Of all the components of your digital marketing strategy, social media may be one of the most misunderstood. Although it is only one element of your marketing, social media marketing for doctors is one of the best ways to boost your brand’s visibility and find your target demographic.
Whether you are an existing client or new to learning how social media marketing for doctors can help build your digital presence, contact Crystal Clear Digital Marketing today to find out if you are using your social media platforms to their maximum potential!
Social Media Marketing for Doctors Vs Your Personal Social Media Accounts
Nearly everyone has at least one social media account for personal use. This is the account where you upload pictures of your vacation, correspond with family and friends, watch funny dog videos, and gather likes, comments, and shares. It’s a fun, light-hearted activity to do when you need a break.
Social media for your medical practice is a little bit different, but it by no stretch of the imagination needs to be a chore. It can be just as fun and lighthearted as the posts you create for your own personal account, but of course the end goal of social media marketing for doctors is different – to drive traffic back to your medical marketing website.
Why Does Social Media Marketing for Doctors Really Matter?
Will your patients still be able to find you online without social media? Yes, through your medical practice website and other online directories, but the trick is to make sure your potential patients find you FIRST, and while there are multiple tracks you can take to make sure that happens, social media marketing for doctors is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways you can put yourself out there.
It’s important for your medical practice website to rank and perform well from a search engine perspective, but it’s not enough for your practice name or for your name to pop up just once on search engine results – you want your practice to be at the forefront of the search results and ahead of your competitors. The more active social media accounts you have, the more potential there is for your name and your practice’s name to show up multiple times in search results, and the more likely your potential patients are to say, “Hey, they look pretty legitimate, I’m going to check them out.”
Make Sure Your Social Media Accounts are Active
What do we mean when we say active social media accounts? Just that – active. Don’t just open a bunch of accounts and leave them dormant; that won’t do anything to engage people and has the potential to come off as lazy. Start slow if you have to, with only a few key social media platforms that you know you and your team can keep come up with, and add more slowly if you want to and if your team has the time available.
If you are a client with Crystal Clear, we will help you manage your active accounts so that you can focus on doing what you do best – serving your patients and growing your practice. But to some degree, collaboration from you is absolutely essential to get the best of social media marketing for doctors.
Which Social Media Platforms Should You Choose?
People are more engaged online now than ever before, and there are multiple social media platforms that you can use to find and engage your target demographic, including:
- Snapchat
At Crystal Clear, we focus on what we call the Big Four – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Facebook: The Biggest Social Media Platform Today
In May of 2017, Facebook topped 1.9 billion users and the number continues to grow. Anyone who’s anyone is on Facebook, and this powerhouse of a social media platform offers benefits such as:
- Unlimited character count
- The ability to post photos and videos
- The potential for paid advertising
- The ability to “boost” important posts that you want your followers to notice
- Insights and data that you can use to determine what posts are the most successful and how much engagement you have, among other important numbers, so you can learn what your followers want to see.
Twitter: Fewer Characters but Still Important for Growing Your Medical Practice
One of the top five social media platforms, Twitter may have a character count that is limited to 140 characters but its benefits far outweigh that limitation. With Twitter, you can still post relevant photos or videos and still accomplish the most important end goal of social media marketing for doctors – driving traffic back to your website.
As part of your monthly reports with Crystal Clear, we track the activity and engagement on your Facebook and Twitter accounts, offering you important insights into how your social media marketing is performing for you as well as suggestions for how we may be able to bump up your numbers.
LinkedIn: Not Just for Personal Networking
Although LinkedIn is mostly utilized for personal and professional networking, it is also a great way to increase the visibility of your practice. Much like you can manage a company Facebook page through your personal Facebook account, you can do the same with LinkedIn. LinkedIn is not limited by a character count and you can share all of the photos and videos you like. It’s all about increasing your visibility and filling those open appointments on your calendar!
Why Pinterest?
A lot of our clients get confused about why Pinterest of all social media platforms is in the Big Four, and there are two very important reasons why:
- People are very drawn by photos and digital imagery; those who do not get engaged by text-heavy posts may be drawn in by photo boards associated with your practice instead.
- When it comes to social media, it’s a good idea to cast a wide net – that is, put more than one account out there. Even if you just get one potential patient from it, that’s one more than you had before and one more that will not choose your competitor over you!
Building Your Followers on Social Media
Although we can help you manage your Big Four social media accounts, one important distinction we like to make is this: our social media marketing strategies market to your EXISTING followers; it’s up to YOU to build that following, and the best way to do that is through posts that engage people through:
- Frequently asked questions
- Goings-on at the office
- Events happening in your area
- Charities you are sponsoring
- Team member spotlights
- And more!
Don’t Be Intimidated by Social Media Marketing for Doctors
Setting up and using your social media is not rocket science. All it takes is a little know-how and a clear sense of what goals you want to set for your social media. It costs absolutely nothing to set up social media accounts and with billions of people worldwide using multiple networks, you’re crazy not to take advantage of this super cost-effective powerhouse of marketing!
If you are ready to bring your medical practice into the 21st century with social media marketing for doctors, contact Crystal Clear Digital Marketing today! We look forward to hearing from you!
