LEVERAGING ON SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING FOR HEALTHCARE
A healthcare marketing journey : Episode 3
Nearly half the world population is active on social media. Social media has evolved over the years to a platform that is not only for connecting friends but as a marketplace to reach the masses. A lot of people turn to social media for recommendations. Social Media has changed the way businesses interact with their customers. Social Media has become a viable tool to find and connect with long term customers.
Role of Social Media in Healthcare:
It has become a cardinal rule for healthcare firms to establish their online presence through social media. A study suggests that 57% of patients get influenced by the practitioner’s online presence before choosing to consult them.
Doctors have never had a platform where they can connect to their patients, but the advent of social media has changed this scenario. 60% of doctors feel that they enhance the quality of service by engaging with patients through social media. With social media playing such a pivotal role in the healthcare business, it is apparent that most healthcare companies have started adopting social media marketing strategies.
Here you are presented with things you should focus on to leverage social media.
1.Educating the patients is a prime duty of the healthcare firm. The need for creating awareness among the people is at a high, as there is a lot of misinformation surrounding healthcare. Social media enables doctors and healthcare firms to reach out to the public and provide valuable health information.
This greatly helps the patients to understand the preventive measures, and also to identify the medical care that is most suitable to them. When you provide legitimate information in the form of blogs, images and videos, it creates transparency between the firm and the patients. Keeping patients and prospective patients informed is an important way to gain traction. Inform them about events, medical practices and new products.
At times like now, When the Covid-19 has put the world in lockdown, there is a lot of misinformation and rumours around it. This issue can cause a lot of false assumptions that result in medical-related problems. This can be combated by posting information about the novel coronavirus with reliable sources from the WHO.
2.Making patients feel comfortable is another primary duty of healthcare firms. A considerable number of patients are impacted by white coat syndrome, which is when patients tend to develop nervousness in clinical settings. Health is a serious topic, but if you tailor a way to make it fun, you can remove the barrier of fear among patients. Post photos and videos that depict the complex medical information into a fun learning experience. An excellent example of making the patients comfortable is this superb initiative by Northwestern Medicine.
3.Engage with the community through social media. Social Media Marketing is all about building a relationship with customers. There is a need to engage with customers constantly. Promote interactions among the community by creating interactive content. Answer queries that are posted by patients and provide individual assistance.
Patients are looking for medically related information on a wide range, and the healthcare firm should provide them with the relevant information. For example, The Mayo Clinic conducts #AskTheMayoMom Q&A video sessions regularly. And the Mount Sinai Hospital Epilepsy Center created a private Facebook group in which the co-directors of the firm acted as moderators, for patients and caregivers.
4.Maintain Compliance with the policies framed by the governing body. Legal Compliance is very crucial as a simple mistake could lead to a series of negative legal implications. Let us consider the example of Kim Kardashian, who endorsed a morning sickness drug through her Instagram page. She also attached a link containing the risk information of the drug along with her post. But according to the FDA, the risk information should be described in the post. After a warning, Kim Kardashian updated the post that met the FDA standards.
And in India, blatant publicity and advertising of skills and qualifications of a doctor shall prove to be extremely conspicuous and might call for severe punishment as per the law.
Social Media Marketing for healthcare provides tons of opportunities to reach and engage with patients by educating them. There are challenges in Social Media Marketing, but it is the most effective way to reach out to the customers. Social Media helps to build trust with the customers, and customers opt for services provided by the people they trust.
So let’s get social !!!!
Adithya is the host for the Branding and Patient Experience Summit for Doctors
He is the creative lead for this summit. Adithya has worked on several market research studies with doctors across India. Being an operations guy wants to explore and learn new things always.
www.krea.in , www.krux108.com,www.krux108.com/branding4doctors/
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