Harnessing the Power of Social Media for Your Practice
Social media is powerful. As a practice owner, harnessing social media for healthcare not only helps grow your practice, it empowers patients by making valuable information easily accessible.
As of October 2023, 4.95 billion people use social media. The question is: How are you leveraging social media’s limitless potential to engage more people, educate your community, and build lasting relationships with people who need your services? A savvy social media strategy is essential in 2024, and it combines components like community participation, inspiring testimonials, and helpful tips and treatment information regarding your area of specialty.
See also: 5 Modern Strategies for Effective Healthcare Marketing
Benefits of Social Media for Healthcare
Your existing and prospective patients are on social media. In fact, social media channels like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube are one of the top resources for people searching for medical symptoms, conditions, and treatments online. While social media in healthcare can be tricky, the benefits are significant when your strategy is sound.
Social media for healthcare can help you:
- Build your reputation within your community and field
- Help raise awareness around public health topics
- Connect to potential patients seeking your services
- Encourage trust and confidence in your patients
- Help offer guidance and clear up misinformation
Social Media and HIPAA
Navigating social media can be especially challenging for healthcare professionals. HIPAA protects sensitive healthcare information, and social media posts must always be mindful of privacy and confidentiality regulations.
To avoid HIPAA violations in healthcare for social media:
- Avoid any discussion of patients, even generally
- Keep your speech general when discussing treatments and conditions
- Post your procedures and policies prominently on all social media platforms
- Remember, social media content must never include protected health information (PHI)
- Be mindful to not accidentally include a patient in a photo of your office, lobby, etc.
- Do not disclose any personal information when responding to patient reviews
Recently, multiple practices were sued for using a patient’s full name in response to negative reviews when the patients had used pseudonyms. HIPAA violations on social media can result in major financial penalties, so it’s best to leave your social media content to medical marketing experts who have a good working knowledge of HIPAA rules and regulations. Practis can help with online review management to avoid any negative fallout from your review responses.
Getting The Most Out of Social Media for Healthcare
Once you know what you can and can’t post to stay HIPAA-compliant, you can start exploring the many ways social media can help grow your practice and boost your reputation. Ultimately, it’s all about connecting to patients with a story that’s relevant, engaging, and empowering.
High-Quality Educational Content
These days, when people have questions about medical conditions they go online. As a practice owner and specialist in your field, that might make you feel concerned and anxious, considering all the misinformation floating around. All the more reason for your practice to share educational content that empowers people to make sound decisions about their health journey. Whether you’re posting blogs, videos, podcasts, or interactive pieces, high-quality medical content helps keep your audience engaged and enhances your online reputation.
Inspirational Content That Builds Trust
Health is a serious topic. It’s helpful to remember that patients seeking medical information online can sometimes feel anxious or concerned. Social media in healthcare should incorporate inspirational and empowering themes to help patients feel hopeful and confident in their wellness journey. Social media marketing experts can help you showcase patient wins and celebrate staff successes while keeping HIPAA-compliant to help boost patient engagement and trust.
Spread Awareness
Social media for healthcare gives providers a unique opportunity to spread awareness to a broad audience. As a practice owner, you have a valuable perspective and essential knowledge. When you see misinformation going around about certain conditions, services, or products, you can help equip people with facts and helpful information. You can also spread awareness about earling warning signs, ways to support people struggling with their health, and healthy living habits that can help people experience a better quality of life.
Social Media Management That Helps Your Practice Shine
At Practis, we understand that social media in healthcare can be tricky. Keeping HIPAA compliant while sharing relevant, empathetic, and accurate information requires a special blend of experience and finesse. Luckily, our team has years of experience with medical social media management, and we’re ready to help you reach your 2024 growth goals with medical SEO, online review management, medical website design, and much more!
