Social media is a hot topic for healthcare marketers. After all, most people actively use social networks and exchange information on them, so it may seem that this channel is simple enough to promote your clinic. However, this leads to the fact that many clinics have social media accounts that do not attract much interest from potential subscribers. And while followers don’t always turn into patients, having a solid amount of social media users can help your brand.
How many healthcare organizations are using social media?
No two clinic social media accounts are the same. However, there are basic patterns that clinics often use in their business profiles:
- Promotions such as free screening
- Service Update Information
- Holiday opening hour information
- Photos of staff and internal events
- Recommended medical services
Yes, this information is important for your audience and future patients. It is useful for them to know the clinic’s opening hours, promotions, and services. And yes, it’s great that you can share the atmosphere and highlight the culture of your clinic (this is especially suitable for Instagram, which is a great recruiting tool)
But will these posts cause patients to follow your account and wait for updates?
Rather, the main audience for such an account would be current and former employees, friends and family members, and possibly a few loyal patients.
So what is the best way to post on social media?
By no means are we saying that you shouldn’t share important news about your business with your healthcare social media marketing followers, especially since most of your existing base would like to know about promotions?
However, it is more important for clinics to share content that helps existing and potential patients get the information they need to care for their health.
You can be the brand to help stop the spread of misinformation with accurate and timely medical information.
Discuss topics to help your patients avoid serious health problems and suggest prevention, recovery, and rehabilitation methods after special procedures and diseases. For example:
- Video interview with a doctor explaining the preparation and possible complications from vaccination.
- A link to an article (from your site or another reputable site) on how to spot the signs of skin cancer.
- Thoughtful, relevant, and engaging content shows people what you think about their health, whether they become patients or not. Remember that videos and images are much more engaging than simple text messages.
Are followers really important to your social strategy?
Posting on social media is a great way to build your brand and potentially gain followers. But will it bring you, patients? Probably not.
More and more patients are looking for doctors and clinics on the Internet. But on Instagram, Facebook, and other social networking sites, as a rule, ten times less often.
But there is a chance that a potential patient will come across your Instagram account while searching for your clinic. And posting useful content on social networks can prove your competence, professionalism, and interest in people in a healthcare marketing agency.
However, there is a way to reach more patients through paid advertising on social media, especially Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook and Instagram: How to attract patients
When discussing social media marketing, we usually divide it into two categories: organic and paid. Organic is essentially just posting on social media. But paid advertising on social networks allows you to attract patients.
Most Facebook and Instagram business users know the platform’s paid advertising and actively pay money for it. However, you need to approach advertising in social networks with intelligence and cunning. After all, you can accurately target the right audience at the right time with the right CTA. You can even redirect previous visitors to your site to improve their conversion chances.
The bottom line is that posting to your social media profiles can go a long way toward building your brand. But this is unlikely to help you attract many patients. So, if you have limited time or budget for social media, think about what matters most to your clinic. Typically, employees in the clinic will combine their main duties and post on social networks. Still, to save time and money, it is worth having a specialist in this field who will curate your Facebook ads, constantly adjusting them to get the best result.