Social media is an opportunity for practices of all sizes to find new patients and stay connected with their most loyal patients. But if you’re brand new to social media, it can be easy to get overwhelmed by the sheer amount of work required to achieve success. And how do you know if your social media efforts are even successful? Let’s talk about what it takes to create a successful healthcare social media plan.
Step One: Decide on Your Goals
Why start here? Because your goals become the big picture you’ll keep in mind as you form your strategy. Maybe you want to use social media to drive new patients to your practice. Think about integrating your procedures and happy patient testimonials into your social content. Answer questions patients may have, and offer deals on their first visit. If your goal is patient retention, focus on running specials that motivate your patients to visit your practice again.
Next, think about your target audience. You probably already have an idea of which social media platforms they’re most likely to use and what types of content they’re most likely to respond to. Identify which content types you want to try out, whether that’s holiday content, giveaways, contests, educational content, or content that promotes your expertise.
Choose one or two social media platforms to start with so that you and your team don’t get overwhelmed.
Step Two: Create A Calendar
The next step is to create a calendar so you can plan out your content in advance. This will help you visually see what’s coming up, avoid repeating and missing content, and plan your content in advance. Calendars are also great for making sure you don’t miss out on holiday content that’s relevant to your industry, specialty, and business.
Step Three: Start Posting (and Measuring)
The final step is to start posting, and start measuring. There are a few metrics to pay attention to. Engagement rate, or the rate users comment, like, or share a post, clickthrough rate, the rate that users click a link in a post, and conversion rate, which is the rate at which users take a desired action like filling out a form or making a purchase, are metrics that indicate a post is performing well.
It takes time to build a social media audience – in fact, it’s a good sign if your audience is building slowly but surely. That means you’re finding the right people, and your audience is authentic. Following these tips will put you on the path to success with healthcare social media.
We Can Help
Social media can be time-consuming for healthcare practices. Social Power cuts down on the time and effort required to successfully manage a social media presence. Contact one of our experts to see how we can help you grow.
