This year it has been really interesting to watch how the healthcare sector has been successfully embracing social media marketing.
Every week more companies start to use social media as part of their marketing strategy and realising how a great asset it is to reach and connect with their audiences.
And that’s no surprise since a report by the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics tells us that in the U.K., Facebook is the fourth most popular source of health information and that doctors spend twice as much time consulting online resources than traditional print sources.
Social media is such a common strategy nowadays for the healthcare sector that we start to see emerging trends around this field, especially these four:
1. Educating patients
Social media is a great source for patients trying to find information about healthcare related issues.
So this provides healthcare companies with an amazing opportunity to deliver content to their audiences that informs them about all they need to know about their products, services, procedures, etc.
Such valuable content might be all these companies need in order to reach and engage their audience and also to increase brand awareness and expert reputation.
People start to trust them and coming back for more valuable information which also can be really valuable in gaining new clients and keeping the existing ones.
2. Live tweet chats
Many healthcare companies are providing live tweet chats with doctors where their patients (or potential patients) can ask them all questions related to their field, such as products, services or procedures.
This is a great opportunity to provide a personal and human touch on social media and also to show who are the “people behind the scenes” in a particular healthcare company.
It creates relationships and trust and can engage existing clients as well as gaining new ones.
3. Create discussion groups
Social media empowers clients, that is a fact. So besides searching and engaging in conversations taking place in Facebook or Twitter, many healthcare companies are creating their own social media discussion forums.
Whilst still being anonymous, people use them to ask questions, share stories, discuss relevant healthcare related topics and connect with the company.
This is a fantastic opportunity to connect with their clients and potential clients, to listen to what they’re saying and to educate them in many healthcare related issues.
4. Apps
Healthcare providers are developing their own applications for their patients to use.
Being web or mobile apps, these are created with the goal of being useful and something that can help their patients on a daily basis.
Apps to track exercise and diet, symptoms triage, heart rate monitor, health tips, etc.
These apps are something their audience can use any time and will put the healthcare provider at top of their minds, making it a great way to connect with them.
Via Plus91