Social media is expected to continue to grow exponentially, and for good reason. These days, it is an essential part of most people’s everyday lives. From Facebook and Pinterest to LinkedIn and Twitter, there are so many benefits to using social media in our personal lives. But did you know that it can be used to help your medical practice as well?
Social media is a powerful tool for countless businesses and companies, including the health care industry. With medical social media marketing, public health care providers and patients can receive timely and relevant updates, and you’ll be able to market your medical practice in a way that you might not have thought possible.
Why is Medical Social Media Marketing Important?
As per a recent study, a health care provider’s social media presence affected 57% of consumers’ decisions to seek treatment at a facility, revealing that people prefer those health organizations that have a social media presence. 60% of doctors also report that they believe a solid social media presence to have improved patient care by facilitating open communication and transparency.
It should be of little surprise that health systems are now eager to develop a presence on social media, providing them with the opportunities for improving quality of health care and increasing patient referrals. Many health care facilities, dental offices, medical spas, wellness practices, and individual practices benefit from engaging in the helpful services of renowned medical social media marketers such as Crystal Clear Digital Marketing.
Communicate in Real Time with Patients
One of the biggest benefits of using social media marketing in health care is to provide real time interaction with patients. By engaging in meaningful discussions that address a patient’s concern or treatment of interest on a deeper level, a health care provider can achieve better marketing results.
Patient empowerment is facilitated by health systems when they enable and engage patients in research networks and other such online forums. These platforms provide patients with a tool to engage in discussions with other patients who have similar conditions and are successfully managing their own conditions. Health networks and medical practices can develop and launch their own individual platforms to empower their patients through online discussion groups and support channels.
As per the Journal of Health Management, the likelihood of a message being shared increases when a patient offers their story on social media, impacting their friends. It is important that organizations regularly monitor all social media forums and networking sites and make frequent posts. This will ensure that patients engage with new updates or content being shared. Of course, our team of experts at Crystal Clear Digital Marketing can help you with this.
Encourage Patient Retainment
Patients are happier when the health system’s physicians are more open and transparent, improving the overall quality of care and patient experience. The end goal of health care marketers should be to generate new patients, as well as improve patient experiences to achieve retention, loyalty, and more word-of-mouth referrals. Crystal Clear Digital Marketing develops tried and true strategies to help achieve marketing goals for various health care providers.
Stay Relevant
With the right social media marketing strategy in place, health care organizations can spread awareness regarding their services, new treatments, new staff members, and so much more. It is important to provide potential patients with useful information through your social media platforms in order to stay relevant in the field and in their minds as a go-to medical practice in their area.
To this end, some things you can post about on you social media platforms may include:
• Team member bios
• Frequently asked questions (FAQs)
• Updates regarding hours
• Community involvement
This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to relevant content that may be posted. Almost anything new and exciting going on at your medical practice makes for a good social media post. But it doesn’t have to stop there! Through social media, you can also educate your patients and position yourself as a true expert in your particular field.
Do Not Pretend On Social Media
There are many social media accounts established by various medical practices online. However, a lot of the marketing success and popularity through these social media accounts depends upon cultivating relationships with potential clients by being ‘real.’
It’s also important to realize that follows and likes aren’t everything. In fact, they do very little to gain new patients. The real magic is in creating social media platforms that redirect the potential patient from their social media app to your website. This way, they can browse your site and further learn about all of the services you offer before eventually scheduling a consultation and taking advantage of your services.
Offering Countless Benefits
Social media is a powerful tool that is capable of revolutionizing the scope of your medical practice. By taking advantage of medical social media marketing, a practice can target potential customers and also expand its service portfolio. Additionally, a culture of sharing and collaboration can be promoted between patients and doctors alike.
Many medical professionals tend to make the mistake of engaging in social media without first setting clear goals and consulting with experts. Look no further than our team at Crystal Clear Digital Marketing. Medical social media marketing is dedicated to engaging potential patients with the goal that they will eventually visit the medical practice to seek treatment.
If a medical professional or medical practice is short-sighted and overly anxious to promote products and services, then these goals can quickly become unattainable. Potential patients generally lose trust when they come across pushy marketing. They also lose trust when a practice’s social media presence isn’t very strong. However, with creative techniques, social media marketing can work for your medical practice.
Getting Started with Medical Social Media Marketing
The first step in getting started with medical social media marketing is consulting the professionals. At Crystal Clear Digital Marketing, we understand that as a busy doctor or medical professional, you don’t really have the time to become an expert on social media marketing. Your job is to help your patients. That’s perfect, because our job is to help you! Let us manage what we have found to be the most important social media platforms, namely:
• Facebook
• Pinterest
• LinkedIn
• Twitter
Social media can provide tremendous opportunities to reach a large patient population. It has also proven itself to be a powerful tool in retaining patients.
If you want to develop results-oriented medical social media marketing strategies, get in touch with us at Crystal Clear Digital Marketing. We are here to help you make your medical practice as successful as it can be. Contact us today to speak with one of our team members and get started.
