Social Media has become a vital part of marketing for businesses and organisations across all industries. It stands to reason that healthcare organisations should benefit from this marketing tool as well. However, it has been found that the healthcare industry is particularly slow in adopting an online presence.

Whether you are B2B or client facing  Here are ways to help you to build your social media profile without compromising your patient privacy.

1. Being visual

There are many ways to share personal and engaging content whilst enforcing patient privacy. Content can be built around and focused on staff, the clinic or the business in an interesting way. Here are our top tips to help maintain patient privacy:

1. When taking a photo of someone or sharing content you have been sent, always request permission and explain to that person on which platform you wish to share their picture.
2. Oftentimes, clients and staff do not mind being in pictures, but they don’t want their faces to be seen. That’s ok! Be innovative, take photos of hands at work, or photos from an angle where people aren’t facing the camera.
3. Watch the background! Make sure there isn’t anything recognisable in the background of the picture, such as patient forms, clients or anything that might identify a patient, for example their handwriting.
4. Only host live video in a controlled environment where there is no risk of any patients passing through the background.

1. Be personable

Use social media to highlight your staff, showcase the team and their work, the office culture and expertise. This can improve your credibility as a leader in the industry and your team’s thought leadership. Putting real faces to a social media feed particularly in the form of visual content including webinars and live videos can engage existing and future clients.

3. Educate

Social media can be a valuable tool by which you can increase and promote awareness of issues or services, encourage engagement and share educational information. Providing reliable and informative content that is conveyed in a way your audience can understand (short videos Facebook live, infographics and blog content) can form part of an inbound marketing strategy that will drive leads and maintain trust amongst your target audiences. You can position yourself as the go-to expert on certain topics in your industry. Do make sure all stats and facts used are accurate.

4. Follow your audience

Depending on what aspect of healthcare you are in and depending on whether you are B2B or client facing, you can decide to use LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or a combination of all four! It entirely depends on whether or not your audiences use that platform as to whether the time and money you put into that platform will be worth the ROI.

5. Facilitate a conversation

When you post the right content, you will find that not only are you cultivating a carefully structured narrative, but that you are also generating a  community on social platforms. This increased engagement and feedback can be used to inform and direct your content on each platform which focuses on addressing patient needs and providing educational and informative content.

Post by Susie Horgan

Susie founded Springboard in 2011, and has developed the business into a leading, director-led communications agency. She has worked for over 20 years in senior marketing and public relations roles.