Many medical professionals are remaining hesitant to using social media. We’re here to tell you that you shouldn’t!
People search the internet daily with health related questions and are plagued with filtering through the spam and advertisements to find an answer that seems legitimate. These people are often embarrassed or feel uncomfortable with the information they are searching for, so that’s why they go to the internet for their answers. Wouldn’t it be so much simpler if they could just reach out to a doctor. Of course it would! That right there is one of the best reasons we could give a doctor to consider using social media for their practice. The key is to make current and future patients as comfortable as possible, and to create another means for them to connect with doctors outside of the exam room.
Now, all doctors don’t necessarily understand the best ways to use social media for their practice. That’s why we are to help. We have a few tips for successfully using social media in the medical industry.
- Provide links to good sources of health information, articles, etc.
This helps people weed out the good information from the bad information. As a doctor, you are verifying this information for them, so that they know it can be trusted and is credible.
2.Don’t answer personal questions via social media, always direct patients to call or come in for personal issues
Answering personal questions can get tricky, you want to always protect your patients privacy. A great way to continue to provide educational information is to share tips and information regularly. Make it a weekly segment that people will get used to seeing, such as Medical Mondays or something similar and share information on a relative health topic that is
- You do want to add some personal touches
You want to make people feel comfortable with your practice. Share images of your staff with fun information about them, such as birthdays or favorite things to do. Celebrate patients victories, such as births or beating a disease (with their permission of course).
- Be sure to create a doctor’s profile on sites like Healthgrades, Zocdoc, DoctorDirectory, or another healthcare professional directory.
This will provide people with an easy way to find you online and also create an easy way for them to schedule appointments with you.
- BLOG
Share your knowledge. As a doctor you automatically have that credibility to stand on and people want to hear what you have to say when it comes to the medical industry. Creating a blog will also help with your overall marketing strategy because it can bring more people to your website. This can be done by creating blog posts, and sharing them on your various social media channels.
These are just a few tips, there is so much more you can do to create a winning social media presence for your practice. If you are in need of further help, don’t have the time, or just think someone else if better suited to handle it for you, give us a call!
