Trust is crucial in healthcare. Without it, you’ll have trouble connecting with your audience and gaining new patients. These proven social media content ideas can help your healthcare organization build trust with your patients.
Social media platforms are a great way to reach an audience. Facebook — the most-used social media site — has more than 2.9 billion monthly active users, with two-thirds checking the platform daily.
Healthcare marketers and providers need to understand how to use social media to:
- Promote positive health behaviors.
- Establish your organization as a trusted source.
- Engage patients in their care.
- Highlight successes.
These social media content ideas perform best online and can help you build your audience.
Preventive Care News
A recent study looked at the way communities benefited from social media during the COVID-19 outbreak. However, social media is also a place where misinformation spreads quickly. You can combat this by curating good information from sources like the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force.
Keeping Up With the Latest Recommendations
Official guidelines for preventive care change regularly. For example, the USPSTF recently recommended adults aged 50 to 80 who currently smoke or have smoked within the past 15 years to get an annual lung cancer screening using a CT scan.
Publish this information on social media and make it easy to share online. This helps patients navigate through confusing (and sometimes incorrect) information.
Educate Patients About the Importance of Screenings
With preventive care representing over a third of health center visits, it’s one of the primary reasons why patients seek care. However, millions of Americans don’t have access to preventative care or are unable to keep up with official recommendations from screenings and other recommended appointments.
From discussing routine vaccination to cancer screenings, social media posts can act as powerful reminders to schedule these important appointments.
Your role is also to educate your audience about what happens during these visits and how preventive care can mitigate health risks. You can also discuss how early diagnosis and treatment can significantly improve health outcomes in many cases.
More Preventive Care Content Ideas
These content ideas will help you place preventive care at the core of your healthcare social media marketing campaign:
- Share patients’ success stories that show how a routine screening led to an early diagnosis.
- Facts and numbers about the prevalence of a health condition can make the risk feel more tangible and motivate patients to seek preventive care.
- Educate about early symptoms to recognize, or how a healthcare professional can use diagnostic tools to screen for a specific condition.
- Address and remove potential barriers to seeking preventive care by educating your audience about insurance options, income-based assistance programs, or discounts.
Educational Content
People go online to find information about symptoms, diseases, and treatment options. A study published in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE found that about 20% of online searches were health-related.
That presents many opportunities for healthcare organizations, but it also has some pitfalls for patients. Remember, not all information online is accurate, and sometimes it’s hard to sort through what’s good and bad.
Curating Content
You can make this easier for patients by sharing educational content on social media. Create this content from scratch or share information from reputable sources. The best are government sites, educational sites, and non-profit scientific or medical research societies.
With a plethora of educational content available from trusted sources, educating your audience can become a pillar of your healthcare social media marketing strategy.
You can schedule regular posts where you simply share links to government resources, peer-reviewed publications, and other trustworthy resources.
Adding Value with Your Own Content
In spite of the internet making health information readily available, an estimated 88% of adults don’t possess a level of health literacy that allows them to navigate the healthcare system and receive the care they need.
You can help bridge this gap by developing content that is educational and engaging. As a health organization, you have unique insights into your community and the health risks that exist among the population you serve.
Take a more personalized approach to educating your audience by focusing on health risks that are prevalent among your community and the demographics you serve.
Another way to create value is to make educational content feel more accessible. Peer-reviewed studies and other publications can be dry and technical. Creating engaging summaries of the latest studies, official recommendations, and other important health information are great ways to keep your audience engaged.
Social Media and Blogging
Did you know that 68% of marketers use blogs? Blogging remains one of the most effective ways of connecting with your audience while supporting your SEO efforts with a steady stream of fresh content.
Don’t make the mistake of developing your blogging strategy independently from social media. You’ll get more out of your content marketing efforts if you create blog posts with social media in mind.
A blog with a weekly publication schedule will provide you with regular updates you can share on social media. Social media can become a powerful channel for driving organic traffic to your blog with engaging posts that feature eye-catching images and interesting facts your audience can learn more about by clicking on your latest blog post.
More Social Media Content Ideas
There are other healthcare social media marketing strategies you can use to make educational content feel more engaging:
- Host a Q&A on social media so users can send their questions and get answers from an expert.
- Take advantage of events like cancer awareness months to publish a series of posts designed to educate your audience about a specific condition, symptoms to watch for, and the importance of regular screenings.
- Sum up important information in an infographic to help your audience learn about a new topic at a glance.
- Share a quick fact of the day. A series of bite-sized posts with impactful statistics and other important facts can increase awareness of health risks and treatment options.
- Have a specialist take over your social media account for the day. It’s an engaging way to have them share their expertise while increasing awareness for a specific condition or treatment.
- Social media surveys can be an effective tool for assessing health literacy among your audience and designing better educational programs.
Raise Awareness for Events and New Treatments
Healthcare is a field that evolves at a fast pace. Help patients keep up by turning social media into a hub where you share the latest updates for your organization.
Updates about Your Organization
Sharing regular updates about your organization will keep your audience involved while showing that you’re growing and evolving to better support the community.
These updates can also increase the usage rate of new services. Don’t just announce what’s new at your facility. Create content that connects new services with benefits that resonate with patients.
Better yet, keep your audience involved by sharing updates throughout the process of rolling out a new service, building a new location, or hiring a new physician. This approach will strengthen your connection to your community and create anticipation for upcoming changes.
Plus, with the digital healthcare market expected to grow at an annual rate of more than 16%, social media can become an effective tool for communicating the new digital tools you’re adopting and helping patients feel comfortable with this new environment.
Updates about your organization are also a great way to get feedback from your audience. Keep track of engagement and take the time to read the comments and questions you receive.
Comments can provide you with valuable insights into the expectations and needs of your audience. Use this information to inform future decisions regarding events, classes, and more.
Social Media and Hiring
Leveraging your social media presence can support your recruitment efforts. As a majority of healthcare organizations face a staff shortage, it’s more important than ever to use digital channels to reach out to a wide pool of potential candidates and show how your organization is innovating and making a positive difference to attract talent.
Plus, you can use social media to promote job fairs, open positions, and other events related to hiring. Increasing your outreach will help you find the best talent in the healthcare field.
For healthcare organizations with a volunteer program, social media can become a powerful tool for showcasing the accomplishments of these volunteers. You can promote new volunteering opportunities, reach out to a wider audience of potential volunteers, and celebrate everything your volunteers do.
Preventive Care and Health Literacy
Digital tools can help connect patients to health resources. A study from UC Davis showed that using an electronic population tool had a significant impact on helping patients receive the preventive care they needed.
Social media can be a valuable tool for increasing awareness of health fairs, screenings, and other events or services.
You can share dates for these events ahead of time and show images and other content from these events. Those who didn’t attend might decide to take part in the next event after seeing this content on social media.
As more organizations adopt a holistic approach to healthcare, more physicians develop personalized treatment plans that encompass societal and environmental factors.
Your Facebook posts or tweets can raise awareness for these issues and promote classes, webinars, Q&As, and other events designed to increase health literacy for these issues.
Plus, you can share content from these classes on social media as part of your outreach efforts. Filming portions of a class can be an engaging way to educate your audience, but you can also have an instructor share their thoughts in a Facebook post.
New Services
Keeping up with the latest trends and treatments in the healthcare field is challenging for 68% of physicians. Patients run into the same challenge of not knowing about the latest diagnosis or treatment methods, making it difficult for them to feel empowered and act as advocates for their own health.
Leverage social media to educate patients about the latest services you’re offering:
- Discuss new drug trials you’re participating in.
- Let your audience know about new equipment you’re investing in.
- If you’re hiring a new specialist, introduce this professional to your audience in a social media post.
- Tell your audience about your plans to launch a new patient management platform.
- Show the benefits of scheduling a telemedicine appointment if you’re offering this service.
Educating patients about your services can increase their usage rate. It can also improve health outcomes. Something as simple as educating patients about what happens during a regular check-up, by sharing tips on how to prepare ahead of the appointment, can help patients get the most out of this service.
Fundraising
On average, Americans gave 4% more in 2021 compared to the previous year. If your organization uses fundraising to finance some projects, social media has the potential to become a cornerstone of your fundraising efforts.
A mix of organic posts and paid ads can help you target potential donors in your community. You can use social media to promote in-person events or request donations via a digital portal.
Using social media to celebrate accomplishments or educate your audience about new services will also show donors how their contributions are having a positive impact on the community.
Staff Highlights and Accomplishments
When your staff is dedicated to your mission, they make patients feel comfortable about coming in for care. Highlight the great things your staff does by creating social media spotlights of them.
Use Visual Content
“Get to know you” posts with a picture of a friendly face are a great way to introduce staff members to your audience.
You can also use video to your advantage here, letting the staff member discuss their job and talk about why they love the work they do. It doesn’t require advanced video editing skills, just a smartphone and a room with good lighting.
Build Trust With Staff Highlights
With only 38% of Americans saying they trust the healthcare system, building trust is more important than ever.
Staff highlights can help repair trust by putting a human face on your organization. This type of content can also show what goes on behind the scenes and support your branding efforts by helping you create a unique voice.
Seeing content that features a caring healthcare expert can be a pivotal moment for a prospective patient who is still hesitating about seeking care. Staff highlights can also reassure patients that providing the best care possible is a top priority and having staff members discuss their job results in concrete examples of how you provide quality care.
Connect Staff Highlights to Your Other Goals
Beyond establishing trust, this type of content can support other goals such as educating patients about the services you offer or the importance of preventive care while sharing information in an engaging format.
Plus, highlighting staff accomplishments is a great way to celebrate those who make a difference. It can shape your organization’s culture and send a positive message to your audience about your values.
As mergers and acquisitions continue to shape the healthcare industry, focusing on your staff and using social media to put forward the human dimension of providing care can help you stand out.
Staff highlights can also send a powerful message to your workforce. As stress, burnout, and fatigue continue to create challenges in the healthcare field, using your healthcare social media marketing campaign to show how much you value care providers can help reduce the average 19.5% turnover rate.
User-Generated Content
One of the biggest misconceptions about social media content is that you have to create everything you post. Many successful organizations encourage users to create content they can post online.
For example, CaringBridge is a non-profit that helps people create websites to update family and friends about their healthcare journey. They frequently ask followers to share information and ideas on their Facebook page about various topics related to healthcare and overcoming illness.
However, there is one important caveat to sharing consumer content in the healthcare industry.
UGC and HIPAA Requirements
Patient privacy laws (HIPAA) protect your patients’ privacy. Sharing protected health information without the patient’s written consent can get you in legal trouble and cost you a lot in fines.
Anyone can comment or share information on your social media sites without you worrying about HIPAA violations, but if you plan to share something about a patient, make sure you have their written permission to do so.
You can prevent HIPAA violations by developing a process with clear guidelines for the creation of user-generated content. This process should include guidelines for identifying patients who are good candidates for sharing their stories, as well as best practices for obtaining their consent and keeping track of this documentation.
UGC and Testimonials
Patients can bring a unique viewpoint when discussing their experience with an illness or what receiving care at your facility was like.
Having patients recount these experiences via testimonials will result in content that feels relatable. For a prospective patient, seeing another human go through a similar health struggle can be inspiring and act as a pivotal moment in the decision to seek care.
You can also create content that features patients and the medical team they worked with. The patient’s testimony will feel engaging and relatable while the medical team can make the content feel authoritative, providing your audience with a behind-the-scenes look into how your organization develops treatment plans.
Use Patient Voices to Raise Awareness
User-generated content can also break down the stigma associated with certain health problems. For instance, experts believe that as many as 50 million Americans suffer from mental health problems, but it’s a topic many struggle to discuss openly.
Seeing patients discuss mental health, sexual health issues, or even aging can feel empowering and encourage patients to open up about their symptoms.
Take Your Healthcare Social Media Marketing Campaign to the Next Level
Social media can have many benefits for healthcare organizations, including:
- Educating patients about the importance of preventive care and boosting usage rates for various services.
- Creating a meaningful connection to the community by sharing updates and celebrating achievements.
- Inspiring prospective patients to seek care through user-generated and educational content.
- Providing value to patients with content that supports health literacy.
- Supporting your organizational values and culture.
Implementing a successful healthcare social media marketing campaign is a worthwhile project, but it can be challenging, especially for organizations that lack time and resources.
How Tempesta Media Can Help
It’s where a managed service provider can make a difference. Tempesta Media has been helping healthcare organizations for more than a decade and can develop a highly customized approach to social media marketing, reflecting the unique goals of your organization.
As a managed service provider, our first step is to learn as much as possible about your organization with our Prova digital marketing assessment. It’s a 90-point assessment that takes two weeks to complete. It gives us a comprehensive idea of your goals and challenges so we can tailor our approach.
Next, we’ll use our Performica turnkey solution to put together a personalized marketing plan. Performica is a flexible platform with different digital marketing modules that allows us to create a unique plan with social media marketing strategies, content creation services, SEO, analytics, and much more.
This approach allows us to implement the right strategies for your goals and budget while delivering measurable results. Contact us to learn more or get started with our Prova assessment!
