Every day social media becomes more and more ingrained in our daily lives. And that’s sure to continue for years to come. So it’s time to take social media by the reins and use it to serve your healthcare branding. Here are six ways social media helps healthcare brands prosper.
1. Patient Education
Posting on social channels encourages the spread of accurate information. With hearsay being common among social posts, providing audiences with facts from reputable sources is invaluable.
Platforms such as YouTube even work alongside organizations like WHO to strengthen social media policies when it comes to health and medical information. Between February 2020 and January 2021, these policy updates led to the removal of 850,000 YouTube videos with harmful or misleading COVID-19 information.1
2. Promote Healthcare Services
Posting on social platforms is a great way to gather information about what patients’ concerns and needs are. In turn, you can provide the answers on the same platforms, so your audience doesn’t need to venture far to find solutions.
The audience provides you with materials, while you provide them with a sense of security and a promise of answers — building a stronger bond between brand and potential patients. Advertise what people need and want to know about. Whether you offer pop-up clinics, walk-in appointments, vaccines, or any other services, social posting is a quick, easy, and efficient way of spreading the word.
Just keep in mind that the role of social media is to catch attention and engage an audience. Your messaging must be intentional.
3. Brand Advertisement
Your social platforms are an opportunity to highlight your brand — your mission statement, values, culture, you name it. Your platforms are what you make of them. Use them to leverage your brand and beliefs against the competition.
There are endless creative ways to achieve this. Make it personal, make it informational, and make it unique to your brand. Consider some interesting behind-the-scenes posts about your healthcare providers. Shout out new technology that’s breaking onto the scene. Post about
achievements and events you’ve attended or hosted. Healthcare workers are excited to share what they love so much, so get them involved.
Brand advertisement elevates your facility.
4. Accessibility
Social media is one of the most accessible avenues for advertisements. Which means you have a direct outlet for advertising straight to your target audiences. Sites like Instagram and Facebook are used for communication. Lean into that.
Sharing information about illnesses, highlighting important healthcare dates, and posting evidence-based materials helps build your credibility. And with the help of the ever-growing social media usage, more people can access, react to, and engage with your content.
5. Follower Engagement
According to our Owned Media Supervisor, Jordan Fiedler, “Success on social media really comes down to quality versus quantity. There is a lot of noise on social media, but you have to fight against all other distractions. If you have something to say with substance that can benefit others, it is worth posting. With organic social media, as it pertains to healthcare, if it helps just one person get care — receive a scan or make an appointment — the efforts were worth it.”
People aren’t just waiting around to engage with posts. So your creative has to grab attention. How do you achieve this?
Feature human interest stories, patient testimonials, and caregiver highlights. Showcasing imagery from inside the walls of a facility with actual employees and caregivers, leads to huge spikes in engagement.
Another way to create engagement is to ask your audience questions. Encourage them to tag people in the comments or share their story. Let your platforms foster a community where everyone can speak out.
6. Cultivate Loyalty
Jordan also mentioned, “It’s important for people to feel safe, represented, and heard in healthcare settings. Creating content that is honest and authentic to the brand and its efforts to provide equitable healthcare gives your audience an inside look at where your values lie. And it creates a space where anyone can go to receive trustworthy, high-quality facts, creative content, and updates.”
Show that you understand and respect your audience by posting what responds to their needs and interests. Once you have a handle on who your audience is, use social media to post content that reflects that understanding. It’s all about balancing strategy and meeting unmet needs of your target audience. How deeply you invest in your audience impacts how successful your posts are. And keeps them coming back.
Looking for a social media strategy that can elevate your brand? The social media enthusiasts at MKR would love to help with that. Let’s chat.
Source
1 World Health Organization