Embracing social media in healthcare marketing – tips for 2017
Tips to assist with your healthcare social media
Health systems, hospitals and physician practices are coming around to embracing the power of social media in healthcare marketing. Health care marketers are finally starting to leverage the channel to become thought leaders, engage customers where they are, discover more about their patients, build their brands and strengthen their organizations.
This is the thrust of this article on marketingland.com – A healthier, happier social presence: Tips for health care marketers in 2017. It’s a good, quick read written by Rob Begg, VP Product Marketing for Social Products at Salesforce. He also cites two health systems (Mercy Health System and Mayo Clinic) as organizations effectively reaching, serving and listening to their communities, using the examples of their Twitter feeds.
All organizations are now social organizations
At Trajectory, we believe that all organizations, whether they like it or not, are now social organizations. But while the majority of us human beings are social beings, we don’t necessarily want to engage with brands – let alone health system and hospital brands. What we want is meaningful “value-for-me” vs “what-you-want-from-me” content. This will be the holy grail of an organization’s success with social media in healthcare.
Creating value from your healthcare social media
So how do you create real customer value (and follow-on brand value and business value) from social media in healthcare? What we at Trajectory refer to as “Social Capital.” We believe it requires organizations to embrace social media as a central part of their business strategy, beyond marketing and as an adjunct to campaigns.
Embedding social media across all aspects of the organization, and alongside mobile and digital, to keep close to consumers who incorporate social media across all aspects of their lives. Who are using social media to search, evaluate, choose and use your services and forge new connections through your brand.
Rob Begg’s tips for healthcare marketers article mentions the power of social listening. And he cites that in general, healthcare organizations have found four uses for social listening:
- Monitoring brand health
- Tuning into conversations about issues that are important to patients
- Assisting in enrollment for trials
- Discovering patient communities
While these are powerful uses, using social media strategically beyond the marketing department means also being able to spread its value across the organization, e.g. as a resource for data, a tool for relationship building, for customer service and as a feedback loop for service improvements.
Impact of social media in healthcare
The impact of social media in healthcare gives organizations the ability to punch above their weight when utilized strategically. To drive preference, choice and build stronger brands and businesses. And the way to do that is to provide meaningful “value-for-me” vs “what-you-want-from-me” content across the entire brand journey. Think of it like two gears that engage one another to set things in motion. The more you give today’s social consumers the ability to efficiently and effectively move their lives forward, the more you’ll move your healthcare brand and business forward.