The way your patients approach healthcare today is quite different than it was a decade ago. Social media is booming and taking the healthcare industry by storm. As a physician, we understand that social media can seem intimidating. Your time is largely spent with your patients and practice—making sure they’re well taken care of and happy, performing procedures, creating a caring environment, and successfully running your practice. This leaves you with little time to worry about social media. That’s where we come in! Here at beMarketing, the busy bees in our healthcare marketing Hive are ready to prescribe to you the best social media platforms for doctors so you can achieve stable results within your practice and get more patients walking through your doors.
Medical marketing for doctors is essential. Simply put, if your practice wants to produce chronic results, it needs to be active on all the major platforms. Most of your patients are already using social media, so, why aren’t you? Take a look at these numbers:
- There are over 200 million social network users in the U.S., making up more than 65% of the population.
- Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest are some of the most popular platforms today, with over 330 million monthly active users!
The main goal of healthcare marketing is to:
- Increase followers and engagement
- Build your brand and online presence
- Market your practice to a larger audience, bringing new patients to your practice
If you’re wondering where you should be active online, we’re breaking it down and sharing what social platforms are best for doctors to promote their practice.
Facebook is one of the top contenders in healthcare marketing and should be considered by all practices. It’s a great platform for increasing brand awareness and engagement and it’s an easy way to target and track your ideal audience. Once you create a business profile, your patients can then use Facebook Messenger as a means of communicating with your practice. Patients can leave reviews and recommendations which can be a great endorsement, driving new patients to your practice. You can optimize posts which have a strong impact on local SEO, helping your practice appear in a top search result.
LinkedIn is considered a B2B social platform and many healthcare professionals use LinkedIn as a way to network. Setting up a LinkedIn profile for your practice is a great way to directly connect with colleagues and potential patients as well as sharing medical news and articles with other doctors and physicians. Your practice can also utilize LinkedIn to search for new hires and quickly check resumes, experience, and recommendations.
Like Facebook, except more direct, is the social platform Twitter. This platform encourages users to get straight to the point with a limited word count. If your practice is generating unique content, Twitter is a great social platform to share your related blogs and articles with, which will help drive new patients to your website.
Instagram is one of the fastest growing social media platforms, focusing heavily on picture and video posts to connect with your audience. For doctors, Instagram can be used to post patient outcomes, share images of your practice and the physicians who work there. Instagram can also be used for targeting local potential patients as well as promoting any conferences or events your practice may be holding.
Like Instagram, Pinterest is very visual. Users share pins on boards, like a digital corkboard. Images are designed like advertisements and users are encouraged to click through to land on your website. Pinterest is a great platform to share health tips and tricks, simple healthy food recipes and community events. Pinterest is largely made up of women users, so when starting a Pinterest page for your practice, it’s wise to appeal to women so they can repin and redistribute the information you are putting out.
At beMarketing, we are your go-to healthcare marketing agency. Whether you’re starting a new practice or just looking to expand your clientele, The Hive can help! We can help you establish a brand new marketing treatment plan or revive your current medical marketing strategies so your campaigns will never miss a (heart) beat. If you’re ready to diagnose your practice and make sure it’s in top-notch health, contact us today to get started.
