Physicians can use social media to promote the practice and help patients get to know them. We want to communicate that the physicians are smart, but approachable. And, we want to share how friendly and helpful the staff is to patients. Social media is a great way to illustrate these traits.
Aim to post 2-3 times per week and at least 4 times per month. Use pictures of your own team where possible, links, and fun facts. You’ll get a better response from personalized posts, particularly with pictures. This is also a great place to use patient testimonials. And, you can recycle some content, but don’t push the exact same content at the exact same time to all platforms.
Since social is targeted at the public, use language and words that will appeal to patients that want to get better. Talk about physical fitness, nutrition, and mind/body connection. Give them tangible ideas that are easy to implement.
Find professional organizations that you trust and use their resources for content. For example, ACOG has great patient-facing information that can be used on social for an ObGyn practice. Another example is the AAOS. They have a huge library of articles that their member Orthopedic Surgeons can share on social.
Facebook is a great place to use photos, videos, links, and educate patients about your practice and specialty. It can also be used to drive reviews of the practice. It’s fine to create lengthy posts on Facebook and be sure to “tag” other organizations that are part of the post.
Twitter is a platform to share short concise messages about the practice and the specialty. Images, short videos, and short links work well on Twitter. Tag other organizations in your posts as appropriate.
Instagram is geared towards images and very short videos, so is a great place for “behind the scenes” at the practice, staff profiles, and patient testimonials. Links are tricky on Instagram, so only use them if they are very short. Tag other organizations as appropriate.
LinkedIn can be a great tool for professional networking and further building your brand.
Create an editorial calendar for your social media platforms to ensure that you cover the relevant topics in a timely manner.