Facebook is an incredible social media tool for marketers since its invention. It allows multiple features that help businesses build a strong brand and online presence. Healthcare marketers too benefitted much in improving their medical practice.
A survey conducted by National Research Corp. reported that over 40% of people who responded to the survey rely on social networking for health-related information, and 94% of people turn to Facebook. They look for health education videos from hospitals, medical practices, and various healthcare providers, healthy living ideas, such as diet and exercise, and other health events.
Facebook acts as a two-way communications channel for healthcare marketing. People can connect with those who share similar interests as theirs, like medical-related topics, and on some occasions give and get feedback from health facilities.
Medical practices need to master Facebook marketing strategies since several people are looking for and trust those reviews and recommendations of local services shared by the peer groups.
Tips to master Facebook for Medical Practices
1) Analyze Your Medical Practice’s Facebook Page
As a healthcare professional, you might have already created a Facebook page for your medical practice. Analyze the page for professionalism and build it as a business page representing your medical practice or brand. This official page acts as a primary channel for interaction and engagement with your target audience.
Add every possible contact information like phone number, email address, website link, services you offer, and hours of operation, thus making it easy for your followers to connect with you. Include clearly visible call-to-action buttons that allow your followers to book an appointment or get in touch with you easily.
2) Prefer to Use Authentic Photos
When people turn up to your Facebook page to know your contact information to visit your clinic, they analyze your page for credibility. The best way to build trust in people is to include authentic photos of your clinic, medical practice, physicians, and other staff.
Avoid using stock photos and use actual pictures that represent patients. Your potent patient’s response to such images will be high as they help establish your authenticity.
3) Use Facebook Analytics to Know Your Audience’s Interests
Take a look at all the Facebook posts n your medical practice’s page and look for those posts that resonate with your current and potential patients. To perform this analysis, use Facebook Analytics to provide you with two major pieces of information that help you to create better content for your followers.
- Facebook Page Insights that says what people are looking for on your page and how they interact with your content.
- Facebook Audience Insights that say who is looking at your page.
4) Create Different Types of Posts
It’s not a rule to include text-only posts as you are a medical health provider. You can convey your information to your audience through different post ideas that engage them. Some of them include videos, GIFs, infographics, giveaways, polls, and surveys.
Make sure to use high-quality images, gifs, or videos that help you deliver your message accurately. Use Canva or Ribbet to create the correct sizes of images for your Facebook page, with drag-and-drop tools.
5) Be Consistent to Post on your Facebook Page
Consistency is the key to bring more followers to your page. Follow a schedule to post different types of posts on your page and use tools like Hootsuite to schedule your posts. Social media tools like Hootsuite help you achieve consistency through automation. Be consistent in posting on your page, analyzing what is working and what is not, and updating accordingly.
6) Post about Cause Awareness Events
Help your audience to know about the important dates and health events. Whether it is Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month, Breast Cancer Awareness Month, or Healthy Weight Week, announce these notable dates and other health fairs so that interested followers attend those events.
7) Follows Patient Privacy Regulations
The main difficulty with Facebook for medical practices is privacy. Study and understand thoroughly how HIPAA applies to medical Facebook posts. Some of the rules include not sharing client testimonials unless expressly approved, hiding patient information when taking photos of the office and team, hiding or deleting comments or reviews that share personal information.
8) Post Updates Related to your Medical Practice
Are you ready to introduce a new program, product, or service? Introduce it to your followers in the form of an announcement post. Your followers will love to hear about it and may appreciate you for taking the time to announce it.
9) Go Live on Facebook
A study says that Facebook live videos receive more engagement compared to other traditional videos, and it draws ten times as many comments as regular videos. Facebook’s algorithm is designed to prioritize live video by placing it at the top of the News Feed. In addition to that, it sends notifications to potentially interested audiences and allows live videos to be archived on Facebook that can be viewed and shared after the live broadcast.
10) Advertise Through Facebook
Facebook ads help you target a wider audience and offer a great return on investment. It is one of the most affordable paid options for medical practices to connect with their patients for just a few hundred dollars a month.
Whatever may be your primary goal, whether to reach more audiences or to promote your medical practice page, Facebook advertising allows you to target the right audience of the right demographics and interests. Facebook ad manager is a user-friendly tool that assists you in managing and analyzing your ad campaigns.
11) Create Facebook Stories
Facebook stories are short pieces of content that can be delivered in the form of slideshows and video collections and are available for up to 24 hours. You can share health tips or behind-the-scenes content or host question-answers sessions.
