It’s Good To Be Social…
Social media marketing offers health marketers great benefits when it’s used well. It can be a tool for:
- patient acquisition
- brand management, and
- awareness building
all rolled into one. Successful health and wellness marketers can use the tools of social media to enhance their organization’s reputation, educate about health issues, disseminate factual information, share shoutouts, and attract talent.
For those who have yet to implement social media marketing for their organization, here’s a useful list of best practices for implementing social media tools for health marketing.
Start With the Basics…
Figure out who your audience is and what platforms they use
Make sure your social media presence will reach the right people. The various platforms reach different demographics. You’ll want to be seen on the platforms that match your audience.
Create a plan and a schedule
To attract an audience come up with and create a social media marketing plan that defines objectives, audiences, platforms, strategies, and messages.
Establishing a social media posting schedule will help keep you on track and on brand message. You may want to create a posting schedule that’s weekly, bi-weekly, monthly or quarterly. Social media marketing sometimes requires you to turn on a dime with trends and more, so stay flexible.
Establish a team and coordinator
Developing posts and visuals coordinated with a calendar may be too large a task for one individual. You may need to establish a small team that has someone assigned to coordinate the brand messaging according to the calendar or in timing with launches, releases and events.
This approach can be very taxing for employees who are already over-committed. A better alternative is to hire an experienced social media marketing agency, like DPM, who can take on these tasks. This gives you a partner with first-hand knowledge of the social media landscape and staff who can implement your plan.
Once these are in place you’re primed and ready to start your journey to social success.
Best Practices for Implementing Social Media Tools for Health Marketing
Educate rather than promote
Educational content, whether videos, blogs, or short posts, will do more for your reputation than self-promotion.
Use images and videos
Visuals attract more attention than text, and images and videos are great at communicating emotions. Use these tools to create and strengthen a positive image.
Use infographics
Infographics can convey complex information quickly by making it clearer and more engaging.
Hashtags can boost visibility
Using the right hashtags can help the right audience find your messages.
Shout-outs and testimonials present a positive image
Praise and testimonials from satisfied patients and clients is way more believable than self-promotion.
Stay HIPAA compliant
If your organization is regulated by HIPAA, maintaining patient confidentiality is paramount. You’ll need written consent to publish patient testimonials and stories, and you’ll need to be very careful when engaging with patients on social media.
DPM Knows Social Media
Dunn Pellier Media (DPM) specializes in growing health and wellness brands with social media campaigns. Contact Us Today to see how our expertise can help elevate your health or wellness brand.
Dunn Pellier Media is an established health, wellness, and lifestyle pr firm in Los Angeles. Our CEO Nicole Dunn is a former Senior Level Television Producer who started DPM around health and wellness after seeing a lack of positive health coverage in the media marketplace. She is a thought-leader in all things health and fitness and often writes for Forbes Magazine covering all things wellness.