, and monitoring social activity for potential breaches.
FAQs about about social media marketing healthcare
Healthcare social media marketing is complicated. Find more answers to your questions about engaging with patients using this marketing tactic.
How can social media drive patient engagement?
By using social media, hospitals and healthcare organizations can:
- Strengthen relationships with patients, families, and caregivers
- Quickly and widely share critical news and updates about your hospital or practice
- Connect with potential and current healthcare consumers
How has social media changed healthcare marketing?
Social media has completely revolutionized the way that healthcare organizations market their services.
Through the use of social media marketing healthcare campaigns, hospitals and other healthcare organizations have an organic, affordable way to connect with current patients and reach new audiences on a daily-to-day basis.
Not only can social media be used to share updates about your hospital or practice, but social platforms like Facebook and Twitter can also be used to drive patient engagement and connect with potential healthcare consumers.
What should and shouldn’t we put on social media? What do patients want to see posted by their healthcare providers on social media?
The possibilities are endless, but these are some types of healthcare marketing social media posts that get the most engagement:
Pro-tip: Always adhere to HIPAA regulations when using social media for healthcare marketing purposes.
- Timely updates about changes at your hospital or practice, including office closings, holiday hours, patient portal outages, new procedures, etc.
- Details about new services and products
- Important research findings
- Fun facts about doctors and other healthcare providers that reveal their personality and make them seem more relatable
- Information about the openings or closings of practice locations/offices
- Treatment success stories and testimonials from patients, families, and caregivers
- Seasonal and newsworthy healthcare tips and resources
Where is social media marketing healthcare headed next?
As social media usage continues to grow, so does the savviness of its users.
Healthcare social media managers no longer can post the same exact content at the same exact time across all of their profiles and expect to see amazing results. Users have too many choices nowadays.
The challenge is to develop a medical social media marketing strategy that helps you reach the right audiences with valued content. You want users to look forward to seeing content from your hospital or healthcare organization in your feed.
How does healthcare social media affect search rankings?
Numerous studies have found that social media significantly impacts search engine rankings. Most of these studies found that social signals, such as Facebook likes and Twitter followers, correlate with higher rankings in Google’s search results.
Another study by Moz and Virante looked at the correlation between social signals and local search rankings. They found that social signals are an essential factor for local search results, particularly for businesses targeting geographically specific keywords.
For example, a social signal indicating that a website is relevant to users looking for certain types of healthcare services would likely help the site rank higher in local searches related to that specific healthcare service offering.
Why is it important to customize content for social media marketing healthcare posts by platform?
How people use Instagram is different than how they use Snapchat. That’s why posting the same content from platform to platform can limit your ability to connect with your target audience and their needs.
For example, Twitter is known for its brevity, so your tweets should be short and to the point. On the other hand, Facebook is more social in nature and allows for longer posts, so there you can share more detailed information on your page. Instagram is a great place for strong visuals, and TikTok works best for engaging videos.
Always think about how users interact with a platform as you create your medical social media marketing content.
What types of posts would make someone unfollow a hospital on social media?
People react to lackluster social media marketing healthcare posts in the same negative way they respond to less-than-great content shared by any other company.
If you use your medical social media posts to constantly try to sell something without considering your patients’ needs, you’ll likely see many unfollows. No one wants to be bombarded with sales pitches every day, especially from a healthcare provider they trust with their life.
Other social media no-no’s that will lead to an unfollow include:
- Posting info that isn’t relevant to your audience rather than focusing on sharing information that would interest and build trust with your followers
- Reposting the same stuff repeatedly without changing imagery, messaging, etc.
- Creating hyper-specific content that isn’t relevant to most of your followers
- Posting generic, low-quality posts with no real strategy behind them
- Developing content that would feel too personal for a follower to engage with it
the end of the day, social media users that have connected with your healthcare organization are looking for authenticity, quality content, and valuable information. You will see great results from your medical social media marketing efforts if you can provide high-quality posts regularly to your followers.
I need inspiration! What are examples of some of the best healthcare social media accounts?
Some of the best social media marketing healthcare accounts include:
- Mayo Clinic
- Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
- UCSF Health
- Mount Sinai Health System
These healthcare providers are known for engaging social media content, targeted medical marketing campaigns, and responsiveness to fans and followers.
Whether they post health tips, research findings, or inspiring patient stories, these hospitals and health systems use social media to provide valuable healthcare social media marketing content to their audiences.
Using social media to grow new patients and increase patient loyalty
Believe it or not, almost 75% of millennials prefer to research medical options and schedule healthcare appointments entirely online. And of that group, a little less than half say that a medical practice’s social media posts influence their decision-making when choosing a new doctor, hospital, or medical facility.
As today’s patients increasingly take to social media to get the care they need, healthcare providers need to follow their lead. Producing a solid strategy for social media marketing healthcare services and treatments sets up your hospital or medical practice with a plan for being there when your customers need you.
Work with a pro to go deeper with your medical social media strategy
If you have any questions about taking your medical social media marketing to the next level, the healthcare marketing consulting pros at TBH Creative can help you brainstorm ways to reach your marketing goals and tackle current challenges.
Our experienced team has helped healthcare providers across the U.S. use their social media channels to empower patients, making them better-informed healthcare consumers with stronger connections to the providers who support them and help them get stronger.
