As we discussed in the previous post, social media for healthcare providers is an important component of your overall digital marketing strategy. A diverse and comprehensive online presence is critical to scale and grow your business. This post will discuss the differences between passively maintaining a social media channel for personal use compared to effectively developing a data-driven social strategy for your business.
Social Media Can Expand Healthcare Providers Reach
Social media is one piece that feeds into the other digital marketing components. New blogs on your website can be promoted through your Facebook accounts to drive traffic to your website. Posting images with a call-to-action on Instagram can increase your engagement rates. Using hashtags and reviewing the metrics on your posts can help you identify SEO plans to boost your local awareness. And, to run Pay-Per-Click campaigns like Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads, your business will need an account with a following. Plus, compared to some of the other digital marketing components, this one is pretty easy to get started.
Companies need to work to attract people, healthcare is no different. The best way to entice is to have something worthwhile to consume. Educating your community via social media can be an effective tool in generating new leads for your business.
I have a personal Facebook page. Why can’t I just use this to promote my business?
You certainly can when you are first getting started. You may even want to continue promoting some of your personal wins for your business with the following on your personal accounts. But, business accounts on social media require a different way of communicating. The tone and engagement provide a level of trust and professionalism you want (hopefully). It’s imperative that you shift your thinking away from the causal posts on personal accounts into a revenue-focused business mindset.
Social media is another marketing tool for your company. It’s a way to promote your brand, to stay relevant to your consumers, and to maintain a professional network. All content that goes out on your social media business accounts need to reflect the mission, vision and core values of your company.
Think of yourself (or whoever is posting your content) as a brand ambassador necessary to grow your business. When considering content for your feeds, ask yourself “how will this post help support my goals?” And “How can I measure the success of the post?”
Identify Goals and Objectives
Every post you push our needs to have an objective aligned with the goals of your company. Objectives and goals will be different for everyone depending on where you are in the process and what you’re hoping to gain. There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach, however, some common objectives are:
- Raising awareness about your brand, services, and mission
- Using social media for recruiting and retention
- Being a resource to the community through education
Goals the next level down the funnel. They are a little more specific usually with specific metrics attached. Some common goals for social media are:
- Drive traffic to website by x% over the next x months
- Increase post clicks/engagement from x% to x%
- Grow follower base/raise awareness about your organization by x% in x months
Avoiding Common Pitfalls
To identify goals and objectives best suited to your company’s needs, you’ll need to gather some data. I see some healthcare clients struggle to know what to post on business social media accounts. I think this comes from two things: no clear definition of their target audience, (and therefore a lack of understanding what content is relevant to their audience) and not taking the time to plan ahead.
My advice: understand your brand and research your audience. The next time you’re simultaneously watching tv, working on a laptop, and scrolling Facebook, check out your competitors’ accounts. Pay attention to the posts that get you to stop. What catches your eye? The bright colors? Video content? Do you read the captions? Does the content make you want to learn more? Next, (turn off the tv for this part), think about what you want your business messaging to convey. What image do you want your business to portray?
You want your posts to not only grab the viewer’s attention, but motivate your followers to share your content. An effective way to accomplish this is through storytelling and visuals.
When you think of it that way, posting irrelevant pictures of the food you ate for dinner – a perfectly fine content choice for a personal page – doesn’t seem like a wise choice for your business account.
Feeling Empowered, But Want Some Help?
What if you haven’t figured out your brand yet? Already have a pretty solid understanding of your audience but not sure how to actualize your plans into fresh content? Have a team available to manage social media but need to formalize a process?
Aducate Digital is happy to help strategy an effective social media game plan based on your current level of need. Contact us for a free 30 minute no-BS consultation. Check out our available services to get started.
