Avoid 6 Mistakes That Could Affect Your Social Media Marketing Strategy

1. Avoid 6 Mistakes That Could Affect Your Social Media Marketing Strategy To have a good medical social media marketing strategy, it is important to include only good practices and avoid costly mistakes. Social media platforms have become important sources of healthcare information. In this digital world, social media is used not just by millennials but people of all age groups. Around 90 percent of older adults use social media to seek and share health information, as a Journal of Medical Internet Research eHealth Literacy study points out. Social media is quickly becoming an important aspect of digital marketing and the main objective of social media marketing is audience engagement. In order to engage and interact with patients and targeted consumers, it is important for your medical practice or healthcare business to have a strong medical social media marketing strategy.

2. In the healthcare industry, social media helps in engaging with the patients, providing them with relevant and timely information. It also helps to communicate the value and credibility of the health system. According to a study by 018 Sprout Social Index, people prefer those types of content on social media that has links to more information. 30% of consumers said that this is the kind of content they’d like to see most from brands on social media; 18% preferred graphics and images, while 17% wanted to see relevant videos. A huge variety of content such as images, videos, mixed media blog posts, polls and infographics can be distributed via social media. A recent PwC study found that 42 percent of individuals viewing health information on social media look at health-related consumer reviews prior to reaching out to a physician. This shows that positive feedback is a powerful means to building trust. The same report also found that 32 percent of US users post about their friends’ and family’s healthcare experiences on social media. Another report by PewResearch says 80 percent of social media users are specifically looking for health information, and nearly half of those are searching for information about a specific doctor or health professional. With a proper social media marketing strategy, healthcare businesses have an excellent opportunity to increase patient referrals and improve the overall quality of care. It is also important to be aware of what is right and what is wrong in your social media marketing strategy. Here are some mistakes that could hurt your social media marketing strategy. Neglecting your social media page: Effective social medial marketing requires time and considerable effort. Only then can you connect with patients and generate conversions for your business. So ensure that you give enough quality time for your social media page and if you lack good social media marketing skills, outsource it to a reliable healthcare digital marketing agency. Being inconsistent: Social media platforms act a supplement to a blog or a website and the content should be tailored towards each specific platform. For short updates, Twitter is a good choice whereas for a quick glance Instagram videos and clips are ideal. LinkedIn can be used for setting up an impressive professional profile. Make sure to post consistently on these social media channels. Depending on automation: Posts can be scheduled and these become useful especially if you have a busy schedule. However, make sure that you are monitoring your social media channels to avoid posting anything insensitive. Going for a hard sell: Potential patients do not want a constant deluge of promotional posts. Instead they want informative posts with enough pictures. This will help you build a good

3. rapport with potential patients in the long run. Posting personal experiences helps to connect with patients on a personal level. Ignoring metrics: Analyzing social media metrics is important to maximize success. It helps you accomplish your goals like increasing engagement, and improving click-through to your website. Analyzing metrics gives a better picture of your audience, what they are looking for, and also helps in maintaining relevant content. To measure metrics, there are a few different options. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all have native analytics on their apps that allow you to get data. Hesitant to experiment new strategies: Social media and its strategy changes as the customer trends change. Unpaid business page posts on Facebook are being seen by fewer people these days, so try creating a closed group to develop a close-knit bond with members. With over 500 million daily active users, Instagram Stories is another method to connect with your audience and it can lead to profile discovery, swipe-up clicks, and interactions within your Stories. In today’s digital world, doctors, hospitals and health systems should maintain a proactive presence on social media. This helps to build patient engagement, and increase loyalty and satisfaction among patients. Consider utilizing medical SEO services that can implement effective social media marketing strategies to hospitals, medical practices and other medical units to improve website traffic, visibility and ranking, and above all to build social media engagement with the audience. (800) 941-5527