Are you still relying on word-of-mouth referrals to get new patients? Wake up and smell the antiseptic, Doc. Social media marketing for doctors is the new Yellow Pages.

We get it. You’re from a prescriptive world full of rules and regulations. The wild west of advertising on social media can seem like extra work on your busy plate or simply not for you. But social media in healthcare is not uncharted territory. You can easily create your own social strategy by emulating what others have done.

Fear not, my medical friend, because this blog is here to guide you. We’ll cover why other doctors are using social media marketing, how to build and execute a plan, and end with some great social media tips and ideas you’re welcome to use.

8 reasons why social media marketing is important for doctors

Social media is no longer just a platform for posting cat videos and status updates (although it’s great for that too).

For doctors, it’s also a powerful tool for building your brand, reaching new patients, and growing your practice. Social media marketing for doctors presents tons of opportunities. Just be sure to stay compliant with industry and legal regulations.

Here are 8 reasons why social media marketing makes sense for doctors.

Reach new audiences

Social media platforms allow doctors to increase their brand awareness and reach a wider audience. Why is this important? You get to shape and direct the public sentiment about your business and brand.

Ask yourself: What kind of story do you want to tell people? Is there a certain practice or health care philosophy you adhere to that would be helpful for patients to know? Do you want people to feel a particular way before coming to you?

You can use social media to establish yourself as a thought leader, build your reputation, and tell your audience what you stand for.

@tiktokbabydoc

Remember-you have a voice, you have rights, you can ask questions, you can have a support person, you can be involved in your care! #obgyn #mfm #birth #childbirth #laboranddelivery #pregnant #pregnanttiktok #pregnancytiktok #pregnancy #dontforget #empowerment

? original sound – lalilala

Educate your followers

Social media is a great education platform. It allows doctors to share health-related information and education on various medical conditions. This can help improve patient outcomes and promote a healthy lifestyle.

Social media marketing for medical practices can help spread the word about anything under the sun.

@tisharowemd

Reply to @mmtaylor23 Great question! #doctorsoftiktok #blackgirlmagic #tisharowemd

? original sound – Tisha Rowe

Is there a health tip you find yourself repeating often? Maybe there are some health-related myths you would love to see debunked. Or perhaps you notice a common misconception that hinders people’s health.

Just remember: It’s a good idea to keep these tips fairly general instead of offering specific medical advice over social media. Some questions are better answered in an appointment instead of over DMs.

Boost traffic and search visibility

Sharing high-quality content on social media is a great way to drive traffic to your website. Plus, creating and maintaining an active social media presence will improve your search engine rankings and increase your online visibility.

Increasing your search visibility can, in turn, net your practice more potential patients. But it also has the added benefit of putting you in front of other medical-industry adjacent opportunities, like speaking roles at conferences.

Make better use of your budget

Social media marketing can be much more cost-effective than traditional marketing methods. Doctors can use social media to reach a wider audience without breaking the bank.

Digital marketing allows for better targeting and audience segmentation. In plain English, that means it’s easier to make sure your marketing campaigns reach the right people. This targeting means you can spend money more efficiently and see a higher return on your investment.

Plus, social media and email marketing have significantly lower costs than traditional advertising methods such as TV or print advertising.

For example, the average cost per click (CPC) for Facebook ads is between $0.18 to $1.85. In comparison, the average cost for a 30-second TV ad during prime time is around $100,000.

Create networking opportunities

Social media allows you to network with other healthcare professionals and build relationships with colleagues in your field.

You never know who you’ll link up with on LinkedIn; it could be a long-time hero, someone with a new opportunity for you, or a potential new business partner. But if you want to show up on their feeds, you have to create content consistently.

@annaguanchemd

When a male dermatology resident shows up at our all female office #funny #dermatologist #humor #davidattenborough #nature @skinmdryan

? original sound – Ashley Noble

Build brand consistency

Social media allows doctors to shape their online presence and maintain a consistent brand across all platforms. This can help build trust and credibility with your patients and increase brand recognition.

Be sure to put some thought into who your brand is and the parameters you need to operate in to achieve a recognizable brand.

Improve patient loyalty

Doctors can improve patient loyalty and encourage repeat visits by engaging with patients through social media. Social media gives you another point of contact with your community.

With the right content, you can give your existing patients a peek behind the curtain, so to speak. Social media for doctor’s offices can let them know what goes on behind the scenes, who your staff is, and any fun anecdotes from your practice.

Increase your competitive advantage

Social media can give doctors like yourself a competitive advantage in your local market. Social media marketing can help you differentiate yourself from your competitors and attract new patients. Being the most-sought-out doctor in your area may come with other opportunities, too.

How to build a social media marketing strategy for doctors

Creating a social media marketing plan for your medical practice or simply for yourself as a doctor doesn’t have to be difficult.

You can think of it like a treatment plan: By following a few simple steps, you can gain a healthy social strategy. Once you’ve perfected the basics, you can refine your marketing plan to meet bigger, more audacious goals.

Step 1: Set your goals

A successful social media marketing plan for doctors starts with SMART goals. That stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound.

Ask yourself, what do I want to get out of social media? Write those goals down, checking them against the SMART format.

Goals give you something to work toward, and you can measure your progress against them later.

If you’re coming up short, try some of these smart social media goals.

Step 2. Define your ideal audience

Audience or buyer personas are fictional representations of your desired audience. They help you get clear on your ideal target audience. Understanding who your audience is allows you to create content with them in mind.

When building out your personas, think through details like:

Age,
Location,
Language,
Interests,
Challenges,
Stage of life, and
Preferred social networks.

Once your accounts are established, you can use data and analytics to see who follows and engages with your posts.

If your actual audience does not align with your ideal target audience, you have two options. You can either shift your social media strategy or change who you think you should target.

Step 3. Research your competition

Other doctors are already using social media to their advantage. They’re out there, using social platforms successfully, and you can learn from them.

Social media listening and competitive analysis are two popular ways to research what your competitors are up to and figure out how it works for them. These tools can help you uncover untapped markets and opportunities, too.

For example, perhaps many doctors in your field are on Facebook and Instagram, but the healthcare specialty you have has yet to get to TikTok. Or there could be an opportunity for better communication with patients via an app like WhatsApp.

Step 4. Conduct a social media audit

This step only applies if you already have active social media accounts. If not, skip to step 5.

Take stock of your current social marketing efforts and ask yourself:

What’s working and what’s not?
Who is engaging with you?
What are your most valuable partnerships? What are your ideal partnerships?
Which platform is your ideal audience on?
How do you stack up against other doctors in your field online?

The answers to these questions should give you an idea of where you can improve. Follow Hootsuite’s social media audit guide and template for an easy walk-through audit.

Step 5. Set up your accounts

If your accounts are already set up, use this time to make sure they’re set up properly.

In Step 2, you figured out where your ideal audience is likely to spend the most time. Use that info to decide where you want to show up and choose the platforms you think will benefit most from your efforts.

These can be platforms other doctors in your field or with your particular brand aren’t occupying. They may also be the places where you’re most excited to produce content.

Once you’ve decided where you want to be active, fill out your accounts according to the following best practices:

Fill out all profile fields, including contact information
Include keywords in your profile bios that people would use to search for your practice or skills
Use consistent branding (logos, images, etc.) across networks

Step 6. Create your content

You’ll want to start with some inspiration. Skip down to the great social media marketing ideas for doctors below, or do your research by perusing accounts you enjoy. Hootsuite users can also browse through the Content Ideas library to get ideas.

Pro tip: You can use these as templates for creating your content.

Next, brainstorm some content pieces. Start with a few marketing pillars, like education, medical history, myth-busting, behind-the-scenes of your practice, or industry news. Jot down some ideas underneath each.

When figuring out your content mix, remember the 80-20 rule:

80% of your posts should aim to inform, educate, or entertain and
20% should directly promote your brand.

Now, it’s time to pull together some posts. You can start creating and scheduling your posts in Hootsuite with Composer.

Business and Enterprise plan members can create posts from templates in Composer’s content library.

Be sure to take advantage of Hootsuite’s other in-app creation tools, such as:

OwlyWriter AI, the tool that can brainstorm content ideas and write captions for you
Best Time to Publish feature, which shows you exactly when you should schedule your content
Suggested hashtags so you don’t have to figure out your own

Step 7. Put together your social media content calendar

You’re almost done building your social media plan! The next step is to create a social media content calendar to stay on point and on track.

Your content calendar is an overview of your tactics for the coming weeks and months. It should answer your content’s how, what, and where.

You can plan your entire social media calendar within Hootsuite. Hootsuite will also schedule your posts to publish automatically, taking a big time-suck off your plate.

If you’re unsure how much you should post, see what our experts say.

Step 8. Take a look at the data and make adjustments

Once you’ve published some content, you’ll want to see how your plan is performing. Keep an eye on your performance metrics. You can use the social platform’s native data analytics or Hootsuite to generate custom analytics reports.

Your data will tell you whether or not your content is working to reach the SMART goals you set in Step 1. If it’s not, you’ll want to make some adjustments.

3 great social media marketing ideas for doctors

Ready for some inspo? Here are three ideas executed by doctors killing it (not literally) on social media!

Use social trends to spread your message

Don’t be afraid to hop on social media trends, especially if you’re on TikTok. Dr. Phabinly Gabriel, for example, used a trending audio to tell his story while using the #blackdoctors hashtag to show his advocacy for awareness of Black folks in the medical industry.

@doctorphabs

The experience of being Black in medicine is that of being constantly underestimated. If you’re a med student from an underrepresented background, know that you have everything you need to not only succeed but also to excel and thrive. Eternally grateful for the giants of medicine, all black doctors who have paved the way for us, so that we can have more opportunity than anyone who has come before us. We are Black History. #md #medschool #doctorsoftiktok #medicine #blackdoctor #blackdoctors #surgeon #ilooklikeasurgeon #blackinmedicine #melanintok #medtok #blackneurosurgeon #neurosurgery #neurosurgeon #neurosurgeons #medicine #healthcare #medschool #medicalschool #motivation #premedmotivation #inspiration #blackboyjoy #blackboymagic #blackboymagic #blacktiktok #blackboy #blackmen #blackmenoftiktok #blackhistory

? IVOXYGEN YOUNG KID Tiktok version ex – Floyd045_

Dr. Gabriel’s feed is full of fun TikTok trends, inspirational messages, and tons of day-in-the-life content that brings his audience along with him.

Create content that gives your audience value

Doctor Muneeb Shah is a dermatologist who goes by the moniker Doctorly on Instagram.

On social media, he debunks skin care myths, gives his audience interesting facts and insights about products, and shares some grossly fascinating pimple-popping videos.

You can emulate Doctorly’s successful strategy by keeping one thing in mind: Give your audience value.

And if you really want to knock their socks off, pair your value-driven posts with some kind of shocking visual (like the swollen lips above or the pimple extraction videos we mentioned but won’t show for obvious reasons).

Share stories

People love stories. A narrative with a human face and emotion, driven by plot or character, will always grab your audience.

Kevin Pho’s The Podcast by KevinMD gives physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses, medical students, and patients a platform to share their insights and tell their stories.

He can reach a massive audience online, uncover aspects of the healthcare industry, and spread a message far and wide.

You can steal this strategy by sharing stories from your colleagues, patients (with permission), or even your own experience. Try to find and highlight the humanity at the center of your posts.

If you’re discussing a diagnosis, for example, give some background on how it may affect someone’s life. Get your audience to put their grandmother, child, or themselves at the center of your story, and you’ll have a prescription for success.

Doctors, healthcare providers, and insurers worldwide use Hootsuite to improve their customer experience, unify their social message, and ensure compliance with industry regulations. See for yourself why we’re the healthcare industry’s leading social media management platform.

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Learn more about Hootsuite for healthcare

The post Social Media Marketing for Doctors: How (+ Why) To Do It Right appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.

Originally posted on June 28, 2023 @ 8:41 pm

If you’re using Stories as part of your Instagram marketing mix, you’ve probably wondered: Can you schedule Instagram Stories?

Well, great news — the answer is yes! You can now create, edit, and schedule your Stories in advance using the Instagram Story scheduler in Hootsuite or Facebook Business Suite.

In this post, we cover the benefits to scheduling Instagram Stories rather than publishing them on the fly, like:

saving a ton of time
making it easier to customize Stories with editing tools and templates
avoiding typos and autocorrect mistakes

We also walk you through the exact process of how to schedule Instagram Stories.

Is there an app for scheduling Instagram Stories?

You can’t schedule Stories ahead of time directly within Instagram. But you can use the Hootsuite mobile app or desktop dashboard to schedule Instagram Stories. As of May 2021, it is also possible to schedule and post Instagram Stories via Facebook Business Suite.

How to schedule Instagram Stories using Hootsuite

Head to your Hootsuite dashboard and select Create ? Post from the left-hand side menu. Then, follow these 4 simple steps to schedule an Instagram Story:

In the Composer window, select the account you want to post your Story to.
In the Content section, switch to the Story editor.

Click on the upload icon to add your image or video. 

Videos must be between 1 second and 60 minutes long, and images must be less than 30MB. Both have a recommended aspect ratio of 9:16. You can only add one file per Story. 

Note: If you want to include text or stickers in your Story, make sure they’re part of your image or video file. Text included in the caption field of Composer will not be included in your Story. 

You can easily edit your images using Canva without leaving your Hootsuite dashboard. To get started, click on the Canva icon in the bottom right of the Composer window. Then, select Instagram Story.

Once you’re done editing your image or video, simply click the Add to post button in the top right corner of the screen, and your file will be attached to your post draft.

Preview your Story and click Schedule for later to select a time for it to go public. Then, click the yellow Schedule button — and you’re done!

You can now view, edit, or delete your scheduled Story in your Hootsuite calendar. 

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How to schedule Instagram Stories using Facebook Business Suite

If you have a Business account on Instagram, you can use Facebook’s native Business Suite to craft and schedule Instagram Stories.

Facebook Business Suite is a handy tool if you’re only posting to Facebook and Instagram — but most social media marketing pros can save a lot of time and energy using a social media management tool and handling all social channels from a single dashboard. A tool like Hootsuite will help you schedule content to Facebook, Instagram (including posts, Stories, and Reels), TikTok, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Pinterest from one place.

If you choose to schedule your Instagram Stories using Facebook’s native solution, sign in to your account and follow the steps below.

Step 1: Navigate to Business Suite

Go to your Page and pick Business Suite from the menu on the left side of the screen.

Once you’re in, select your account from the drop-down menu in the top left corner of the dashboard.

Step 2: Start drafting your Story

You can do this from 3 spots in the dashboard:

the Posts and Stories item in the menu on the left side of the screen
the Create Post button in the menu on the left side of the screen
the Create Story button in the center of the dashboard

Once you click on one of these options, a Story creator window will pop up. Here, select the account you want to share your Story to, and upload an image or video to start working on your Story.

The Story editing options in Business Suite are quite limited compared to what you can do in the Instagram app or Hootsuite. You can only crop your media file, and add text and stickers.

Step 3: Schedule your Instagram Story

Once you’re happy with your creation, click the arrow beside the Publish Story button for scheduling options.

Click Schedule Story. Then, pick a date and time to post your Story.

Once you save the date and time, click Schedule Story, and you’re done! Your Story will be automatically posted to Instagram at the specified date and time.

You can confirm that your Story has been scheduled by navigating to Posts and Stories, then Stories, then Scheduled.

This is also where you can manage your post — reschedule it, publish it immediately or delete it from your pipeline.

6 reasons to schedule Instagram Stories

1. Save time

Learning how to schedule Instagram Stories saves you a ton of time and makes sharing Stories much less disruptive to your workday. Instead of having to create and post Stories on the fly multiple times per day, you can sit down and prepare your Stories for the week all in one go.

When it’s time for your scheduled Stories to go live, you can push them out with just a couple of clicks.

Of course, you can also share live Stories in between your scheduled ones if you want to update your audience on something happening in the moment.

2. Upload Instagram Stories from your desktop or laptop

How many times have you had to send a photo or file to your phone just to post it on Stories? And then dig around in your camera roll trying to find the right posts in the right order?

When you use an Instagram Story scheduler, you can eliminate this step. You can upload your Stories files directly from your desktop or laptop. When it’s time for your Story to go live, the components automatically appear in the right order at the top of your camera roll, ready to go.

3. More editing options

When you use Hootsuite to schedule Instagram Stories, you gain access to all the editing tools built into the Hootsuite dashboard. That means you can create Stories with fonts, stickers, and frames that are not available within the Instagram app. You can even upload your own stickers to give your Story a unique look and feel.

And, as we mentioned in the last point, you can do this editing on your desktop or laptop. You can use a full-size keyboard and monitor to fine-tune your edits, giving your greater creative control.

4. Cultivate a consistent look and feel with templates

Using Instagram templates is a great way to create consistent Story posts that align with your brand’s overall look and feel. Templates are especially useful when you’re sharing non-visual content like text, quotes, or links to your blog posts.

The challenge is that many Instagram templates require you to use a computer-based software program like Adobe Photoshop to create your posts. And getting your finished posts from Photoshop to your phone for posting is a tedious process.

The ability to upload your posts directly from your computer makes it much easier to work with templates. That means you’re more likely to incorporate these valuable tools into your Instagram Stories posts.

New to templates? We’ve created a whole post on how to use them that includes a set of free Instagram Stories templates to get you started.

5. Avoid typos and broken links

Typing with your thumbs is not the best way to create pristine content. Never mind when autocorrect gets involved.

Scheduling your posts in advance gives you the chance to plan your text and links more carefully. Type your captions on a proper keyboard. Run them through a spelling and grammar check program. Test your links. See what other posts are being shared for the hashtags you plan to use.

It’s always a good idea to give yourself time to walk away from your content for a minute and then read it again with a fresher set of eyes. (Or even get a colleague to have a peek.) That’s tough when you’re posting on the fly. When you’ve scheduled Stories, you can review them in the Hootsuite planner at any time before they go live.

6. Encourage engagement

Once you’ve mastered how to schedule Instagram Stories, you’ll likely find you’re posting more Stories, and more consistently. When your audience knows what kind of content to expect from you, and when to expect it, they’re more likely to watch your Stories and engage.

Ready to start scheduling Instagram Stories and save time? Use Hootsuite to manage all your social networks (and schedule posts) from a single dashboard.

Try it free for 30 days

The post How to Schedule Instagram Stories in 2023 [4 Simple Steps] appeared first on Social Media Marketing & Management Dashboard.

Originally posted on June 28, 2023 @ 4:41 pm

If your company offers an internship program, there are certain ways you can make it as efficient, effective, and constructive as possible. By doing this, you can get the most out of your interns – and indeed, they can get the most out of their internship! So, for the top 7 ways to improve your […]

Originally posted on June 28, 2023 @ 4:41 am