With online competition at an all-time high, it is imperative that online medical marketing includes social media strategies. Whether you are posting on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, you need to understand how each platform functions and, more importantly, how they differ from one another. Not all content you post to one platform can be copy and pasted to the next, so medical practices need to optimize for each site to gain more followers and attract new patients.
Key social media tips
At the least, your social media marketing needs to take Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram into account. You can eventually broaden your horizons to experiment with Pinterest, YouTube, Reddit, and Tumblr, but this guide focuses on the big three with broad tips you can apply to your whole marketing plan.
Research your audience
There is no point in posting content to a platform that does not attract your main audience. Research your audience demographics and discover what social media sites they prefer. This can tell you where to focus your medical digital marketing as you start out.
Keep your business profile relevant
Patients visiting any of your social media profiles should be able to find basic helpful information on your practice. Make sure you include an address and contact information that visitors can easily access in case they want to make an appointment or ask a question. The more information available, the greater the chances of connecting with more new patients.
Avoid cross-posting
Cross-posting is the act of copying the same message and content across all your social media feeds. This is not recommended, as many platforms specialize in different mediums. You can use the same basic message for each platform, but change the formatting so that it fits in each.
Posting to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram
Posts on all of these social media giants can include images, videos, and text, but each has limits on how media functions. Study this breakdown on average post-length and whether to use images and hashtags.
In general, the more concise the message on Facebook, the more people stop to read. Images should be eye-catching and relate to the text. Engaging content attracts more users, so incorporate polls and challenges that visitors can participate in. The optimal length of a Facebook post is 40-80 characters with a headline of five words. A single, concise hashtag that relates to your practice is ideal.
Twitter already limits characters to 280 in a single tweet, but tweets with 71-100 characters are more likely to gain the most traction. Including visually engaging content with text, like a picture or video, also increases a tweet’s chance of circulating. Twitter recommends using one to two hashtags per tweet.
Instagram is all about the picture first. Each post should be a vibrant, striking image that makes users pause on the content. Capitalize on the image by including a quick caption (138-150 characters) that gives the picture context and allows visitors to engage with you. Hashtags are the way many people find new content on Instagram, so using more is always better.
Improve your social media presence
Doctor Genius can help you grow your online marketing strategy. Contact us to learn more about our services and what we can do to establish and expand your social media presence.
Doctor Genius, located at 16800 Aston Street, Suite 270, Irvine, CA 92606, provides a range of services for practice success. We seek to meet our clients’ needs by providing a variety of marketing, SEO, practice optimization tools, and coaching to transform the healthcare experience. Though we work to provide the most accurate information, the content found on this website is solely intended for entertainment purposes. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that the information provided is entirely correct. You may not use the information on this site to cure, prevent, or diagnose a perceived medical issue. If you have healthcare-related needs, please speak directly to a healthcare professional. Never self-perform medical treatments discussed on this website. All images displayed are also for entertainment purposes only, and personal experiences may differ. Please note that the business tactics mentioned on this site might not be applicable to your industry or practice.
