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Social media has revolutionized how businesses engage with their audiences, including healthcare organizations.
Hospital social media marketing can be an effective means of building their brand, increasing public health awareness, and drawing in potential new customers.
In this article, we’ll examine tried-and-tested strategies for effective healthcare social media marketing with examples from leading healthcare companies.
The Significance of Social Media in Modern Healthcare Industry
Social media marketing has become an invaluable asset to hospitals, enabling them to connect with patients, engage a targeted audience, and effectively market healthcare services.
While there are many challenges associated with using social media, here are 10 reasons why hospitals need to continue improving their social media marketing strategies:
- Establishing Patient Connections: Social media offers hospitals a platform to create meaningful connections with existing and potential patients, inducing a sense of community and trust.
- Engaging a Targeted Audience: Healthcare brands can engage with specific demographics and patient groups.
- Brand Promotion and Reputation Management: Hospitals can build their reputation and boost their professionalism by sharing their expertise, achievements, and thought leadership through social media channels.
- Timely Interaction and Customer Service: Hospitals can use social media platforms to interact with patients, answer questions and resolve concerns quickly. These platforms help hospitals improve their customer service, and increase patient satisfaction.
- Demonstrating Advocacy and Thought Leadership: Hospitals can use social media to show advocacy and thought leadership within their medical field by sharing vital health information and showing support for healthcare causes. They can also demonstrate expertise in the area.
- Educational Outreach and Awareness: Hospitals can utilize social media to educate visitors and patients about the medical field and specialties, as well as raise awareness of certain health conditions.
- Recruitment and Retention of Healthcare Professionals: Hospitals can use social media as a tool to recruit, retain, and attract talented healthcare workers by showcasing the facilities, culture, commitment, and dedication to patient care.
- Crisis Communications: Social media allows hospitals to rapidly communicate during emergencies, crises, or disasters. This helps to calm fears, provide timely updates, and calm down concerns.
- Fundraising and Community Engagement: Hospitals can use social media to inform their audiences about fundraising events and initiatives. They can also encourage community involvement and support.
- Humanizing Healthcare Providers and Staff: Social media allows hospitals to highlight the personal, human side of their healthcare providers and employees, making the organization relatable and accessible to patients.
5 Hospital Social Media Marketing Strategies
1. Conduct A/B Tests with Your Content:
Image caption: John Hopkins Medicine shares the same blog post on two social media platforms (Facebook and LinkedIn), with different captions.
A/B Testing is a useful way to compare performance between different communication methods. This method can be used to test variations in copy and hashtags. Healthcare marketers can also experiment with graphics, videos, images, and videos.
Once you know what works, make sure to incorporate it into your strategy. Don’t be afraid to repurpose existing content; experimentation and iteration are keys to optimizing content that captivates audiences.
[Related: 9 Best Practices for Healthcare Facebook Ads]
2. Provide Trustworthy and Accurate Healthcare Content
Social media provides healthcare organizations with an invaluable platform to share medically credible information and address widespread health concerns. By combating misinformation with authoritative facts, you can build your audience’s trust in your brand and raise public healthcare awareness
Consistently providing educational content establishes your organization as an authoritative and trusted source of healthcare information.
Mayo Clinic has a reputation for providing doctor-vetted and trustworthy healthcare content on social networks. Their strategies include engaging their audience through short, informative videos called “Mayo Clinic Minute.” These videos cover popular health topics and receive over 10,000 to 1 million views every time they are uploaded to Facebook or Youtube.
By providing factual health information from trusted authorities, the Mayo Clinic addresses common healthcare concerns while simultaneously building trust among its followers by educating and informing them.
3. Remain Compliant
Compliance with regulations and industry standards, such as HIPAA and FDA, is crucial when using social media. This helps in avoiding any misleading or inappropriate content on your healthcare social media channels.
When in doubt, consult with legal or compliance professionals to ensure that you are not publishing sensitive information or large announcements.
The FDA imposed consequences on Eli Lilly, a pharmaceutical healthcare organization, after it raised concerns about an Instagram advertisement for its type-2 diabetes drug which was misleading and gave the impression that viewers were in danger. This incident highlights the importance of legal and compliance reviews to prevent violations and build a trusting online presence.
[Related: Pros and Cons of Social Media in Healthcare]
4. Optimize for SEO Through Social Media
Search engine optimization (SEO) can help you to improve your online visibility. Optimize your profiles on social media and the content that is shared. Post engaging content regularly, answer patient questions promptly, and maintain accurate business information across your web profiles.
Image caption: Women’s Health and Wellness, a women’s health clinic in Arizona, utilizes local SEO practices by posting regularly and making sure their business information is accurate across their web and social media profiles.
Linking back to your website and maintaining consistent information are powerful strategies for local SEO. This increases your visibility and performance in search results.
By regularly posting relevant content and optimizing their social media profiles, healthcare Healthcare organizations can increase their online presence by regularly posting relevant content on their social media profiles and optimizing them. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can be powerful platforms for local SEO, which drives more traffic to your website.
5. Focus on the Patient Experience:
Social media provides a powerful platform for healthcare organizations to showcase the patient experience. By sharing stories and testimonials from patients and highlighting the work of staff members in providing care, organizations can build trust and credibility with potential patients.
Johns Hopkins Hospital excels in patient engagement with a narrative-driven approach, creating authentic connections through emotional videos.
Their YouTube channel, in particular, has proven to be a powerful platform for sharing engaging and emotional stories about patient experiences. For example, a video showcasing the journey of a patient whose seizures led to successful but high-stakes pediatric brain surgery has garnered nearly 2 million views since its publication.
By highlighting success stories and medical breakthroughs, Johns Hopkins Hospital reveals the human side of healthcare and its positive impact on patients’ lives.
While sharing patient experiences is valuable, it is crucial to prioritize patient confidentiality and comply with HIPAA regulations and medical ethics codes. Always obtain explicit written consent before sharing patient content on social media.
Revamp Your Healthcare Social Media Marketing Now!
As the digital age continues to evolve, the healthcare industry must embrace social media to stay connected with their communities and thrive in an increasingly interconnected world. We hope our tips above can help you boost your social media presence and achieve your overall marketing goals!
It’s now time to revamp your social media strategy! Follow the Digitalis Blog for more healthcare marketing tips or reach out to our team for a marketing consultation today!
