Social Media Marketing
SMM is a strategy of leveraging your presence on social media platforms to reach new and existing patients. A focus is placed on creating shareable and useful content on these platforms. Almost all social media platforms offer their own PPC services to promote services to a wider audience.
In fact, in a recent survey nearly one third of respondents indicated that they have used social media platforms to find health-related information, and express their opinions on practitioners, treatments, drugs, and more. Fourty-one percent of these consumers used social media platforms to inform their decision in choosing medical care, such as a particular medical facility or doctor. The opinions of peers can be powerful.
As with any of these online tools such as PPC and SEO, SMM is more suitable for certain situations, goals, and target demographics.
Target Locally
Like PPC, social media allows you the ability to target your audience to a large degree. Targeting on social media allows for a wide range of options whereby you are able to construct different audiences that perfectly match your advertising goals. Targeting locally is by far the best strategy for health practitioners, given that you will only be targeting neighborhoods within a certain radius around your practice.
The best strategies you can use when targeting locally on social media are:
- Target demographically. Platforms like Facebook allow customers to share information publicly that can help you target the right people every time.
- Target the right interests. Interest targeting focuses on consumer and lifestyle categories such as fitness, health, or yoga. By addressing these interests, you are able to reach an audience of people you know has a higher likelihood of interest in your practice.
- Target connections. You can build an audience of consumers who have already interacted with your social pages, website, or health app. This will be your strongest target audience, because they have already previously showed interest in your practice.
Become a knowledge source
Now that you have an SEO optimized article, why not share it on your social media platforms? This is high quality, engaging, and helpful content that your followers will be interested in. However, becoming a thought leader on social media is more than just sharing articles. As a health practitioner, you must know what people want to read, and HOW they want to digest information. Keep these tips in mind.
- Visual content is great. Include eye-catching images, as well as ‘behind the scenes’ photos of you and your staff happily working. This helps the customers feel as though they have a greater connection to you.
- Videos are a great tool. Include live videos and Facebook/Instagram stories to your social feed to give an added layer of personality and connection to your clinic.
- Infographics. This content is especially handy, because it breaks down large chunks of information into digestible bits, and explains it using visuals. Your information should be understood and accessible to everyone, because the more people understand your service, the more likely they are to seek it out.
Understand your target audience and patient
Social media is an ever-evolving tool that changes every time a new topic trends. Plat- forms are user-dominated and therefore your customers demand the type of content they want to see, not vice versa like several decades ago. Because companies are not in control of how much or how little information about their product they want out there, you must be selec- tive with the content that you put out online.
- Be transparent. One way or another, your patients will find the knowledge they want. Be sure that you are open with them so that YOU are the source they turn to for honest information.
- Be genuine. Users of social media appreciate authenticity above all else.
- Be creative. Even though it can seem impossible to be original with content online, a unique perspective and fresh creativity can go a long way with your patients.
- Be engaged. Respond to your ‘fans’ and followers to earn their trust and prove that you are listening to their needs.
Don’t Neglect Mobile
Social media was born in the era of the smartphone, meaning almost everything you do on these platforms will be intuitively integrated from desktop to mobile or vice versa.
Having your mobile device close at hand can also make your job easier
- Mobile makes it easier to update your business social media from anywhere in the world, which means your world of content can be endless if you utilize your smartphone!
- You have a camera and a video recording studio in your pocket — use it! Take videos and pictures in your clinic to share on your platforms.
- Download Ads Manager app that allows you to post and control ads wherever you go, on Facebook and Instagram.
- Turn your notifications on so that you don’t miss any opportunity to respond to a question or comment from a potential patient.
Utilize Data
Where social media is concerned, platforms have built-in metrics to choose from that make determining a campaign’s success easy. Keep these things in mind when creating a campaign:
- Set your goal first, then choose a campaign type that suits your goal best. Facebook will suggest metrics that measure your success automatically depending on what you choose.
- Test ads against each other to see which one performs best. This gives you a clear indication of what resonates with your audience.
- One of the most important things to keep in mind when creating conversion campaigns is your Average Patient Value (APV). This will help you to determine the success of a campaign.