Remember the days when Facebook and Instagram were merely a platform to connect with friends? Well, not anymore. What started as media to foster personal relationships have now grown into a platform to drive business goals. Healthcare professionals and companies are increasingly resorting to popular social media platforms to promote their brands and services, and why not? After all, the country's boom in digital literacy is a great tool to stay connected to patients and customers, even in the face of logistics challenges.

Why Choose Social Media?

If you already have a dedicated website to promote your practice or brand, you might be wondering why there is a need to use social media platforms. Aren't they just a place to virtually hang out with friends? Then broaden your thoughts a bit because the healthcare industry can realize many benefits from social media. Here's how:

• Social media helps increase the online footprint.
• With the right tactics, social media has the power for effective lead generation.
• Social media is an excellent channel to raise public awareness of health issues. Mayo Clinic, for instance, does this job pretty well with around 280k Instagram followers.
• You can use social media to give patients glimpses of your brand or practice, building customer trust and confidence.

What Are the Right Social Media Marketing Strategies?

So, what are the best practices that'll make you trending on social media? Here are some tips:

• Choose the right online platform. While Twitter is your best bet to share health news, consider Google+ to increase your website's organic traffic.
• Use SEO strategies like most searched keywords to attract more traffic on YouTube, Quora, and the like.
• Be consistent and regular with your social media posts. Inactive social media profiles will do you no better than losing out on followers.
• Use social media to answer common patient queries. Apollo Hospitals' "Just Ask" campaign used its Facebook page to answer specific health queries from visitors.
• Initiate social media trends through quizzes, interactive sessions, and #hashtag campaigns. Fortis' #MonsoonMantra disseminated useful health tips for the monsoons and garnered a massive follower base on Twitter through self-promotion and organ donation drives.
• Use virtual platforms to combat misinformation during crises such as the present COVID-19 pandemic.
• Provide authentic and relevant health information through Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ blog posts. Yahoo! Answers and Quora will help you connect with the active public and improve your search engine ranking.
• Including testimonials and referrals on your social media page gives a personalized angle to your services and campaigns.

Conclusion

Several hospitals in India have outstanding social media presence and website ratings. Some of them include Apollo Hospitals, Fortis Hospitals, Narayana Health, and Wockhardt Hospitals. But what makes them stand out in the sea of medical and healthcare providers? Quality service? Definitely! But what also matters is how they use the social channel to establish themselves in front of potential leads. Given that people are already hooked to social media, using it for healthcare services will add more mileage to marketing efforts.