Social media is a powerful channel when incorporated into your public relations and marketing efforts. In our increasingly digital world, healthcare brands need to have a social media presence and use it purposefully. From brand awareness to thought leadership, social media can be used to elevate an organization above its competitors.
The B2B healthcare space is no exception, but the complexities of our industry, including regulatory considerations and a diverse range of audiences and stakeholders, can make it a challenge to effectively use social media in healthcare. There are plenty of social tips and tricks out there to help marketing teams, but most best practices and how-to guides focus on industries with less complex marketing funnels. This leaves communication and marketing professionals largely on their own to develop strategies for social media in healthcare.
Because Activate Health lives and breathes healthcare marketing, our team compiled a list of best practices for using social media in healthcare. Check out these tips and tricks to ensure your organization is leveraging this channel in all the right ways.
Ditch the “kitchen sink” approach
A common pitfall for many organizations is taking an “everything” approach to social media—trying to do it all, all at once—which often leads to diluted messages and squandered resources. Companies can set themselves up for success by defining key objectives for their social strategy.
Examples of strategic objectives include:
- Brand awareness
- Customer engagement
- Employee engagement
- Executive thought leadership
By narrowing your aim for social media, you can ensure that every post you write, each graphic you design, and every call to action you share is working to accomplish one of your defined goals.
Plan to measure your impact
Once you determine your strategic objectives, create specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals to support them. Whether your aim is customer engagement or carving out a niche as a thought leader, SMART goals focus your efforts, making it easier to track success and make data-driven pivots that drive better results.
For a client who wants to boost their brand awareness, consider this SMART goal as an example:
- Specific: Grow brand presence on social media platforms.
- Measurable: Achieve a 20% increase in followers on LinkedIn within six months.
- Achievable: Use targeted content campaigns and influencer partnerships to reach a wider audience.
- Relevant: Increased brand visibility can lead to more B2B connections and potential leads.
- Time-bound: Set a six-month deadline to evaluate progress and adjust strategies.
Effectively using social media in healthcare requires not only being active on social platforms but also being responsive to the data and insights you gain along the way.
Get your team on board with best practices
The most successful healthcare organizations use social media to engage and educate their audiences-not just use it as another channel to broadcast messages about their products or services. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach to social media in healthcare, there are best practices and tactical tips and tricks that can help you get results.
1. Invest your time where your audience is
With so many social platforms to consider and more being introduced all the time, it’s worthwhile to weigh which will help you best connect with your intended audience. For most healthcare companies, LinkedIn is an ideal platform to build relationships and thought leadership and tap into networks of industry professionals and decision-makers. This is especially true for those in the B2B space, as nearly 8 million healthcare professionals use LinkedIn. Even consumer-geared platforms like X, Facebook, and Instagram should be considered, as they can be used to field inbound customer service issues and monitor how people are talking about your brand.
2. Utilize a content calendar
It’s essential to consistently engage your audience with timely communications on strategic topics. By creating a content calendar, you ensure your posts coincide with industry events, health observances, or key campaigns, maximizing relevance and audience connection. A content calendar also helps balance promotional messaging with educational content, which is crucial for establishing trust and thought leadership.
3. Tailor platform-specific content
Each platform has different best practices when it comes to posting. Do your research and modify each post to follow these guidelines to maximize the impact of your social efforts. In general, high-performing content uses a personalized, friendly, and authentic voice, and includes pictures, and tags of relevant people and organizations. And don’t forget to add a call to action to drive engagement!
4. Identify internal influencers
You can effectively amplify your healthcare company’s message by identifying internal influencers with an established network to boost your company posts. The ideal influencer is already engaging with the community, shares insightful content, and embodies your brand’s values. Don’t worry if your organization doesn’t have an individual with an established presence. Following these best practices for social media in healthcare can help you build up a leader’s profile so they can begin championing your brand messaging. Everyone starts somewhere!
Social snafus to avoid
There are also some practices to steer clear of on social. Don’t post overly promotional content that can turn off your audience. Seeing ad after ad with no educational value can result in eyes that glaze over your content. Ensure you’re diversifying any planned promotional content with “freebies” for your audience. This can be as simple as offering an executive’s commentary on the latest legislative update that impacts your customers.
It’s also best to avoid engaging in controversial topics that often come up as trending on social platforms. However, when news arises that is relevant to your organization and subject matter experts (or influencers), it’s smart to prepare strategic messaging that speaks to the topic at hand and offers resources for your customers or prospects if they reach out to you.
By applying these best practices for social media in healthcare, your organization can elevate its digital presence, turning social media from a challenge into a significant opportunity to connect, influence, and lead in the healthcare industry.
At Activate Health, we are focused on providing social media, marketing, and PR services to organizations like health plans, health systems, and health IT providers. This sets us apart from other marketing firms that work with companies in a diverse range of industries-everything we do is healthcare. If your organization is ready to elevate its social media presence, contact us today.