Social media marketing is the newest marketing strategy that has taken the world by storm and for good reason. These media platforms connect millions of users and businesses have unlimited scope for reaching out to their customers. This is especially beneficial for professionals in the healthcare industry. Doctors are pressed for time and can't interact too much with the patients. This puts a spanner in the works when it comes to building business relationships. However, social media marketing eliminates this problem and makes it easy for doctors to be connected with their client base throughout the day. Social media makes it possible for doctors to respond to their patients' medical needs immediately. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Snapchat are just a few of the social media accounts that have millions of followers all over the world. These platforms also allow users to reach out to only a select demographic too.
Since social media is also a marketing tool, campaigns that are run on these platforms are differently customized for every business. This is also the case with the healthcare industry. How can social media campaigns for healthcare be optimized?
Identify the right social media mix
Specialists always have a fixed practice and their audiences are also limited. This makes it imperative for a healthcare professional to plan their campaign in such a way that they target the relevant audiences. It is wise to experiment with all the social media platforms and see which gives the most engagement. For example, the demographics and expectations of users on LinkedIn are different from users on Facebook and Instagram. LinkedIn is a more professional setting and Facebook and Instagram are more informal with more engagement.
With social media, professionals can also talk about their practice. It is a well-known fact that passionate professionals bag more business. Put up content on social media that gives more information about the practice. To gather more engagement the content can even be about common illnesses and ways to deal with them.
Lesser known practices like plastic and cosmetic surgery need to have more information to combat the stigma. According to Lauryn Preston from Digital Logic, social media marketing should have high-quality content that aims to solve a problem for potential clients. Just like social media helps professionals, it helps clients to find their ideal service too.
Connect with patients
Now that there is a social media platform up and running, professionals can connect with patients more effectively. They can answer their patients' queries quicker. Social media also helps professionals build business relationships with their clients. This is a way to be empathetic and gain trust. The more interpersonal communication is facilitated, the more trust with customers is built. An open platform where there is two-way communication eases the whole process of providing and receiving healthcare.
Build patient loyalty
Any customer base comprises of two types of clients - existing and potential. Strengthening client relationships with existing clients not only helps you retain them but also gain new ones. Happy customers would talk about their healthcare provider and recommend them to their friends and family. Connect with the existing customers through social media so they can spread the word more easily.
Create social media campaigns
The social media campaigns that a healthcare provider runs are always highly specialized. There is a lot of careful deliberation that goes into constructing one. The idea behind running a campaign is to engage as many people as possible for better reach. Contests, giveaways, and quizzes are exciting ways to grab attention. Healthcare brands can really benefit from this. Most people explore services once the brand has their attention.
The difficulty of running social media campaigns can range from easy to really technical. The beauty of these campaigns is that both individuals and agencies can run these depending on the level of difficulty. It is advisable to employ the services of an agency if there isn't time to invest in conceptualizing a campaign.
Digital marketing is a boon for healthcare professionals. They can choose how much they want to invest in setting up their marketing platforms. It is imperative that healthcare professionals invest a little time in learning how to run and operate these. In the case of hospitals and clinics, everyone must be well versed in operating these systems to connect with clients and patients. Such institutions must have a short training for their employees. Needless to say that social media marketing can propel a business ahead faster and more efficiently. So if a business would like to earn more revenue and expand exponentially, they must explore at least some of the endless possibilities of social media marketing.
