The Real Perks of Embracing Social Media Strategically

In the age of modern medicine, social media marketing is inevitable. Nowadays, it has become imperative for healthcare professionals to embrace social media as a way to share their knowledge, set up a strong presence, and stay ahead of the competition. Yet, medical practices that are embracing social media as a principal part of their strategy are quickly starting to realize that today, social media is not just about pushing promotional materials. It is about engaging with patients on a much deeper level, gaining valuable insights, and solidifying doctor-patient relationships. Huge potential derives from proper social media marketing and here are some of the ways in which it can improve your practice:

• Increased brand recognition – By sharing valuable content with readers on social media sites,you have the opportunity to increase your visibility. Branding your voice and content will make you more familiar to current patients and approachable to prospective patients.
• Improved brand loyalty – Statistics show brands that engage on social media sites are more likely to gain more loyal customers. By being open to connecting with your audience, you can attract new patients and build a loyal following.
• Increased patient opportunities – Every time you post on social media sites, you get the chance interact with an audience and show them why they should choose you and your practice. By marking your presence as a caring and trustworthy healthcare professional, you can drive patients to your practice.
• Increased credibility – As a healthcare professional, you are who you are because of your patients. Interacting with patients on social media shows good faith. This means that the more patients are talking about you on social media, the more valuable you become.
• Increased traffic – Without social media, your traffic is limited to those already familiar with you and the services that you offer. Social media sites allow you to attract new patients and generate more traffic.
• Increased awareness – With over 40% of individuals using social media to find reviews on doctors and treatments, social media sites are a great way for you to expand awareness of your services. They allow you to reach out past word-of-mouth advertising in order to attract new patients.
• Better SEO ranking – Being active on social media can help not only build your credibility, but also increase your SEO ranking. Over 70% of patients search online before reaching out to a doctor. By optimizing your website, you can stay on top of Google search results and allow patients to find you more easily.
• Decreased marketing costs – According to statistics, just a few hours a week spent on quality social media marketing is enough to generate increased traffic.While some types of advertising come with a price, consider starting out small and build on your budget once you start seeing results.
• Improved patient insights – Social media is a great way for you to see what patients think about you and your practice. By monitoring comments on your posts, you can gain more insight into what patients are interested in and how they behave. Over 90% of young individuals said they would trust health-related information shared by others on social media sites.
• Improved patient experiences – Every interaction you have with individuals on social media is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your knowledge and expertise, as well as solidify doctor-patient relationships.Over 60% of doctors have reported that social media improves the quality of care that they deliver to patients. Social media allows you to see what your patients are thinking and doing, thus allowing you to better serve their needs.
• Increased patient education – With countless patients using social media to receive medical information, it is important that you share accurate and up-to-date content in order to avoid potentially harmful effects. Since anyone can post on social media, you have the opportunity to post credible information in order to educate patients, other doctors, and the general public.

Practices that use strategic approaches to social media are able to tap into the information available on social networks more quickly and get to patients before their competitors do. They are able to build business models that are flexible enough to accommodate patient needs and embrace changes that come with the times. Statistics show that strategic users are 5x more likely to be satisfied in generating traffic to their website. Practices that embrace social media strategically are more likely to expand social media beyond the marketing department. They are able to extend its value across different departments. The unique advantage to using social media strategically for marketing your practice is increasing your efforts without the need for large investments. Moreover, when it comes to sales and services, strategic users are over 60% more likely to have integrated automated sales process and customer services. Finally, practices that embrace social media strategically are also able to integrate with employees and have them become more deeply involved in the overall organization. With more employees involved, your practice can communicate more effectively with current and prospective patients, thus increasing opportunities for engagement.

To get the most out of social media, you need to be able to use it as a tool to listen to patients’ ideas, needs, and feedback. It is a way to identify leads and learn more about your patients. For instance, by integrating your practice’s CRM, customer support, and product development systems, you can leverage automation tools that will allow you to use social media in multiple areas within your practice. Automation tools can help you to manage activity data, find insights, and build doctor-patient relationships. Futhermore, social media apps, such as Doximity, Sermo and Figure 1, can aid your professional growth and increase your networking opportunities. Such apps present a huge opportunity for you to take advantage of the age of digitalization and build your credibility as a healthcare professional.

Whether you wish to reach out to more patients online, expand your practice’s visibility or build your credibility, FindaTopDoc can help you in all of these aspects. FindaTopDoc has introduced an effective and professional way to build online engagement among doctors and patients. The Expert Blog allows you to write your own content and host your blog on an innovative platform. Moreover, every reader that subscribes can receive a customized e-newsletter, highlighting your latest monthly articles. Each e-newsletter is tailored in a modern design to represent your unique voice and keep your readers intrigued. Creating a profile on FindaTopDoc is a great way to build exposure among the fast paced online health community. As your viewership starts to grow, so will your reputation.

Technology in healthcare is changing the behaviors, attitudes, and expectations of both healthcare professionals and patients. In order to keep up with the latest trends in today’s technology-empowered world, you need to be able to adopt a more strategic approach. By doing so, you will be able to provide better patient experiences, thus leading to stronger and more loyal relationships.Still, you may be reluctant to use social media due to liability issues and privacy concerns and choose to remain silent. While this is completely understandable, you can craft your image and create an effective social media strategy to market yourself and your practice.

Take the time to invest in a strategic approach by building a plan that will make social media advancement possible. In a generation that is more likely to go online to search medical information and ask health-related questions, you have the opportunity to stay ahead of the competition and help patients from all around the world.It may take time and a lot of effort; however, the outcomes can have far reaching effects in ensuring your long term success. With the right strategy in place, social media marketing can lead to more patients, more traffic, as well as increased patient education and awareness.