The success of any social media campaign can be summed up in one word: engagement. An engaging post will generate conversation, is more likely to be shared and can open your social network to more viewers—and potential patients!
Here are our 5 favorite ways to engage patients with social media:
1. Host a contest:
Hosting a contest is one of the most popular ways to engage your social media fan base. If there’s a strong incentive to “like” your page, you’ll not only acquire more fans, but have more fans checking back on a regular basis.
Before deciding to host a contest, you may want to take a look at Facebook’s promotion guideline.
A simpler, less time-consuming alternative to hosting a contest is asking your audience trivia questions. Even if you’re not offering an incentive, trivia questions are likely to get a response.
2. Ask questions:
Asking for tips and questions from your audience is a great way to get patients involved. Ask them to share their healthiest recipe or favorite fitness routine. This will generate conversation that leads back to your social network!
3. Share information in terms fans and followers can understand:
It’s essential to understand your target patient. Knowing how they communicate is important when composing your posts. Using terms your patients can comprehend is crucial in engaging them, because if they don’t understand, they won’t get involved!
4. Publish guest blog posts by patients:
Something perhaps more out of the ordinary is reaching out to your past and present patients and asking them to share their stories on your blog or social networks. Publishing these posts by patients can be extremely successful in appealing to readers. The chance of them emotionally relating to another patient is more likely than them relating to you as their healthcare provider.
5. Designate time to answer questions:
Make yourself available at the same time daily or weekly to answer questions. Other options to consider are creating tweet chats about designated topics with easy to follow hashtags, e.g. #HighBloodPressure, or even Google+ Hangouts. Google+ Hangouts provide a more interactive forum to connect with patients. You can video chat with numerous users at one time to answer questions and talk healthcare!
What types of posts do you find are most engaging to your patients?
Leave comments or post to our Facebook wall! We’d love to hear your opinions.
