5 Social Media Tips For Medical Doctors
Social media can feel like an overwhelming addition to maintaining a professional image as a medical doctor. Not only are you trying to keep up with the latest training and medical technology, but you need to learn how social media can keep your medical practice up and running at the same time.
As a practice owner, you need to learn to delegate to other people if you think that adding social media is going to be too much. You cannot put a price on how well your practice can do with the help of social media. Whichever way that you choose to implement your social media strategy, it’s imperative to your business survival to ensure that you have one.
Social media is so ingrained into our society today that you will find it hard to find a demographic of patients who don’t use it. Wherever you go, businesses are utilizing social media to find new patients, advertise their treatments and generally to showcase what they can offer. It also allows patients to gain further insight into what you do behind the scenes to make your practice the right place for them to go when they require help. You can showcase your new marketing for doctors on your social media sites, too, as a way to leave breadcrumbs for people to get to your website. It all helps to build your customer base!
So, with all of this in mind, let’s take a look at five social media marketing tips for doctors to help your practice to stand out.
You are the head of a medical practice, which means you have a lot on your plate. By all means, be a part of your social media strategy, but it may be better for you if you delegate your social media strategy to someone else. You need to focus on what you’re good at, so set up a staff member with the challenge to build and maintain your social media presence. This should be a person that you trust in your practice who understands your message and philosophy. They should also be aware of the marketing for doctors that you put out to the patients so that they can continue that narrative. You must have a HIPAA policy in practice, and every member of staff should be trained on it. It could save you legal troubles later on and it ensures your staff member doesn’t accidentally publicize sensitive information.
Your professional social media account needs to remain professional, which means that it’s a bad idea to blend your personal social media accounts with your business ones. You wouldn’t want patients to see your personal life as much as you wouldn’t give them your personal bank details. A professional social media account for your practice should be only used within the premises, and your personal account needs to be strictly away from the limelight.
- Share Neutral Information
Your social media strategy is going to showcase what your medical practice can do while offering your patients a glimpse into your clinic. Your marketing for doctors needs to be shared and displayed as much as you wish to convey information about your practice. Provide patients with maps and links embedded within them to your practice. Add directions, telephone numbers, and more to convey the information that you want your patients to know about you.
For additional content, talk about the services that you offer and why – it’s so interesting to the patients, so make it a priority for your strategy.
- Avoid Answering Medical Questions
Not only is it unethical, but medical questions that are answered without a full medical assessment can be misconstrued, leading to all kinds of legal issues. It’s the safest thing to do to turn medical questions into a sales opportunity, directing patients to your practice appointment booking line. The only time you should ever, so an online doctor/patient exchange is if you are registered on the appropriate sites.
As a business, you should be proactive with your marketing for doctors and every other strategy that you have to ensure that people can find you. So, keep as active as you can on social media. You can schedule posts on Facebook and Twitter to release overnight, too. Social media is an excellent advertising tool for your business, but only if you actively use it. Post daily for the best engagement, and ensure you are posting across more than one social media platform.