12 Tips To Master Facebook For Medical Practices
12 Tips To Master Facebook For Medical Practices
Patient engagement statistics reveal how much healthcare delivery has evolved to rely on technology and specifically social media.
Recent surveys have shown that 72% of patients are extremely satisfied when they know what to expect from a medical procedure and post-discharge follow-up calls reduce readmission by 50%. Medical staff members spend up to 2 hours a day calling patients and automating the process could yield better productivity.
Enter social media, specifically Facebook.
Facebook has 2.7 billion users globally as well as strategic integrations with other platforms such as Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, and Instagram. These rank as the third, fourth, and fifth most popular social media platforms respectively.
What is social media’s impact on the healthcare business and how can your practice capitalize on Facebook’s best marketing practices?
1. Share Video Content
Video is the most consumed content format online and generates 35% more organic impressions than static images.
Video is a great way to educate patients about what to expect when they come in and the various protocols in place. It can also create more engagement by showing the human element of your practice.
Optimize for Facebook by
- using square videos
- Showing not telling to maximize on autoplay
- Add captions
2. When Is Your Audience Online?
Facebook has developed a variety of analytics for businesses on its platform. These analytics tell you when is the best time to post on Facebook for maximum exposure.
You can monitor when your audience is most active on Facebook and post at those times. In this way, Facebook can be a key component of your patient engagement solutions.
3. Tell Stories and Provoke Conversations
Posting advert after advert will quickly put off your audience. If you want your patients to respond to and share your content, engaging posts for Facebook are the way to go.
Images are more eye-catching and shareable than plain text posts. Facebook recommends having an accompanying image for all posts.
All images should be crisp, not blurry. They should be copyright-free or credited correctly. Pay close attention to the resolution requirements for Facebook.
4. Make Your Posts Actionable
Article links, newsletter signup forms, polls, and other call-to-action posts would feature regularly on your feed. They have higher engagement and can give extra value to your business by providing insights into your patients.
Though not all posts need to be actionable, a good amount should be.
5. Automate Posts and Responses
They also have scheduling and automation tools that can help your take advantage of these timelines even when you’re not awake.
You can set up automated responses on Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp for business to assist your patients on routine queries.
6. Consistency Is Key
Create a consistent posting schedule that will underscore your trustworthiness and authority.
As said, Facebook has scheduling tools to help with consistency. Alternatively, you can use third-party apps such as Buffer.
7. Partner With Related Businesses on Facebook
Other healthcare providers or professionals in the wellness space are great collaborators. Do live discussions or Q&As on each others’ pages. You’ll be able to piggyback on each other’s following and grow your reach organically.
8. Take Part in Community Development
Building a loyal online following has a crucial real-life component. People love to see their physicians be a part of and give back to the community.
If your practice can sponsor initiatives within the community, this is great. However, it can also be as simple as mentoring young people, food drives for the less fortunate, or sanitary packages for the homeless.
9. Periodic Targeted Ads and Offers
The beauty of Facebook ads is that you can target them so specifically, right down to the shows they like to watch and their hobbies. These targeted groups can be differentiated using more than 30 characteristics and behaviors. You can save each ad group and use it repeatedly.
It will work in your favor when offering specialized procedures such as facelifts or bariatric surgery which apply to very specific demographics
10. Simple and Cohesive Look and Tone
Don’t forget that your Facebook page is representing your brand. Stick to your brand colors and tone of voice throughout your posts
Much as people enjoy seeing behind-the-scenes, keep it professional. It should not feel like a personal page.
Facebook advises simple, clean creatives as the most attractive to users. Use minimal but impactful text.
11. Quick Responses and Reputation Management
The Facebook algorithm checks how quickly messages and queries are responded to. This period gets automatically added to your page.
A healthcare page that typically responds in 48 hours is not a good look. For queries not covered under the automated responses, have a schedule detailing the staff in charge of replying at various times. Assign each a signature or initials.
Negative reviews will occur from time to time especially if medical insurance verification was not done properly or there is a payment issue.
Responding to reviews helps boost your ranking and shows your patients that you care. You might need to take it to private direct messages for sensitive cases or request an offline conversation.
12. Take Advantage of Facebook Analytics
To round off these Facebook tips, remember to consistently evaluate the performance of your posts and ads.
Insights on the Facebook admin page will let you know:
- Which content had the most engagement
- Who is visiting your page
- How they are interacting with your posts
This crucial information will enable you to tweak your content marketing strategy to its most optimal.
Facebook can be a key part of your patient engagement and after-care. If done well it will expand your reach to new patients and create a solid online following.