In today’s digital-driven environment, social media marketing has become a must for healthcare. It is not a single-source answer to everyone’s needs, nor is it a magic bullet for instant leads to your business. However, the right mix of social media platforms and their proper use have become indispensable tools to reach, engage and draw in prospect clients.
Social media management is much more than just simple publishing and posting. Maintaining social media sites requires a lot more attention and hours of research. Daily monitoring, engagement, and strategic enhancements are required to make sure a social media site is working at its best potential that will ensure followers keep coming back – and eventually turn into leads.
According to Deloitte’s 2018 global healthcare outlook, an increasing number of medical experts are making their presence known on social media. This migration is due to the overarching purpose of social media in healthcare to improve patient experience and form a “customer-centric relationship”.
How Does Social Media Marketing Help?
Patients use social media as an additional means to connect. They use social media platforms to find health information, interact with other patients, and rate their health care providers. In fact, a recent survey found that 33 percent of US consumers use social media to find and discuss medical information. The more you are exposed on social media, the more likely you are to drive potential patients to you.
What Does Social Media In Healthcare Do?
Social media marketing is the digital equivalent of word of mouth marketing. It is an open channel for patients to communicate their needs and interest – basically, it is “the voice of the customer.”
Informing Your Patients
Medical providers are capable of becoming a trusted source for sharing reliable medical information. Out of the billion mis-guiding information found on the internet, you can be the dominant voice of reliable source that patients could turn to.
Improving Your Reputation
Social media is a proactive means of establishing reputation and public awareness. Each additional social tool magnifies your visibility. The social nature of these platforms is a springboard for connecting with people, building relationships, explaining your profession, and inspiring references and referrals.
Evaluating Patient Experience
Patients get to share their experience with your service on a more interactive note. Thoughtful and ongoing interaction with patients, colleagues, and prospective patients can reveal areas of service satisfaction or even the need for improvement. In fact, a study shows that most patients trust online reviews more than simple referrals.
Adding Personality To Quality
In addition to higher leads, social media in the medical industry provides opportunities for your practice to create an even more positive connection with your customers. It enables you to show your personality in addition to your professional qualifications and top-notch facilities. Followers want to be treated as friends, not just mere customers. They are looking for a higher level of comfort and the actual “social” in “social media.”
Increasing Organic Traffic
SEO-wise, social media marketing is also a must in the business market today. The most recent Google algorithm development puts greater importance on social media shares, likes, retweets, etc. With higher engagement, Google identifies your business to be authoritative and, therefore, increases the number of visitors it refers to your website. Search engine optimization and an active social media presence have an inevitable connection in positioning your business on top of the cyber world.
Developing the right social media strategy can be tricky as there are so many different platforms to choose from. Not every business needs to have an account on every platform. Therefore, each social media account must have a clear purpose and goal as to why it is being optimized.
Google, Instagram, and Facebook advertising have shown such amazing growth in the past few years and have become hard for any business to ignore. However, the current trends are now changing and the cycle of one platform overtaking another is never ending. Armed with the right knowledge, you can decide which one, if not all, is right for your own business advertising efforts.
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Boost your social media presence and get in front of the right audience, now!