By Stewart Gandolf
Chief Government Officer
Ever for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic, extra individuals are looking social media for dependable healthcare information and assets. As expectations for reliable, up-to-date info proceed to extend, it’s not stunning that a few of the most adopted and engaged accounts are within the healthcare business:
- Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC): 4.2+ million Fb (FB) followers
- World Well being Group (WHO): 38.4+ million FB followers
- Cleveland Clinic: 2+ million FB followers
Healthcare professionals present a human necessity, not only a retail product or luxurious service. This makes them uniquely positioned to market their services and products on social media.
A healthcare social media calendar helps companies successfully interact with audiences on their favourite social channels in real-time.
Healthcare organizations, suppliers, and influencers that leverage social media to coach and inform their viewers additionally construct belief, loyalty, and model recognition. They acknowledge that an growing variety of individuals are utilizing social media to coach themselves about merchandise, providers, and the enterprise they supply.
In right now’s aggressive panorama, it’s important to have a strategic social presence to drive gross sales and model consciousness. Whereas the place to begin for a social media calendar typically facilities on natural content material, together with paid social promoting is essential to make sure synergy between paid and natural posts. A social media calendar can assist plan your digital communications, keep constant messaging throughout a number of channels, and monitor your effectiveness.
On this weblog put up, I share:
- The worth of getting a social media calendar in your healthcare model,
- And how one can construct a social media calendar that works for your enterprise.
Why Do You Want a Social Media Calendar for Your Healthcare Model?
A healthcare social media calendar is an all-inclusive, intensive, and centered instrument used to make sure you’re sharing the same model story throughout all advertising and marketing channels and media.
It integrates each facet of healthcare advertising and marketing, from weblog posts and occasions to video content material and paid search, and in all places in-between.
A well-planned social media calendar defines content material themes and posting cadences to fulfill the expectations of every social platform’s viewers and aims.
Listed below are a couple of advantages of sustaining a sturdy social media calendar:
- Retains your messaging organized and on monitor,
- Promotes constant messaging throughout all channels and avoids overpromotion (repetition),
- Avoids gaps in content material and encourages common posting to maintain your viewers engaged
- Offers a snapshot of what you’ve lately communicated throughout channels
However earlier than I share how one can construct a healthcare social media calendar that works for your enterprise, let’s take a deeper look into eight explanation why healthcare manufacturers want a social media calendar to draw, interact, and join with their audience.
1. Elevate Consciousness
Social media is the quickest solution to attain right now’s healthcare shoppers and lift consciousness about new, rising, and cyclical well being considerations.
It’s extremely efficient when issues that have an effect on public well being are quickly altering. Sharing well timed, related, and academic content material is one of the simplest ways to share the most recent points, pointers, and advisories.
Staying on high of present well being points and offering useful info additionally builds belief and loyalty inside your neighborhood.
2. Fight Misinformation
Social media is designed to rapidly unfold info to numerous teams of individuals.
Based on a latest Pew Analysis Service research, 86% of U.S. adults mentioned they get their information from a smartphone, so it’s straightforward to see how info (of every kind) spreads so rapidly. Whereas it’s extraordinarily helpful for sharing disaster communication or different pressing, fact-based messaging, it will also be used as a automobile for misinformation.
Recognizing misinformation on social media is difficult. To assist your viewers acknowledge credible sources of knowledge, every put up you share should reply three crucial questions:
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- Who’s posting it?
(e.g., does this info come from a reputable inside or exterior supply) - What info are they sharing?
(e.g., does this info again up its declare with related research or analysis) - What’s their intent?
(e.g., does this info intention to coach or persuade)
- Who’s posting it?
Social media channels assist hospitals and well being methods increase consciousness and share info from credible, reliable sources (e.g., your web site or different public well being accounts).
3. Disaster Communication
Managing and sharing public well being info is especially difficult throughout instances of disaster. One of the best ways to deal with a well being disaster is to plan forward.
Creating a disaster communication plan and healthcare social media calendar that may be executed at a second’s discover is important for educating your viewers on getting ready for the times forward and what they’ll count on out of your group (e.g., obtainable assets, places, hours, and so on.).
Creating a proactive method to public well being crises and pure disasters will inform your viewers and assist instill model belief and loyalty.
4. Group Outreach and Development
A healthcare social media calendar is an efficient instrument for public outreach campaigns. Hospitals and well being methods can use viewers insights to create and ship notifications to new audiences based mostly on demographic insights, like location, age, gender, and pursuits.
Group outreach messaging grows your natural attain on social media, particularly when utilizing related hashtags. For instance, you possibly can goal households with ageing dad and mom by utilizing key phrases and hashtags comparable to nursing residence, residence care, arthritis, most cancers, and stroke.
5. Reply widespread questions
Eight in 10 web customers analysis well being info on-line within the U.S. alone, and 74% use social media.
Savvy healthcare companies leverage social media channels to coach followers and reply common well being questions whereas sustaining affected person privateness and HIPAA compliance. For instance, if somebody inquires about an earache, healthcare professionals can present clear directions for what the questioner ought to do subsequent (analysis credible web sites for signs, contact major care supplier, and so on.) with out asking invasive or private questions.
Healthcare entrepreneurs are additionally analyzing their posts’ attain and engagement to find out what posts to share (e.g., copy, infographics, or video), optimum instances to put up, and when physicians ought to take part in healthcare boards centered on affected person schooling.
6. Public well being monitoring
Folks share every little thing on-line, together with how they’re feeling. Hospitals and healthcare organizations can monitor nation-, state- and even community-wide well being considerations and outbreaks in real-time with social media. Knowledge analysts can predict illness outbreaks and conduct real-time illness surveillance and evaluation utilizing hashtag- or keyword-based searches.
These channels additionally act as accelerated notification platforms for healthcare suppliers. Posting vital public well being info throughout channels like Fb, Instagram, and Twitter immediately notifies giant audiences in hopes of lessening or stopping illness outbreaks.
7. Affected person assist
Sufferers can be part of digital communities by means of social media, take part in analysis, learn instructional supplies, obtain ethical assist, set objectives, and monitor private progress alongside sufferers with comparable signs, diseases, or continual well being situations. You should definitely embody related content material that resonates together with your audience in your healthcare social media calendar.
These on-line connections have been proven to assist in restoration and illness administration—to not point out psychological well being.
8. Advertising and marketing
Social media networks are open to everybody (properly, virtually everybody), giving companies the power to comply with and have interaction with shoppers or information them deeper into the client journey.
By commonly partaking and interacting with shoppers on social channels, hospitals and well being methods can revitalize word-of-mouth referrals, enhance business-to-consumer (B2C) communications, and supply higher care.
These channels additionally assist healthcare entrepreneurs perceive their viewers’s likes, dislikes, wants, and pursuits, making a extra knowledgeable advertising and marketing technique that pulls a high-intent viewers and builds model loyalty.
Your Full Information to Making a Healthcare Social Media Calendar
Now that you simply perceive why social media advertising and marketing is important for healthcare organizations, let’s develop an efficient social media calendar that pulls extra sufferers and delivers outcomes.
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Plan Forward
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Create the Calendar
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Monitor & Monitor Outcomes
Step 1: Plan Forward
An in depth supply of all of your social media posts can assist determine the sorts of content material which can be working and which aren’t. You’ll be able to develop well timed, related, and interesting content material and enhance interplay charges, nevertheless it’s vital to put the groundwork first.
1. Develop your model voice for social channels
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- Earlier than creating social content material, hospitals and well being methods want to determine a model voice, so your viewers has clear and constant messaging throughout a number of channels. The voice displays your model and may entice the sorts of affected person relationships you want to domesticate. It’s additionally vital to notice your tone might change barely throughout social channels to attraction to completely different viewers demographics, however the model’s total voice ought to stay constant.
For instance, Fb is one of the best platform for storytelling, whereas shorter, extra concise messaging is finest for Twitter.
- Earlier than creating social content material, hospitals and well being methods want to determine a model voice, so your viewers has clear and constant messaging throughout a number of channels. The voice displays your model and may entice the sorts of affected person relationships you want to domesticate. It’s additionally vital to notice your tone might change barely throughout social channels to attraction to completely different viewers demographics, however the model’s total voice ought to stay constant.
2. Establish your social media channels.
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- As an alternative of creating an awesome and unsustainable healthcare social media calendar that encompasses each social channel, concentrate on those that may aid you join together with your audience, drive engagement and increase income. Listed below are 5 steps:
i. Establish your audience
ii. Analyze your present visitors sources
iii. Establish the place your rivals share content material commonly
iv. Decide your social media aims
v. Select 1-2 channels (you possibly can at all times add extra, however the bottom line is to be energetic the place your audience is engaged)
3. Select your content material varieties.
There are a number of social media content material varieties, however the commonest are written (e.g., posts, blogs, articles, and so on.), hyperlinks to exterior content material, photos, movies, and testimonials. Different content material varieties might embody:
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- New weblog posts or reshares of top-performing weblog posts
- Digital Advertising and marketing campaigns
- New employees bulletins
- New providers/remedies/service strains, or service promotions
- New web site, service, or touchdown pages
- Organizational milestones
- Group occasions
- Nationwide well being observances
- Quotes from medical doctors and/or employees
- Updates to hours or contact info
- Updates to well being protocols
- Particular affords or promotions
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Listed below are a couple of suggestions for choosing the proper content material varieties in your viewers:
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- Establish your viewers
Analyze your social viewers and determine their most well-liked platform, content material varieties (based mostly on engagement), and standard subjects.
- Establish your viewers
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- Set your objectives
Establish whether or not you need to focus totally on elevated engagement, web site visitors, buyer acquisition, and so on.
- Set your objectives
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i. The very best content material varieties will typically turn out to be obvious when you’ve recognized your enterprise aims. For instance, elevated web site visitors will possible require inside hyperlinks to thought management articles, blogs, and customized touchdown pages.
The advertising and marketing or communications editorial calendar also needs to affect your content material varieties. Relying on the construction of your group, this will require consulting with different departments in your hospital or firm to make sure your healthcare social media calendar is aligned on branding, voice, and messaging.
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- Decide your posting cadence
Whereas frequency and timing are vital, it doesn’t go as deep as cadence. Cadence is extra customized and ends in higher and extra engagement. When figuring out one of the best cadence in your content material marketing campaign, it’s important to reply these questions:
- Decide your posting cadence
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i. What’s your audience and/or purchaser persona?
ii. Which social channels do they like?
iii. What sorts of content material present essentially the most worth?
iv. Does the content material assist qualify prospects, fill the pipeline, and transfer them to the following stage of the shopping for journey?
Sharing the precise content material with the precise folks throughout the precise stage of their shopping for cycle—and on the optimum time—is vital for constructing a profitable social media technique.
Selecting the sorts of content material to put up is vital to constructing your healthcare social media calendar. Listed below are two normal content material combine formulation that will help you get began:
i. Break up your content material into three buckets (the rule of thirds):
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- Promote your enterprise or drive conversions.
- Share user-generated and curated content material.
- Private interactions together with your followers.
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ii. Observe the 80-20 rule
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- Design 80 p.c of your posts to tell, educate, or entertain.
- Design 20 p.c of your posts to advertise your enterprise or drive conversion.
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- Create content material forward of time
Creating and pre-scheduling content material helps your enterprise keep related and retains your viewers engaged and returning for extra. This, in flip, generates model consciousness and loyalty, builds belief, and presents your enterprise as an business chief.
You also needs to spherical out your healthcare social media calendar with Nationwide Well being Observances all year long. Creating and scheduling one of these content material forward of time ensures you’re posting related content material your viewers needs to interact with all year long. For instance, allergy and bronchial asthma content material ought to coincide with Allergy and Bronchial asthma Consciousness month in April.
Listed below are a couple of extra healthcare content material suggestions for standard social media channels:
- Create content material forward of time
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i. Fb: Create customized, shareable content material that encourages engagement (e.g., click-throughs and shares).
ii. Instagram: Share easy, stunning imagery that appears like one thing a buddy would possibly put up.
iii. Twitter: Publish easy, concise, and relatable content material. Embody hyperlinks for extra studying as wanted.
iv. LinkedIn: Publish thought-leadership content material associated to your business focus.
Step 2: Construct Your Calendar
A complete doc that outlines your social media posts for every social channel you’re concentrating on can rapidly determine gaps in content material, overlapping content material varieties, or locations the place your model voice might falter. It’s time to carry all your ingenious content material concepts collectively in a single place:
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Choose your calendar instrument.
We like Google Sheets at Healthcare Success, however there are many choices like Hootsuite, Hubspot, and Solo PR Professional. I like to recommend you assessment every of those choices (and extra) to seek out the one finest suited to your wants.
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Create a tab for a month-to-month view of your calendar.
Create a month-to-month spreadsheet that permits you to view weekly and day by day posts/subjects at a look.
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Create a tab in your stock of content material, copy, and belongings.
Upon getting your at-a-glance month-to-month calendar, it’s time to flesh out your copy, add hyperlinks to supporting content material, and determine graphics.
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Add tabs for every social media channel.
Add a tab for every social media channel you propose to make use of and construct out your audience-specific copy, content material, and belongings as wanted. Whereas there are a number of social channels, these are the most well-liked for healthcare audiences:
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- Fb
- YouTube
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Add customized columns for put up info.
At a minimal, we suggest the next columns for every social media channel:
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- Publish Date
- Publish Time
- Textual content or copy to put up
- Hyperlink
- Graphics
- Character counts
- Key phrases/hashtags
- Affords/CTA
Step 3: Monitor & Monitor Your Outcomes
Now that you simply’ve constructed a powerful basis, it’s time to start out posting, testing, monitoring, measuring, and enhancing your technique. Most social channels have analytics or insights you possibly can analyze:
- Fb Viewers Insights
- Instagram Insights
- Twitter Analytics
- YouTube Analytics
- LinkedIn Viewers Insights
These instruments assist determine the content material varieties, graphics, or sorts of content material that your viewers engages with essentially the most.
Subsequent, you possibly can alter your healthcare social media calendar posts, content material, or technique to focus in your best-performing content material to keep away from additional lackluster outcomes.
To additional refine your social media technique, I additionally suggest A/B testing. By splitting your viewers into two teams, A/B testing permits you to examine two variations of the identical put up to find out which will get higher engagement.
Testing helps information you to one of the best sorts of content material, codecs, put up frequencies, and instances of day for every social platform.
The Backside Line
Well being methods and multilocation medical practices face further challenges with conserving social followers engaged. Along with following HIPAA rules and sharing distinctive content material commonly, they have to additionally think about the distinctive wants of every local people they serve.
That is the place a well-planned social media calendar can assist bigger, extra advanced manufacturers ship related branded messaging and location-specific messaging that inform a constant story.
Lastly, a social media calendar builds a strategic basis that permits you to layer in spontaneity whereas supporting your overarching enterprise aims.