With the answer to almost any question sitting at our fingertips at almost any point during the day, it’s no surprise that people go to Google almost immediately for any medical questions or concerns that come up. Because of how much we use the internet for medical questions, medical marketing focuses strongly on online components to try to get ahead of competitors.
Healthcare social media plays a huge role in online marketing because of how many people use social media platforms. In addition to the traffic on social media sites, social media provides an excellent platform for healthcare practices to connect with patients. This is especially true of Facebook.
Facebook allows practices to get really close to patients, which provides amazing marketing opportunities. While being close and connected with patients helps certain health practices more than others, Facebook is an amazing community for cancer centers to connect with patients and their families. Because of this, managing an effective Facebook page is imperative for almost any successful cancer center.
Of course, managing professional Facebook pages can be harder than it sounds, especially when dealing with a disease as difficult and intense as cancer. So, to help, we came up with 7 Facebook posts for your cancer center:
1. 101 Posts – provide patients and their families information that may further their understanding.
Cancer is already one of the most difficult and complicated diseases, so dedicate some posts to helping patients and their families understand little parts of it or certain aspects. Even if it’s just the slight bit, understanding such things can ease the experience for them.
2. Inspirational Quotes and Light-hearted Material –
Again, cancer can create some of the most difficult experience for people and their families. So, don’t hesitate to post inspiration quotes, positive messages, and light-hearted material in case it can lift someone’s spirit. People also tend to engage with those posts such as sharing positive messages with their friends.
3. Get to know the team – provide patients with a behind-the-scenes look at things.
Battling cancer requires spending a lot of time at the cancer center getting treatments, examinations, and just resting. Additionally, cancer teams can be very large. So, it helps patients and their families if they get to see pictures, read posts, and just get to know the people at the center. Transparency helps humanize the cancer center in a way that increases effective Facebook use.
4. Share current news headlines about cancer, research, and charity.
There’s always something going on with cancer. Whether it be research, a charity event, or new statistics, updating your patients is always a good idea as they are the people currently experiencing cancer in some way or another. This is also a good way to promote the fact that your cancer center is up to speed with the most current information.
5. Post patient acknowledgement posts and inspirational stories.
Not only is it good to engage your Facebook friends and followers for any business or practice, but patient acknowledgement posts is a great way to bring positivity to people’s experience for some moments while increasing engagement. Of course, when the situation is correct and calls for it, you can share an inspirational story. For instance, if you had a patient make a full recovery with an inspiring background story (and they want to share it), then share the story on your Facebook.
6. Share any special events, special guests, or special occurrences in the future.
If your cancer center is connected to any special events, guests, or occurrences, then dedicate a post to sharing the details. This is a great way to bridge the connection between your center and its Facebook followers. This also makes the center’s friends and followers feel up to date and connected to the cancer center.
7. Post eye-catching and interesting visual content.
Facebook has been reporting a continuously increasing growth in popularity of visual content. This means videos and pictures do well on Facebook in terms of activity. So, make sure your cancer center shares original, high-quality pictures and videos when needed. The pictures can come in form of infographics sharing statistics about cancers and treatments.
At the end of the day, there’s no definite way to run your cancer center’s Facebook. The only definite thing is the importance of an effective Facebook page to the overall success of the healthcare marketing strategy. Being a part of the social community among your patient’s, friends, and followers can be very challenging, but it is important to stay as engaged and connected as possible with others. Basically, Facebook offers an opportunity for healthcare practices to be more accessible to the patients and open as a healthcare provider.