71% of internet users look online for information about a specific disease or medical problem.
People rely heavily on the information they find online. They gather information about their illness from the internet and look for support from other patients with similar conditions and share their experiences.
Patients tend to use social media to assist themselves in selecting doctors or hospitals or organizations to make an informed decision.
So, healthcare marketers and agencies need to create engaging, accurate and informative social media content.
Before we get started with social media strategies it important to know about the rules and regulations related to healthcare.
Compliance
Be familiar with key regulations to avoid violating HIPAA and FDA rules. For example, it is unauthorized to use or share the Protected Health Information (PHI) that jeopardizes that person’s information security and privacy.
Learn more about compliance for regulated industries. Non-compliance can lead to severe penalties depending on breach and implication on an individual.
5 Social Media Tips For Healthcare Organizations
1. Share Information
Users go to social media as it provides the ability to access information quickly and communicate with others. Healthcare organizations can share information with their customers or prospects in various ways, from sharing general information about tips to avoid cold to sharing news about an outbreak of health hazards.
Other forms of sharing information on social media may include:
• Technology updates for specific disease
• Achievements of medical staff or hospital
• Answer basic questions (how to reach doctor or hours for an operation)
• Share generic pre and post-operation care information
For an instance, Siemens healthcare shared a recent technology update.
2. Compare And Repair
Another effective way to utilize social media is by evaluating the competition and getting insights into patient satisfaction and the services they offer.
By keeping an eye on their social media involvement, you can mimic those methods to enhance your own. Some organizations do better using social media. Providers can determine if they need to improve the response time to patient requests or improve customer service.
Social media listening can get healthcare providers to respond immediately and react to issues faced by specific patients. With Statusbrew you can track any topic or competitor. Create your complex search queries in no time and preview their results to target more focussed conversations.
Using such information that is readily available on social media allows healthcare providers to learn and adjust accordingly. By gathering feedback through social media, they can evaluate the possibility of any additional service required in the industry.
3. Security
Security guidelines should be in place for your healthcare social media channels. If anyone leaves the organization, you should be able to revoke access to avoid any misuse of the company profile and data.
Have approval workflows in place so that only a trusted person can have authority to send posts. You should manage users and provide different access levels to them based on their responsibilities within the organization. See how to secure your social media account.
4. Reputation Management
Online reputation, despite popular belief, is not something that is totally out of control.
Although people can say pretty much whatever they want, data shows that customers are equally inclined to share both negative and positive experiences.
Track, gather, and mine social data to assess your brand reputation and discern how your brand is perceived online using Statusbrew.
5. Communication During Crisis
As people are becoming more and more media literate, they depend on social media for the day in and out information.
For instance, during COVID-19, social media has been used to provide minute-by-minute information to the patients. Using social media, hospitals could deliver real-time updates on hospital capacity, emergency room access, and other important information.
Even the government uses Social media to combat misinformation and share official information and instructions.
Justin Trudeau, Canadian Prime Minister, expressed gratitude towards front liners recently as it has been one year since the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic.
Social media can prove to be a great platform to share important health information. Most importantly, it is a way to support patients and the public in an easy-to-access and timely manner.
If you haven't already, try Statusbrew. From a unified dashboard, you can schedule posts on every network, monitor relevant conversations, and track performance—all while staying secure and compliant.
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