If you’re in the health care industry and you’re trying to decide if it’s worth investing time and resources into developing a social presence, the answer is simple: YES. 

So, Why Use Social Media?

Nearly 90% of older web users use social media to find and share health information (Journal of Medical Internet Research). As an expert in health care, it’s irresponsible if you’re not providing value to this burgeoning channel of research and collaboration.

This year, Facebook reported 2.4 billion monthly active users (MAU) in Q1. With more and more people flocking to Facebook for healthcare information, you want to be front and center. 

Where Do I Start?

Getting started on social is simple; maintaining your presence is the difficult part. With the main social media channels all having such massive regular user bases, you don’t necessarily need to be on all of them. We suggest starting with a Facebook Business Page. However, as long as you’re putting out consistent, quality content, the more platforms, the better. 

Bonus: Learn How To Create A Facebook Page For Your Business here.

Tips For Health Care Businesses

• Be Honest – The internet is an open landscape riddled with pseudoscience and trolls. As an expert in your field, you should be publishing factual, data-backed insights, that your audience will find helpful. 

• Do Not Offer Personal Advice – The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) was enacted to protect patients’ privacy. By responding to patients’ questions and providing personal advice on social media, the healthcare provider would be violating the HIPPA Act. You can provide advice, but it can’t be addressing a particular patient. In addition, the information must be general enough that it applies to a broad audience.

• Post A LOT – Many people worry that by posting too often, their followers will become annoyed and stop following their page. Although this may be true for some people, algorithms used on social media platforms prevent all of your followers from seeing all of your posts in their feeds. Additionally, the number of people who will unfollow your page due to frequent postings will be far less than the number of new followers that will organically discover your content.

• Be Creative – Creativity is king. More and more businesses are utilizing social media, and as a result, the platforms are beginning to become saturated with content. Stand out from the crowd. Try posting helpful tips, compelling studies, and engaging content.

Click To Learn How Artificial Intelligence Is Driving Creativity In Marketing

• Stick to the course – Growing your social media presence, like any other achievement in life, takes hard work and time. You aren’t going to gain 10,000 followers overnight (most likely). However, if you’re consistently bringing quality content to your audience, you will slowly begin to reap the fruits of your labor. 

The Numbers Don’t Lie

“Facebook IQ conducted a global study on video ad performance across Facebook and Instagram… We found three themes and recommend these best practices relevant for marketers creating pharma and OTC ads for mobile.1” (faceebook.com/business).

The themes and recommendations are as follows:

1. Establish relevance by visualizing the problem – Visually demonstrate the problem or health condition that your product or service can help alleviate. Ensure you’re following Facebook’s Ad policies.

2. Incorporate an authentic human presence – Utilize visual assets that resonate with your target audience. If you’re marketing OB/GYN services, make sure your creative assets focus on females.

3. Maintain a singular focus – Pick one core topic per post and stick to it. You may offer multiple services, but humans have short attention spans, especially on social media.

We Can Help

If you’re still looking for more information on how to implement social media to improve your healthcare business, we can help!  SocialMadeSimple is a social media marketing agency with a robust team of in-house Content Specialists. If you’re interested in learning how our Content Specialists can help grow your business or brand by creating engaging and customized content, please fill out the form below, or give us a call at 617-860-2270 – we look forward to hearing from you!