Social media marketing is no longer an afterthought strategy for companies and organizations, even if your company is in the healthcare industry. Every major brand is already present across the social media platforms. Companies from every industry are taking advantage of the social media. But the healthcare industry is lagging behind.
6 Effective Ways on How Healthcare Marketers Must Use Social Media
One of the reasons is the lack of understanding about how SM works and how healthcare marketers can integrate it with their marketing efforts.
Another reason is that they fear of how social media marketing affects patient privacy and they wonder if they still comply with HIPAA.
What the healthcare organizations don’t realize is that these can be easily overcome. And they should never stand in the way of building a social media marketing strategy.
If you’re a healthcare marketer, here are some ways on how to utilize the social media
1. Use it to interact and engage
Your social media accounts should be used to give your organization a voice and a way to interact with your patients.
Healthcare companies are not so great when communicating with their patients. You can stand out from the rest by showing a bit of personality when you interact with your patients in social media. One thing that you can do is to humanize your organization while you respond to inquiries and reviews.
2. Educate them
Social media isn’t only a place to advertise your products but it’s also an ideal platform to disseminate information about public health issues. Make sure that you limit self-promotional posts. Instead, focus on raising awareness of a certain problem in the healthcare community.
On the Internet, there’s a lot of misinformation about health and fitness. You can use your social media account to combat it and make a positive impact.
Here are some examples of how social marketing in the healthcare industry is like.
3. Raise awareness through social media advertising
Take advantage of social media advertising to help raise awareness for your brand or drive leads to your premium content. In this way, you can nurture your visitors and turn them into patients or customers.
However, when you do use social media ads, ensure that they’re relevant and well-written in a way that they can grab your reader’s attention.
4. Give your readers something that they can’t find anywhere
When it comes to social media, the sky is the limit. One of the things you can give your readers that they can’t get elsewhere is to provide them with video tutorials of your healthcare monitoring device, for example. If you’re selling a fitness equipment for wheelchair-bound customers, give them videos on how to use it or infographics with tips about how your customers can maximize it.
Regardless of what segment your company is in the healthcare industry, there’s a place for you in the social media. Give your audience something that’s unique so it will be shared, retweeted or favorited.
Final Thoughts
Social media isn’t scary. Healthcare marketers should take advantage of it to communicate with their patients and customers. If you don’t have any idea on what to post, try monitoring other healthcare companies and find out what posts they publish on their accounts. Take notes of what truly resonates with you.
When you start engaging with your audience through social media, your healthcare industry can reap the rewards for many years to come.
Originally published at socialbarrel.com on January 2, 2016.