6 Ways to Develop a Social Media Strategy for Healthcare, Hospital, Medical Practices and Pharmacy

In today’s digital-driven environment, having a social media presence is a marketing must-have for healthcare. Hence, having an appropriate mix of online social media platforms has become a vital tool to reach, engage and excite consumers effectively.

Before you think about starting a social media marketing campaign for your healthcare business, consider the following 6 questions to building a social media strategy

QUESTION #1: What are we trying to accomplish?

“Really understanding the goal you’re trying to hit is the first step to reaching it.”

The more trackable your goal is, the easier it’ll be in a few months to see if you have achieved it.

Take Action: For a goal to become a reality, it needs to be specific, measurable, attainable, and realistic, as well as time-specific — these are often called SMART goals.

QUESTION #2: Who is Your Audience and what kind of people are most likely to be interested in your service or product? 

Knowing who you’re trying to connect with, is crucial to creating effective content.

Take Action: Start by finding data on your existing audience. Use the Demographics and Interests sections of Google Analytics and the audience analytics features contained within Facebook Insights and Twitter to help you.

QUESTION #3: What platform does your ideal audience used mostly and can be found?

Throwing marketing out onto the web without knowing who it’s aimed at or where it will perform the best is equivalent to printing a bunch of flyers and posting them in some arbitrary location.

QUESTION #4: How would you describe your brand in 30, 60, or 90 seconds?

A firm that doesn’t have a proper brand message fails to differentiate itself in the market

What makes you uniquely you? What values does your organization stand for? Use social media to communicate the “who” and “why” of your practice. What unique qualities make you stand out?

Consider your social media tone and voice. How do you wish to communicate on social media? Do you wish to be seen as authoritative, inspiring, friendly, approachable, or helpful? Authentic communication and engagement are highly valued traits online as much as offline.  Look to build and strengthen trust and credibility in all your online interactions. The tone and voice you use should be consistent through all social channels. Your patients should be able to instantly recognize the tone in your social media messages as identifiably you.  Establishing a clear and identifiable voice can also make it easier for others in your office to post on social media for your practice.

QUESTION #5: What is Your Content Strategy?

A business without a content strategy is one without a voice. If your audience can’t hear you, then they sure won’t buy from you.

Consider the type of content that works best on each platform. Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest require high-quality visuals to stand out. A blog, on the other hand, is better suited to long-form thought pieces. Think about how you can vary your message delivery to complement how people like to consume online information. Alternate between written content, video, infographics, and podcasts to match your audience’s preferences.

Take Action: Create content that truly resonates with your patients. Generally speaking, patients are less interested in your brand, your physicians or your technology, than they are in how you can help them solve their problems. Great content is not about you, but about what you can do for your patients to improve their quality of life. Use a mix of original content and content curated from highly credible evidence-based sources.

QUESTION #6: What is the appropriate digital channel that best fits your goal?

To get the most eyes on your content, you need to identify the right distribution channels.

Would you be doing the organic posting, or running ads?

How often would your post be on the gram, daily, twice or thrice daily?

Would you be working with an influencer to achieve post reach and increased visibility?

A solid process for developing a social marketing strategy goes a little something like this:

• A smart specific goal
• Clear profile(s) of who you are selling to
• One or more marketing platforms that your audience is populated
• A clear, concise message will be conveyed in your marketing process
• An owned, curated and developed content plan/strategy
• An evaluation of the appropriate digital channel that best fits your goal

Ideally Seriously though, just knowing the answers to the six questions above can mean the difference between wasting thousands of dollars on directionless marketing or getting a great ROI from highly targeted, creative campaigns.

Answering the questions can be difficult for a lot of businesses, especially ones without any type of experience with online marketing, but sometimes just the process of trying to answer them can be more enlightening than you would have thought.

Your business needs to be online and it needs to have a well-planned online marketing strategy that is built for producing tangible results….not just vanity metrics like organic rankings. 

Get in touch with us to discuss your needs.