Modern life has become digital, and health services are no exception. Social media networks have become an important resource in the search for health services not just for the millennial generation; a large percentage of the elderly use social media to search for and share health information.
The simple truth is that patients now use social media to search for information, find support, and make healthcare-related decisions.
8 out of 10 Internet users search for health information online, and 74% of these people use social media to find their goal.
Medical digital marketing service providers need to understand the best practices for using social media and the role of social media in healthcare and digital marketing strategies.
It should be noted that using social media platforms for the purpose of medical marketing is difficult for non-professionals, and we should not forget that the use of social media networks in healthcare marketing provides incredible new opportunities.
Social Media is a great platform for:
- Sharing important health information.
- Remote patient support.
- Communicate effectively with the public.
- Improve the patient’s experience.
- Establish a relationship of trust and loyalty with the public.
- Build a good reputation in front of a larger audience.
- Receive more nominations from existing patients.
Social Media platforms include:
- Social networks: Facebook – MySpace – Google Plus -Twitter – Instagram
- Professional Networks: LinkedIn
- Media sharing sites: YouTube – Flickr
- Content production sites: Tumblr-Blogger and Twitter mini-blogs
It may be difficult for doctors to know how to adhere to the rules of social media platforms to create interactive social medical content despite the many benefits of using these methods.
Hence, dealing with companies specialized in the field of medical advertising is one of the best ways to reach creative meaningful, and educational content that attracts audiences on various social media platforms.
In this article, we will provide you with important tips on creating medical marketing accounts through mobile media platforms in a compatible and safe manner, and explaining the results.
What is the role of social media platforms in medical marketing in 2019?
Medical digital marketing via social media platforms is one of the ways that support doctors’ practices differently. It depends on the simplified presentation of medical information to the public – from a reliable source – by the doctor, which leads the patient to trust the doctor even if he is not one of his current patients.
Role of social media includes:
Increase awareness and combat misinformation
Healthcare institutions must provide reliable information via social media, as it has become a direct and basic means of communicating information to the public, and is an ideal platform for obtaining important advice during public health crises.
Support the patient
Contact between patients and each other or the doctor via social media has real benefits for patients; it is a great place to interact and support the patient and teach him some general advice about his health problem and offer available treatments and provide psychological and moral support to comfort him.
Some studies found that:
- About 40% of young people – ages 14 to 22 – use social media online to try to connect with other people with similar health challenges.
- 50% of women tend to search for information online, especially during the decision to conceive, which leads them to search for and benefit from the experiences presented to them on social media.
Build and manage doctors’ reputation on social media platforms
A recent study found that nearly three-quarters of patients use online reviews and assessments as a first step to finding a new doctor.
Marketing medical services
In 2017, nearly two-thirds of healthcare marketers in the United States have used social media platforms to facilitate access to healthcare professionals.
You can market your brand as a doctor through social media platforms by:
1- Publishing attractive educational videos.
2- Publishing interestingly documented information.
3- Using an appropriate language.
Effective use of social media platforms in medical marketing requires you to create a strong appearance that attracts the audience.
After reading the previous lines, do you now think your healthcare establishment is very weak on social media platforms? Follow these headlines to get the most out of social media for your clinic’s marketing.
How to benefit from Social Media in medical marketing?
1- Managing negative evaluations
Patients write some negative reviews about doctors on social media platforms, and studies have shown that patients prefer the doctor to respond to negative reviews online and clarify.
This is a good reason to be on social media; you can see when people leave negative comments or posts about you on social networks and being able to respond to them appropriately.
Having an online presence as a service provider is much more important than just tackling negative reviews. It allows you to keep up with the issues related to your field.
It also enables you to see what are the treatment options provided by your competition, and thus you can identify new ideas that help build an effective digital marketing strategy in your field.
2- Building a trademark on social media platforms
It is important to consider the following when establishing your social media accounts and pages:
- Choose and write your clinic’s name without spelling errors.
- Create a distinctive visual identity (logos and designs)
Healthcare social media accounts are subject to some strict rules and regulations, so your organization needs a marketing strategy that meets the standards of the social media platforms you wish to be present on.
Also Read: How Does Digital Marketing Work for Clinics?
What type of content is used in Social Media Marketing?
In general, both current and potential patients should be informed about the treatments and new technologies available, and the medical content on the Social Media platforms should not be boring.
Using a diversified content strategy is a smart step in digital marketing, and in order to diversify your content and keep your followers happy, keep in mind the following types of content that are attractive to patients:
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Educational content
Educating potential patients about your specialty and the modern medical technologies you have is a vital part of customer service.
If they have a question about treatment options or what you can do to help them, strive to respond immediately.
You should also learn about the types of content your audience prefers, and try to contribute something that they would appreciate and share.
These are examples of educational content:
- Briefly explain a new treatment option.
- Make an announcement about new technology features in your clinic.
-
“Behind the Scenes” content
Talking about on-the-job practices is a very smart move, highlighting the “fun” side of your team by taking followers behind the scenes adds a bit of excitement and diversity to the content you offer on social media platforms.
Such content creates a brighter side to the healthcare business.
Does Medical Social Media Marketing deserve all this fuss?
Certainly, it is worth it! Creating accounts on your social media platforms improves your name as a doctor on search engines, thereby attracting patients.
Here are some important statistics:
- It is estimated that 70% of American healthcare organizations use social media platforms to post their content on the most popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
- Studies have shown that the use of social media greatly enhances the image of a medical center or hospital.
- In one study, 57% of patients stated that having social media accounts by the hospital or center would severely influence their choice as to where to go for medical services.
- 81% of patients also interpreted the presence of strong platforms for hospitals and clinics across social media platforms as a strong indication that the place definitely offers modern technologies.
- Another study reported that 12.5% of healthcare organizations surveyed succeeded in attracting new patients through the use of social media.
This is why strong social media marketing strategies help:
- Increase patient interaction with your posts.
- Guide new patients to your clinic.
- Easily advertise your healthcare services.
- Share health service and technology updates.
- Improved the doctor’s reputation.
- Improve the doctor’s credibility as a healthcare expert.
- Building loyal relationships with patients.
But before implementing a digital marketing strategy on social media, you first need to understand the different social media channels, and what platform is best suited to display your medical services or your specialty.
There are factors such as:
- Medical specialization
- Geographic target group
- The content you create
These factors play an important role in determining which social media platforms you deserve to invest in your effort to reach the ideal customer.
What are the best social media platforms to market your medical specialty?
With the different social media platforms available to take advantage of as part of your medical marketing strategy, it can be challenging to identify the best platform to reach the right audience.
Here are some important points about social media platforms that are suitable for medical marketing in the Arab world:
Facebook is one of the best social media platforms for spreading medical content from healthcare providers and must be included in every marketing campaign.
Some Facebook statistics:
- Facebook has over 1.3 billion users and has unique capabilities to target and track your ideal audience.
- Females make up 60% of Facebook users and the average age is 25-54 years.
Facebook Marketing is designed for:
- Increase awareness of your name as the brand.
- Patient participation and communication.
- Search Engine Optimization.
Advantages of medical marketing through Facebook
1) Facebook’s advantages are building loyalty to your brand, reviewing patient success stories after their approval, and alerting new patients to the quality of your medical services.
2) Facebook allows for a high level of targeting due to the data on its users, and allows you – in paid posts – an accurate determination of geographical spread, age, interests, income levels, etc. to make sure your content is directed to the specific audience you want to attract.
Which medical specialties are most suitable for Facebook marketing?
All medical practices and specialties are well suited for Facebook. To make your Facebook marketing strategy more successful, you should consider creating a Facebook advertising budget for specialized advertising campaigns.
The best tips for digital medical marketing via Facebook
- Create a Facebook account dedicated to your medical institution.
- Publish attractive content based on your medical specialty.
- Share the unique content from your medical site to ensure the flow of your audience to your website.
- Maintain a rapid response to patient participation.
- Never give medical advice online.
One of the fastest-growing social media platforms, it is dedicated to photo and video sharing.
Some Instagram statistics:
- Instagram contains 800+ million active users.
- 80% of users follow businesses and others on Instagram.
Instagram medical marketing is designed for
Dealing with patients, and sharing pictures of available procedures and results.
Advantages of Instagram medical marketing
Instagram is a great platform for physicians; it targets potential patients for services such as plastic surgery, bariatric treatment, and surgery with precision.
Getting a successful Instagram marketing strategy takes time, and it should include personalized daily creatives and paid ads to build a relevant and interactive audience.
The most suitable medical specialties for an Instagram marketing
Instagram is a platform with visual content, so it tends to be better suited for surgeons, but not limited to them.
These are the fields that are recommended to use Instagram:
- Plastic surgery
- Non-surgical cosmetic services
- Orthopedic Surgery
- Dermatology treatment
- Dental clinic
- Bariatric and weight-loss clinics
- Spinal Issues Marketing
- Venereal diseases clinics
- Urology Marketing
Instagram allows surgeons and dentists to share “before and after” images of patient outcomes, post videos, and surgical images, and promote medical products.
Tips for doctors to build a strong Instagram marketing strategy:
- Profile optimization
- Monitor interactions and distinguish the highest times for rapid response
- Publish daily posts
- Share the results “before and after”
- Prepare custom designs
- Share videos
- Daily interaction with new and existing users
- Interest in adding the most important Hashtags
Twitter is a great way to share your original content and direct visitors to your website.
Some Twitter statistics:
- Twitter has more than 600 million users aged between 18-29 years.
Twitter Marketing for Doctors is designed for:
- Share news, articles, and information quickly and efficiently.
- Suitable hashtags related to your industry; hashtags help patients find content related to the topic of research with a single click on the direct search.
The benefits of medical marketing through Twitter
There have been many sayings lately that Twitter is a dying platform, so users should be careful not to invest time and effort in it as a social media marketing strategy.
We totally disagree with this idea. We think it’s all about how we handle Twitter’s marketing strategy.
It takes commitment and sharing large amounts of content to direct patients to your website, however, if you are active and investing consistently, you will find this platform one of the most important and effective means of social media marketing.
But one of the negative aspects of Twitter is that tweets are limited to a certain number of characters, and the service life of ads is limited, due to the presence of about 5700+ tweets every second.
Twitter errors that doctors should avoid:
- Live posting from Facebook
- Only share information from external sites
- Not to deal with notifications and posts in a timely manner
Which medical specialties are most suitable for Twitter marketing?
All medical specialties are perfectly appropriate if they have unique and curated content on their website and ready to share.
If you want to be a speaker or an intellectual leader in his field, Twitter can help you immensely in getting new visitors to your medical site, and increasing your PR success.
Also Read: Medical Websites to Successfully Attract Patients
YouTube
YouTube marketing is effective in the field of healthcare too and allows doctors to register and post original content and medical procedures.
Marketing strategy on Youtube acts as an important outlet for providing medical information directly from your doctor.
Some YouTube statistics:
- YouTube has 1 billion users of all ages.
- The number of hours people spend watching YouTube videos increased by 60% year on year.
- YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google.
YouTube Marketing for Doctors is designed for:
Youtube is a social platform based on sharing and watching videos and being the second largest search engine, it is a great way to reach new and interested audiences for your medical institution.
YouTube marketing benefits for doctors:
- YouTube is beneficial for doctors who want to share and create videos and offer specific medical services and ratings more than just written reviews.
It is also a great research tool to reach potential patients looking for medical services.
- YouTube is a great site for marketing strategies by creating short videos, tutorials, etc.
Surely it is easy for the doctor to stand in front of the camera and create a 90-second video instead of sitting and writing a long medical article amidst his busy schedule.
Video marketing can be naturally costly and requires a lot of resources to create rich, high-quality videos. You need to plan a marketing budget for video content and find ways to simplify the production cycle and make it easier and cheaper.
Which medical specialties are most suitable for YouTube Marketing?
Youtube is the perfect tool for all doctors to share content, medical procedures, and patient impressions, and requires less time to write content.
Tips for doctors to build a powerful YouTube marketing strategy:
- Profile optimization
- Create playlists
- Share well-adjusted professional videos
- Posting at a fixed rate
- Avoiding very long videos.
Once you have identified the ideal social media that best suits your specialty, the next step is to search for a content marketing strategy that pays to share and spread across different platforms on social media.
If you are looking to develop your own social media platforms and create a dynamic healthcare marketing strategy, please feel free to choose a robust medical marketing company specializing in the field.
