How To Get Followers on Twitter and Boost Engagement

We are often asked by health care organizations and practices which social media marketing platform is most important for their business, which is a hard question to answer because each platform is valuable in its own way. 

Facebook is used in health care marketing for:

• Engaging with patients on a personal level and collecting reviews
• Sharing consumer-facing news and updates
• Hosting contests for referring physicians

(Read More: 15 Topics for Facebook Posts in Health Care)

LinkedIn is used in health care marketing for:

• Connecting with industry experts
• Building your reputation as a thought leader, whether you’re a physician, hospital administrator or marketer
• Sharing original blog content from your website

While Twitter can be used in health care marketing for:

• Responding to your community’s tweets about health care and medical issues
• Reaching out directly to media contacts
• Sharing valuable articles, statistics and infographics
• Finding community updates and industry news
• Engaging in social conversations by tracking certain terms ex: affordable drugs

So, how do you get started on Twitter to excel at social media in healthcare? The first steps are to find who you want to follow, to get new followers and then get people to engage with your tweets. Here’s how to become a health care influencer on Twitter:

1.     Follow the best people: Don’t just follow willy-nilly, there should be a reason you’re following them.

• Find out who are the top influencers in health care on Twitter and identify which ones you can learn from and which ones would value your messages. See SlideShare of 2014 Influencers below.
• Pick the top 10 journalists who are writing the kinds of articles you could potentially be featured in or who you could provide syndicated content/guest posts to. TIP: Some of these can be national writers but don’t forget to focus on journalists at your local newspapers.

100 Healthcare And Digital Health Influencers To Follow In 2014 from Marie Ennis-O'Connor

2.     Use the right hashtags: Hashtags enable you to see all conversations related to a topic such as #TwitterTricks

• Find all appropriate health care hashtags on Symplur’s website for healthcare hashtags.  You can find upcoming conferences, tweet chats and popular medical topics.
• Be sure to set your location on Twitter so you can see what topics are trending in your area. It’s okay to use hashtags related to pop culture or community news sometimes, you don’t always have to be specific to health care. The goal is to provide value and join the conversation.

3.     Search and track terms: You can also find tweets using certain keyword phrases when they aren’t used as a hashtag with the following search tricks.

• Use location-based search to find people within your vicinity using certain words in their tweets. Ex: MRI near:Tampa within:10mi (hint: No spaces between :Tampa and :10mi)
• You can filter search results based on sentiment by adding :) or :( to your search query to see positive and negative tweets about a subject.
• Use advanced search forms to find specific combinations of words in tweets:

o   Tweets containing all words in any position (“MRI” and “cost”)  ex: “Anyone know the cost of an MRI in Tampa?”

o   Tweets containing exact phrases (“MRI price”) ex: “I found an MRI cost comparison tool online.”

o   Tweets containing any of the words (“MRI” or “cost”)

o   Tweets excluding specific words (“MRI” but not “cost”) ex: “Do you think Arian Foster’s MRI will show a torn Achilles?”

4.     Tweet with purpose: Be sure to actually engage.

• Tweet directly to a person you’re hoping to engage with
• Use hashtags, but don’t go overboard.  A tweet with 1-2 hashtags is more likely to be retweeted or shared, but if you go over 3 hashtags you’re cutting your chances of engagement by 50%.
• Reply to someone you’ve found via advanced search and communicate with them by serving as a resource or answering their questions.

TIP: If you’re tweeting without doing any of these three things or sharing a link to something on your website, you are essentially talking to yourself. You know that homeless guy downtown who is always yelling, at no one in particular? You are the social media version of him, in this case.

12 Tips for Optimizing Your YouTube Videos

Points for you for exploring video marketing!  You have scripted, filmed and edited your video, now all you have to do is get it out to the world. Beyond sharing your new video on your organization’s Facebook page, website and blog- you should also be sure to optimize your video on YouTube so that others on the interwebs can find your video.

Here are some tricks for making sure each YouTube video you upload is optimized:

1. Key terms should be included in the video’s title. Focus on terms that patients would be using to search for your services on Google.
2. Any branding terms should be at the end of the video’s title.
3. Your video’s title should be under 66 characters so that it can be properly viewed in search results.
4. Sometimes it helps if the word “video” is in the title.
5. In the video description area, write a one to two sentence description of what the video is about.
6. In those one to two sentences, be sure to include appropriate and relevant search terms along with branded key terms, i.e.: your practice name.
7. Makes sure to include a URL linking to your website at the beginning of the description. This way, even if they only read the first line, they will see the CTA to explore more on your website.
8. Tag your video so that search engines, YouTube and viewers know what the video is about.
9. Key phrases should go in quotes, ex: Tampa vs. “Tampa radiology center” when using tags.
10. Transcribe your videos with the script. It helps with SEO and gives your video the ability to include closed captioning. If you don’t want to show the script, simply disable the feature.
11. Annotations can also be used for calls-to-action, ex: "Learn more about MRI’s" or “Read our spotlight on Dr. Smith.”
12. Don’t over do it on the annotations.

Now, every video can’t have as much viral success as the classics, but if you have valuable and engaging content there is nothing stopping you!

Tips for Using New Media Channels in your Health Care Marketing Strategy

If your organization is using old school advertising and marketing techniques, you’re living in the past. The glory days of big budgets are over so if you’re throwing away the few dollars you have on standard commercials, newspaper ads, Yellow Page listings or billboards; you’re wasting your money.

Nowadays kids, there are new channels for reaching patients and not only are they more effective, but they are more easily measured.  We constantly preach the importance of tracking the success of your marketing campaigns. As a marketing professional, if you are unable to point to your success, you’re only doing half of your job.

These channels that provide newfangled digital marketing opportunities include:

1.     Social Media – Use social media campaigns to engage your followers/target market, meaning patients and referring physician offices. You can also create very customizable ad campaigns on various social media websites.

2.     Digital TV/Streaming – Traditional TV ads often play on deaf ears now. DVR has helped people fast forward through that expensive ad space, but on sites like Hulu your ads will be seen because viewers cannot skip them.

3.     YouTube Advertising – On many videos, ads will play before the video starts. After 5 seconds the user can skip through to the video, but if you catch their attention, they will watch the ad before their video.

4.     PPC/Search – PPC campaigns and search campaigns are a great way to get in front of patients that are already searching for practices like yours.

5.     Mobile (messaging, display ads or apps) – Walk down the street and you’ll see just about every person glued to their mobile device, so mobile advertising is a great way to get in front of patients.

6.     Internet Radio – Spotify, Pandora and Sirius XM have increased their user base exponentially over the last couple of years so this ad space has grown in popularity as well. It’s great because you’re able to deliver a message audibly while also having a visual/interactive ad in front of the user where they can take immediate action, i.e.: signing up for something, liking your page or exploring your website.

7.     Advertorials – This is not a new concept but advertorials are basically “sponsored” articles written by someone who is promoting their own services or product. They are designed to look like articles but they are really advertising pieces. Buzzfeed is well known for this but newspapers and blogs regularly utilize these as well.

Looking to try something new to reach a different patient base this year? Consider implementing a couple of these initiatives into your marketing plan!

Social Media Checklist for Healthcare Practices

Getty Image, Embedded for Healthcare Blogging

If your practice is going to get started using social media, a good first step is to go through an initial checklist to determine where to begin. In some cases, you might already have laid the groundwork and you’re just ready to figure out what to do next. I’ve often heard doctors ask, “Does my practice really need a Facebook page?” or “Why do I need a blog?” I always respond to them the same way, telling them that they need to join the conversation that patients are already having online. By refusing to adopt social media as a part of their marketing plan, medical practices are taking themselves out of the game.

Start transforming your marketing today with our checklist:

Free Download: Healthcare Social Media Checklist

Other Related Articles:

-       Why Your Practice Needs Social Media

-       Dealing With Negative Feedback on Social Media

Resourceful Links:

-       Symplur Healthcare Hashtag Project