Few doctors have the name recognition of Dr. Oz. Those are lottery winning type of odds. However, by employing some smart social media campaigns, doctors and healthcare professionals can drive patients to their websites and through their doors. Let’s take a quick look at the Top 5 Social Media Marketing Mistakes Healthcare Professionals Make and how they can get on track:
1. Failure to Educate and Engage
Potential patients need to know more about you than where you went to school and your
specialty. They need to know that you have a personality and what that personality is. They want to know how you will engage with them and how you respond to positive and negative feedback. Doctors often forget that social media is a powerful tool to share health tips, nutrition guidance and anything else that makes sense for your patient base. Give them useful information they can like and share, which will grow your audience. And, being a doctor doesn’t mean you have to be stuffy. It’s okay to infuse a bit of humor into your posts. Incorporate video and images into your social media plan to make your content richer and more interesting.
2. Forget to Stay Active
Usually, doctors build a beautiful website with all the bells and whistles and then expect patients to come flying through the doors. They may do an occasional post or two, but there is no person or agency assigned to make sure all of their platforms are properly managed. Consistent posting of relevant, creative and valuable content lets the search engines know your practice is active and credible. This may cause your practice to show up higher in search results, which is great, but it does something much more important.
A Pew Research Center report projects that millennials will overtake Baby Boomers in population in 2019; becoming “the nation’s largest living adult generation.” Why is this important? Because if you want a steady stream of patients, you’ll need to meet them where they are, and millennials are online searching for doctors for themselves or for their parents. They are reading reviews, watching videos and taking note of how you interact with your audience. Keeping your content fresh, well branded and in plain language will help get their attention.
3. Not Planning Facebook Ad Campaigns
This is something we see way too often. Doctors and healthcare practices who make Facebook posts and then randomly boost them without a solid strategy. Doing this is quite frankly throwing money away. Targeted ad campaigns place your practice in front of potential patients who are in your area and searching for your specialty in real time. It takes time and may require hiring someone to build a dynamic social media plan for you, but it will pay off.
4. Using One Platform
Your prospects aren’t using one social media platform so your practice shouldn’t be placing all of your eggs in one Facebook basket. Boosted Facebook ads should be a part of your plan for sure. However, if this is all you’re doing, you’re missing potential patients who need and are looking for exactly what you have to offer. Mix it up with LinkedIn, Twitter and especially Instagram. Facebook ads are great, but there are other social media tools you’ll need if you want to reach older and younger audiences.
5. Not Making Good Use of Social Media Influencers
This is where the magic happens, and most doctors are missing out. Social media influencers are exactly that. They are individuals who have gained a certain amount of influence because they have proven trustworthy in certain areas or have come to be seen as thought leaders in a particular subject. They are regular people (not paid actors) who have been able to attract massive audiences because of their authenticity. When an influencer says your product or practice is newsworthy, people are more likely to listen. Research shows that more than 70 percent of Millennial consumers are likely to buy because of social referrals.
Finding the perfect social media influencer match isn’t easy, but with the help of a qualified branding agency or a professional in-house social media manager, it can be done for a lot less than you would think. And, if you’re really getting excited about all of this social media talk, you can work on becoming your own influencer. What do we mean? Check out these 5 Doctors Who Are Killing It On Social Media Right Now.
Doctors Who Use Social Media Properly Win Big
Targeted social media ads can lead patients who are in your area and in need of your specialty directly to your door. These patients will approach you with confidence because you have made a habit of sharing helpful information on a regular basis. They will come viewing you as a credible physician because the influencers they trust have validated your credibility.
Regardless of which social media platforms you use, making sure your contact information is prominently listed is a key part of your social media plan. Your current and prospective patients need to be able to reach you or leave a message 24/7 feeling assured they will hear back from you promptly. RingRx can help you set up a phone system created specifically for doctors that enables your patients to communicate with you easily and efficiently whether you are in the office or on call. Call us today for more information and for a free quote.
