10 In-Depth Tips for Successful Healthcare Social Media Marketing

The internet is the first place people go when they need information about a medical issue, but unfortunately, it’s full of inaccuracies and misinformation. In this setting, doctors and nurses are the best authorities to raise public awareness about diseases and educate audiences regarding their health. As a result, healthcare social media has been increasingly expanding lately.

This is a handy medium through which to connect with patients and convey important messages regarding their health. However, you need to grow your online presence while considering the best approach to cover sensitive topics, which is certainly not easy. 

That’s why I came up with these 10 best practices for your healthcare social media marketing, with examples from well-known companies to inspire your actions.

Let’s jump in!

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1. Educate Your Audience

People often use social media to learn more about doctors, specialists, and hospitals and ultimately make well-informed decisions before seeking medical services. That’s why educating your audience can be an effective strategy to attract followers and prove your knowledge and expertise in the field.

Providing factual and accurate content covering popular health and wellness topics will help you establish yourself as a trustworthy actor in the scene. And openly talking about a medical process is a way to show transparency, which makes it easier for patients to rely on you and assert the quality of your care.

Since you’re going to tackle complex topics, it’s important that you always keep your target audience in mind and adapt the specific vocabulary if necessary. For example, if you’re addressing patients who will most likely lack a medical background, then you need to break down the terminology so they can understand it. 

However, to communicate with other professionals, using the correct terminology is usually the best approach.

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(Animated video production by Yum Yum Videos.)

2. Work with Influencers or Well-Known Figures

Don’t worry, I won’t tell you that you should become a professional medical content creator and put your doctors and nurses to film TikToks during work hours. Rather than that, a way to give a boost to your healthcare social media marketing efforts is to associate your brand with a respected medical expert that has a strong online presence.

Besides being able to reach the creator’s audience, this strategy will also allow you to gain credibility. Even if they’re not that big on social media, interacting with renowned professionals will improve your company’s reputation, a fundamental asset for healthcare companies.

3. Share Reviews and Testimonials

A list of healthcare social media marketing tips won’t be complete without reviews and testimonials. These kinds of content serve as social proof or evidence that other people have benefited from your assistance and been happy with the results. 

What your patients have to say about you is much more convincing than what you say about yourself. Reviews help build trust and confidence in your brand, but they also work as reassurance for viewers who are considering your services.

You can ask former patients to talk about their experience with your clinic, including the reason they decided to seek your assistance and what the results were. The best testimonials place the focus on the client’s experience because that’s what helps viewers connect with them. 

And as they tell their stories, you get to subtly promote your services. Keep in mind, though, that testimonials are a form of personal information that can only be disclosed with express permission, so make sure to ask before sharing anything!

4. Build a Community and Interact with Your Audience

If you build a solid community that has interesting conversations and constant engagement, healthcare social media growth will follow. This works for any kind of business, but in the medical area, your platform can also become a support group for patients and their families!

The way to start building a community is by interacting with your audience. Answer comments related to interesting topics, ask questions to your followers, and reply to any DMs you receive on your account.

Once you’ve built a solid community, you can even invite people to participate in real-life activities. Host events like free screenings on special dates or link followers to practical resources they can take advantage of. This won’t only improve your online presence, but it’ll also work to gain your patients’ loyalty.

5. Take Advantage of Video Content

By its very nature, advertising in the healthcare sector has to be empathetic and clearly prove that your company understands the patient’s needs while outlining how you can help. Video marketing can be a powerful tool to help you do that.

Sharing videos humanizes your company and builds trust because you can show its honest, human side (quite literally), which makes it easier for people to connect with your message. For example, you can introduce your staff, give a tour of your facilities, feature success stories to show the medical quality of your services, or even invite your followers to an event.

There are many animation styles you can take advantage of to convey engaging and emphatic messages. Take whiteboard videos, for example. This animation technique can be a big help in simplifying complex medical knowledge because it transforms it into a visual story. Understanding how something works is way easier if you can actually see it.

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(Whiteboard explainer video by Yum Yum Videos.)

6. Destigmatize Sensitive Topics

Fear and misunderstanding often lead to prejudice, so it can be a good idea to use your healthcare social media platforms to wade into those waters and tackle sensitive topics with the impartial eyes of a trusted professional.

Stigmas surrounding health usually act as a barrier between diagnosis and treatment. So, having healthcare specialists talk about these topics and encourage their discussion can be valuable for society, especially for anyone currently dealing with them.

For example, you can work to spread awareness on any topics related to your specialty, like mental illnesses and addictions, and provide professional insights on the best ways to recover from them.

7. Shine a Light on Preventative Care

Instead of waiting for patients to come to you, you can use your healthcare social media accounts to encourage them to visit your installations more often. This is essential for diagnosing diseases at an early stage when treatments are likely to work best and help patients stay healthy in every aspect of their lives. 

Routine screenings, check-ups, and patient counseling are ways to practice preventative healthcare. Besides reminding followers of their yearly check-ups, you can also create content to instruct your audience on how to avert illnesses and take care of their health.

Take advantage of special dates, like National Poison Prevention Week, to raise awareness of preventative care among your followers. 

8. Share Your Staff’s Accomplishments

An important aspect of healthcare social media marketing is building a lasting connection with your followers and strengthening their confidence in your services. Believe it or not, highlighting your center or staff’s accomplishments can contribute to that goal.

Your patients entrust you with their health, so it’s essential to maintain and develop that trust over time. If your facility wins an award, a member of your staff obtains recognition for their research or one of your stundent-internts graduates with stellar grades, you can share those accomplishments as part of your digital content strategy.

A company’s biggest asset is its team, and healthcare isn’t an exception. Using your social media to highlight your staff’s achievements will also show your followers that your hospital consists of a close-knit of professionals who work and celebrate together.

9. Learn to Track Your Performance with Analytics

Analytics help you evaluate the impact of your communications efforts on your organization and to understand what’s working and what needs to be improved. So, keeping track of them is an important aspect of healthcare social media marketing. 

Depending on your specific target audience and the platforms you’re choosing to promote yourself on, certain types of posts will perform better than others. Discover which are your best-performing pieces to pinpoint the kind of content your audience prefers, then focus on producing more of that.

Overall, social media monitoring will help uncover critical insights about your marketing activities and identify the weak areas that need improvement.  By creating content that appeals to your followers, you’ll increase the chances of them liking and interacting with your posts —and, who knows, maybe you’ll even go viral!

10. Always Follow HIPAA Regulations

It won’t come as a surprise that you should always be mindful of HIPAA regulations and medical ethics codes, even on social media. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is a federal law that protects sensitive patient health information from being revealed without their consent or knowledge.

HIPAA has its own set of rules around healthcare social media marketing that apply to your business’s official platforms, as well as your employees’ personal pages. To avoid any misuse, it can be a good idea to create an instructional video for your staff or provide guidelines for using social media, so everyone’s aware of what they can and cannot do.

For example, you should never share anything that can be used to identify a patient without their permission, such as descriptions of their physique, details of their treatment, or even references to their condition. If you do, it has to be with express, written consent from the patient.

They also need to know how you’re using that information and what it is for. The lack of physical proof of permission from a patient may result in HIPAA violations, bothersome lawsuits, large compensations that involve millions of dollars, and even the revocation of your medical license.

Wrapping Up

Social media has transformed the way we interact with and access health information online. Hospitals and clinics may not be able to fill their timelines with user-generated content and unique promotions, but there is a real opportunity for them to take an active role in driving conversations on topics like preventative care and stigma in society.

Healthcare social media marketing can help you cement your brand’s reputation, reach new patients, and expand your influence both online and within your local community. To do that, create interesting and engaging pieces of content, listen to important conversations, and always work alongside your followers on the way to a better, healthier life.