Social media is one of the most important marketing tools that can be utilised by your provider. It is essential for building brand awareness and generating leads for potential clients.

Your target audiences are likely to be diverse, including not only potential clients or patients but also their families, service commissioners, other healthcare professionals and social services personnel. Right across the board, the majority of them can be reached via the internet, especially social media.

The Reach of Social Media

If you want to build a brand that clients and potential clients can trust, social media is imperative.

You may believe that social media is only for the younger generation, but increasingly, this is no longer true. If you run a home care business or a residential home, you may think there is no point in advertising online. However, according to the Office for National Statistics in the UK, in 2020, 92% of adults in the UK were regular internet users and 54% were aged 75 years and over. In addition to this, every year, more people aged over 65 (and even over 75) set up on at least one of the major social media platforms.

Social Media and Its Ability to Influence

To decide, ‘should I add social media to my healthcare marketing strategy?’, you should also consider how influential it is.

People use all the various platforms to share details of their own life with friends and family. However, they also go on social media for entertainment, and more importantly, information! One study found that 74% of consumers use social media to form their buying decisions.

Promote Your Competence and Warmth

Having active and dynamic social media profiles is an integral part of positioning and promoting your brand to make your organisation special, noteworthy and appealing.

Your target audiences will form opinions about you from the style, content and frequency of your social media posts. In an industry so reliant on both competence and warmth, you can push both messages by regularly posting images showing happy staff and clients and patients.

The trick is to keep your content strong and compelling. For instance, it’s better to use snapshots of your organisation ‘in action’ to show how well you operate and the services you can offer, as opposed to using only words to make unsupported claims.

Other Advantages of Using Social Media in Healthcare

There are lots of other ways to use social media for healthcare marketing. The differing social media platforms can invoke different responses and be used in varying ways to promote your business. For example, LinkedIn and Twitter are ideal for extending your network of professional contacts.

On the other hand, Facebook and Instagram are more fitted towards visual advertising and promoting the personal side of your business, with staff profiles, images of your office and the promotion of your services.

How Can HLTH Digital Help You?

At HLTH Digital, we offer social media support in all three of our package options. This is because we know and believe that social media engagement is essential in building your audience and establishing yourself as a credible, active and trustworthy brand. Depending on your budget, scope or vision for your business, we can offer different social media content ranging from one, four or eight posts a month.

To find out more about how we can help you with your social media strategy and to learn how marketing can improve traffic for your business, get in touch with our team today.