Where do people go for medical advice, before they would go to the doctor? But now, most adults in the U.S. and 80% of internet users turn to the internet, making healthcare social media marketing crucial for medical practices in the USA.
In the past, only professionals had access to medical information. Regular people had limited options and relied on doctors or nurses for advice. Nowadays, unlimited data is available, and most people rely on online research and their social networks for medical advice.
Young people are leading this trend. For example, 90% of millennials use the internet as their primary source of health information, and almost half of U.S. adults use social media to make healthcare decisions.
The healthcare industry must use social media to reach and engage these audiences. Having a social media strategy is necessary. With the right approach, social media can help build trust, reach more patients, and share valuable medical information.
Listen To Your Followers
Listening to what people say about your organization on social media can help you understand their needs. This is called social listening. It involves gathering information from social media to see who is talking about you and how they feel. Social listening can give you honest customer feedback beyond measuring patient satisfaction.
By using social listening, you can do more than satisfy patients. It can help you predict disease outbreaks and know when the flu season is coming. It can also show you what medical content your audience likes the most. There are software tools available to collect this data from different social media platforms at the same time.
However, more than collecting the data is required. You need to its uses. Having the right tools to turn insights into action is crucial for your social listening strategy.
Understanding how to use this data can greatly impact every decision your organization makes.
Connect with influential individuals in your field
By engaging with famous people in your industry, social media can help your organization reach more people and build patient trust.
There are online communities for almost every medical condition. About half of Americans have a chronic health condition and around 25% use online forums to discuss health topics. This means connecting with these groups can reach a vast and growing number of potential individuals.
An influencer is someone with a large audience. This includes activists, advocates, public figures, experts, and doctors in the medical field. Many healthcare professionals are active on social media and have hundreds of thousands of followers on different platforms.
Trust is crucial in healthcare digital marketing, and the trust built by these individuals is highly influential. People value the opinions of their peers and are more likely to believe a real person over an organization. According to a survey, 90% of respondents trust a doctor’s words more than any other online content.
Gain trust and expertise, and teach customers using different types of content
Social media is a way to communicate. Content marketing for healthcare is essential during times of crisis or when there’s a lot of false information. Social media helps spread accurate medical information to as many people as possible.
The healthcare industry has yet to focus much on content marketing. There are good reasons for this. Medical care has a lot of regulations because it’s responsible for keeping patients safe. But social media is also a chance to answer common questions and provide accurate information in a space with much false and dangerous content.
More than 95% of Americans use a cell phone regularly. As more people use smartphones, they have more access to information. As a result, technology is helping patients learn more about their health. Some apps already provide nutrition advice, mental health support, and medical advice in different languages. About 19% of smartphone owners have at least one health app.
Even though these products are essential, most people don’t get their medical information from official websites or platforms. That’s why healthcare professionals need to be part of conversations wherever they happen. This means posting helpful content on the social media platforms that patients use. Text is helpful, but multimedia content is even better because it can reach more people.
Publicize Your Organization
Hospitals should educate them through various forms of content to gain credibility and attract customers. You can maintain your online visibility and reach more potential patients by teaching people about your organization.
Search engines play a significant role in driving hospital visitors, primarily through mobile devices and social media—many individuals use social media to search for medical care schedule appointments.
Moreover, millennials prefer researching medical options and booking appointments online, while many admit that social media influences their choice of doctors and medical facilities.
Therefore, healthcare organizations must have a strong presence on social media platforms.
Engaging in conversations about healthcare policies and practices
Social media platforms allow for dialogue between doctors, patients, and hospital systems, giving patients a voice and enabling proactive patient management. These platforms also facilitate communication between interest groups, such as researchers and regulatory agencies, leading to consensus-based decision-making.
Monitoring and listening on social media are essential for healthcare organizations to stay well-informed before making important decisions regarding funding, investments, or planning.
The online community actively seeks solutions and support for chronic health issues, providing valuable insights for healthcare organizations. This user-generated content helps engage audiences and contributes to customer-centric policy-making, fostering trust between patients and care providers.
Final Thoughts
Customers increasingly turn to social media; hospitals should adapt and follow suit. Healthcare organizations should listen attentively to what patients say online, leverage the influence of online influencers to spread their message, create valuable and easy-to-understand content, and use social networks intentionally to build their brand.