- By Andrea Wickstrom, BSN, RN, PHN
Incorporating engaging social media content into healthcare brands’ marketing strategies is vital. However, the implementation doesn’t only apply to posting content or promoting your services consistently. A successful social media marketing strategy involves a deep understanding of your target audience, building an authentic engagement with them, and implementing best content practices. It is also crucial to consider well-optimized healthcare content for SEO to ensure that your message goes across different social media channels where your target audiences are in. By taking advantage of the benefits of social media and implementing the right strategy, you can effectively connect with your patients and succeed in boosting your online presence.
Any time someone interacts with your social media page, engagement results. Shares, likes, comments, mentions, and trending hashtags increase engagement. The best measure of social media success is not how many posts and followers you have but how engaged your audience is. A solid social media presence can boost your brand visibility and build trustworthiness and customer relationships. In this blog post, we’ll discuss the importance of well-developed strategies and provide tips for creating and maintaining an engaging social media presence.
Strategies to Increase Your Healthcare Brand’s Social Media Presence
You’ll need to brainstorm, research, and create a strategic plan to grow your social media presence. Identifying your goals will be essential. Consider the following questions: Is your intention to bring awareness to your organization? To build trust in your brand? Or to get more patients through your doors?
Keep the following tips in mind as you create your game plan.
Interact with your audience
Find out who your readers are. Be relatable, authentic, and approachable. Let them see your personality and show them you care about them. Don’t neglect the audience’s input because they will inevitably tell you what they want or don’t care about. Always be a part of the conversation if they introduce a valuable topic and answer their questions.
Share stories.
Inspirational stories are more memorable than facts. Invite a patient who fought a health battle to share their story and the emotions it triggered. Give your readers an ending that will tug at their heartstrings (but be sure to maintain their privacy to the extent required or requested!).
Offer more ways for followers to connect with you
Create and offer newsletters, free webinars, downloads, and host live Q&A sessions. These approaches will provide value and increase their loyalty to you and your brand.
Show social proof
Include testimonials, customer reviews, ratings, and mentions from other’s social media. Be sure to include both written and video endorsements.
Best Practices for Creating Content for Social Media
As a healthcare-related entity, you know that implementing best practices leads to the best patient outcomes. The same applies to creating content on social media.
Take a look at some of the best practices to create your content and boost your social media presence:
Have a simple, focused strategy
Pick two to three objectives to focus on. Find out what works to draw engagement and avoid repeating what doesn’t. Do you have more likes and shares on videos than written content? This stat may tell you what your audience seeks. But don’t overwhelm them. People want to be updated, on-trend, inspired, educated, and connected — but quickly. Let your followers know why they need you and why they should care about what you have to say.
Create CTAs (calls to action)
Use visible action verbs. Choose CTAs that align with your company’s goals: vote, comment, share, upload, tag, buy, etc. If scrollers aren’t told what to do now, they will forget as they continue to scan feeds.
Produce participation content
Polls, challenges, countdowns, and quizzes allow followers to connect with you. Invite them to share a photo or video. If you customize the reader’s experience, then engagement will follow.
Follow the social media rule of thirds
Balance content with promotion, sharing, and interaction. Constant sales tactics are a turnoff. Oversharing gets old. Keep it relevant by finding the sweet spot between what you want to discuss and your audience’s needs.
Most Effective Ways to Optimize Your Healthcare Content for SEO on Social Media
Many industries are competing for your attention, and well-implemented search engine optimization, or healthcare SEO, can make your healthcare organization stand out. Your social media platforms must demonstrate expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Social SEO enables those actively looking for information rather than just scrolling. Information seekers can use the social media app search bar to find topics. Therefore, you’ll want to include the keywords they are looking for in your content to build your social media presence.
Here are the effective ways to optimize your “Social SEO”:
Research the best keyword use
You can measure SEO success by how many keywords your site ranks for and the resulting traffic. Utilize keyword research tools to identify the highest-ranking search terms. Regularly update your content keywords. With ever-changing trends, there will be newer and more relevant keywords used. Find out what your competitors use on their websites and social media. Use them in your name, handle, hashtags, and bio. When utilizing video format, speak your keywords and hashtags. It’s also helpful to include your location. This will help your target audience easily remember and recognize your social media presence.
Build backlinks
Backlinks are one of the top three ranking factors for search engines. When another website links to you in their text, someone just voted you as credible! This example is one reason it’s essential to have authoritative and credible content. The more backlinks you have from high-quality websites, the higher you rank.
Post consistently
Consistently posting content doesn’t mean posting frequently. Algorithms care more about engagement than how many posts you put out. Create an editorial calendar with pre-scheduled posts. Find out what days and times your target audience will most likely see your posts. Analytic services are available to measure performance.
Use high-quality personalized photos
Every post should have some type of visual along with the text. Keep in mind, stock images don’t rank as high as customized photos. Remember to include alt text to describe each picture. Image descriptions will help web crawlers to understand your site and may help communicate the image to people with visual impairments. Overall, create a visually memorable and satisfying experience for your readers.
Although your brand aims to rank well in Google searches, you must also provide value to your readers and potential patients. Be strategic, use best practices, and optimize your SEO, and you will be well-equipped to build an engaging social media presence.
Need assistance in maximizing your social media impact? Look no further! Our proficient team of nurse content writers is equipped to handle the heavy lifting on your behalf. Let us optimize your social media presence effortlessly.
Resources
Boyter, G. (2023, April 27). 16 ways to build a better social media presence. Sproutsocial. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/building-social-media-presence/
Frankel, A. (2022, September 20). 10-Step Guide to Effective Healthcare SEO. Semrush Blog. https://www.semrush.com/blog/healthcare-seo/
Hilson, S. ( 2021, August 29). 9 Easy Tips for Building a Strong Social Media Presence. Rock content. https://rockcontent.com/blog/social-media-presence/
Martin, M. (2022, June 15). 21 Social Media Best Practices to Follow in 2023. Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-media-best-practices/
Newberry, C. (2022, October 26). Social SEO: How to Help People Find You on Social Media. Hootsuite. https://blog.hootsuite.com/social-seo/
Patel, N. (2022, June 6). How to Create an Effective Social Media Content Calendar. Neil Patel. https://neilpatel.com/blog/social-media-content-calendar/
Verhoeven, R. (2021, October 4). 7 ways to create more engaging content. Smartocto. https://smartocto.com/blog/7-ways-create-more-engaging-content/
Wiebe, J. (2023, April 28). Social Proof: 5 new studies that prove its continued persuasive power. Copyhackers. https://copyhackers.com/2023/04/social-proof/
About the Author
Andrea Wickstrom, BSN, RN, PHN
Andrea Wickstrom, BSN, RN, PHN, has worked in healthcare for over 25 years. Cardiology is her primary niche, and she is eager to promote an increase in health literacy. She now owns a freelance health writing company, One-Up Nurse Writer, LLC.
