The use of social media in business is not really rocket science, it has become an essential ingredient in the way we connect and communicate on a day to day basis. With professionally designed campaigns, social media strategies can engage, deliver leads, and raise awareness of your brand with your patients.
You just have to look at the latest statistics to see how important it is to be on social media, with thirty-one per cent of people checking their profiles across a range of platforms more than 10 times a day – and 79% checking at least once a day (1). Social media is not a suitable marketing tool for every medical business, but if it is the right fit for your business and you’re not on social media, you could be missing out on a huge slice of pie.
Social media is a great way of building trust with your patients and allows your medical business to be front of mind and talked about in a positive way in the marketplace every day. Taking a pro-active approach also allows you to have control over what is shared and how you want to be perceived.
When executed as part of an integrated strategy, social media can put your medical business on the map and develop one of the most powerful results you can hope to achieve through marketing – a relationship with your patients.
Setting up a social media profile is just the beginning of your social media journey. One of the worst things a brand can do for the business is to ‘set and forget’ its social media profile.
There are some key factors in achieving success through social media campaigns. First and foremost, good results from social media marketing requires time and consistent effort. Campaigns should be based around the 80/20 rule “80% information and engagement and 20% call to action” with posts based around the sharing of meaningful content that adds value to our patients.
Who, What, Where, When, Why
Understanding what you want to achieve through your social media campaign allows you to develop a strategy which is essential in determining which platform or group of platforms you choose.
Regular content is required to build trust, connection and increase followers on your page. Social media will not instantaneously deliver leads but will help raise awareness of your brand and build trust amongst your current and potential patients. It is important to understand that social media is just another touch point in your overall marketing strategy which will eventually lead to a conversion.
The statistics around social media are compelling
One third of consumers agree that they will inspect a brand’s social media presence before making a purchase if they have not purchased from them before (2).
Over half of consumers said they are more likely to trust brands if they interact positively with customers on social media (51%), make their content engaging and relevant (54%), and keep it regularly updated (53%) (3).
Social media marketing is not just about advertising, it is about curating organic content that adds value to your patients.
Once you build up good momentum on your social media, analysing the data is important in understanding the success of your efforts.
How you measure and track your social media boils down to the engagement on your page or campaign. A few of the key metrics to look at when measuring the success of your social media include:
- Likes, Comments, Retweets, etc.: Individual engagement metrics like a Share or a Retweet add up. It shows your content is adding value to your patients.
- Post engagement rate: A high rate means the people who see the post find it interesting.
- Increase in followers or likes to your page.
- Goal/conversions: number of people who actively clicked on your website, link or made an appointment through your campaign or post.
Positive interaction between brands and their audience on social media leads to higher levels of trust and connection.
The bottom line is this: we do business with people we know, like and trust and utilising social media can be one of the most powerful tools your business can use to develop this with your patients.
References: (1), (2) & (3), Yellow, 2020, ‘Yellow Social Media Report 2020 Part 1 Consumers’.
