Facebook is applying a full court press to lure pharma ad dollars, but in order for pharma to leverage facebook ads they need to stop thinking like marketers and start thinking like patients.

Facebook remains the dominant social media site for millions of people and should not be overlooked as a digital channel for pharma online dollars. However, before you give the green light to your agency you need to understand how and why people are using facebook so much.

Facebook has essentially become an animated and updated news feed for users. Gone, for the most part, are the days of people posting pictures of their families and “checking in”.  Facebook is a great way to stay on top of the news that interests YOU without having to go to a lot of different websites.  So are there opportunities for pharma? You bet.  Here is what pharma needs to do to leverage facebook…

1ne: Don’t advertise; talk about problems/issues your audience faces.  Have a new diabetes product?  Don’t show a picture with a headline, rather talk about how your product can provide better control of A1C over the day allowing diabetes patients more freedom.

2wo: Be a source of updated informtion.  While ASCO is in full swing, along with the hype, cancer drug makers should be clarifying the real news behind the headlines and what it really means for cancer patients/caregivers.

3hree: Laser target.  Facebook allows you to target people with a lot of different criteria, but this is only useful if you really understand your audience and what they want/need to know.  It also means that you are going to have to develop a lot of different ad content and that one ad does not fit all.

4our: Talk to your audience, not at them.  If you had someone within your target audience in a room what would you say to them beyond a sales pitch?

5ive: Watch being too intrusive.  One of the negative things about facebook is that if you do click on posted content you’re going to see more of the same ads.  This could be an issue for some online health seekers who don’t want to be bombarded with ads on their health problem(s).

You should be challenging your agency to create facebook posts that engage your audience rather than ads that say “try me”. This is one of the reasons why I prefer online interactive agencies like InTouch Solutions.   There is a gold mine of audiences on Facebook, but if you approach facebook as just another online channel you’re going to fail

Social media is fun. Posting pictures and sharing them with friends is a great technology. But please, we beg you, stop posting your medical imaging results to Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. Why? What if you get a gnarly fracture from a really awesome snowboarding stunt and you want to share your battle wounds? Let’s start small and see where an X-ray or MRI can take us.

Personally Identifiable Information

Depending on the facility, your X-ray or MRI might have your full name, date of birth, social security number, name, and the name of the facility in question. This much information is good when your doctor needs to know with 100% certainty that you are you and are tied to your medical records. It’s bad when it’s on Twitter.

Doxxing

Disclosure of one piece of personal information feels inconsequential. But multiple, low-value pieces of information disclosed on multiple platforms can yield an analytic chain that can uncover more serious data. For an X-ray, your name, and the name of a hospital seem fairly trivial and non-threatening. But the hospital name provides your probable city of residence, which in conjunction with your name, often provide property, tax, and voting records. Public data brokers often organize their best guess matching name and phone number by the city.

Meaning: a bad guy holding his target’s X-ray can have hard validation on the city of residence, which in turn allows him to validate anything else of yours he steals to exclude other people with the same name. It’s a neat trick, with the only real defense being to not post personal information online if its something you can’t change easily. (Your fingerprint, city of residence, name, etc.)

Endangering your hospital/doctor’s entire network

And sometimes the machines taking the pictures can be networked. (Yes, there is an absolute landslide of issues surrounding why and how an X-ray machine should be connected to a network, but that is a series of blogs for another time.) Take a look at this X-ray:

This person has wisely cropped out their own name, but if you check out the bottom right corner, you’ll see the active user account in the program. Not extremely alarming, but further is “Server: [redacted].” Very, very alarming! Perhaps the server receiving the image is a local machine that’s aair-gapped from the Internet but needs to receive images from multiple machines in an office or hospital. (If you are a security professional reading this, we know that this is extremely unlikely.) So, taking the server name and plugging it into a public metadata search tool, we find:

• The image was taken in 2014, but the server is still active as of writing
• The server is web facing
• The WHOIS on the web server is public
• All of the server’s subdomains are enumerated
• Traversing the subnet reveals what is most likely a medical record server

Yikes. Medical infrastructure security has problems. A lot of problems. But while the responsibility for an insecure network lies with the organization running it, posting photos that have exploitable information is also not a great thing. Given that vulnerabilities in the medical space can have catastrophic consequences, we should take extra care before exposing any data from inside a hospital or doctor’s office.

But I really, really want to post pics!

Use a crop tool. On a Mac, Command+Shift+4 brings up a resizable frame that can be used to crop out data that is none of the Internet’s business. On a PC, Select the Start button, type snipping toolin the search box on the taskbar, and then select Snipping Tool from the list of results. Remember that you are not only cropping out your information, but also the medical facility’s.

On Instagram, you can follow the instructions here to crop your photo. On Twitter, maybe you just shouldn’t, unless your account is private.

A good question to ask before you post is “Do I want people I don’t know to have this information, and do whatever they want with it, for as long as they want?” If the answer is no, take a pause before hitting submit and check out our post here on securing your social media profile.

Innovative technologies and shifting public expectations are altering the practices of many industries, particularly those that provide a service. Medical practices should take heed and recognize these trends or risk losing patients and market share to others more open to adopting new strategies.

How does one differentiate a high-performing medical practice from another that’s falling behind? And what are the forces that drive the discrepancy? What strategies can your practice implement to be among the high performers? CareCloud’s recent Practice Performance Index, a survey of over 2,000 practice managers and physician leaders, addresses these questions in detail.

Practices designated as falling behind report negative performance over the past few years’ responses — their number of locations, collections, and patient volume are not growing. The providers are less satisfied.

When asked about this factor, the survey creator, Dan Sabido, shared my surprise: “We hadn’t really seen anybody else use provider satisfaction when talking about practice performance. I added that to the criteria because, at the end of the day, the practice business model is to deliver care, and so whether the providers are happy or not should have a huge impact on the kind of quality of care that patients are receiving. In the final results, provider satisfaction turned out to be far and away the biggest difference between high- and low-performing practices. Physician satisfaction is clearly strongly correlated to patient satisfaction.”

While studying the survey results, I started thinking about restaurants — not because I was hungry, but rather I was reminded of what it takes for a modern restaurant to be successful. A solid menu, consistent quality, and a friendly wait staff are no longer enough.

Why not? Instagram.

New restaurants hoping to be high performers are recognizing that the décor and lighting must be designed with phone-toting amateur photographers in mind. Natural light, bold colors, and food presentation are more important than ever. You’ve still got to do the basic things right, but to gain a chicken leg up on the competition, restaurants are responding to evolving technologies and customer expectations.

While our patients may not be posting as many photos of our clinics to their Instagram feeds, the same concepts apply. A high-performing practice should embrace new technology and adapt to changing patient expectations. We have additional burdens, including a transition to value-based care and higher out-of-pocket costs for our patients.

The survey results indeed show that the practices most likely to register as high performers are those that embrace new technologies, make accommodations to improve provider efficiency and productivity, and make their patients’ lives easier.

Technologies employed more by high-performing practices include a patient portal, tablet-based intake forms, telemedicine, check-in kiosks, and concierge medical plans.

Practices falling behind tend to have providers with lesser job satisfaction. They are likely to spend more time on administrative tasks, report a decreased level of support from vendors on technological and regulatory changes, and see lower provider and staff productivity.

The high-performing practices have adapted their collection practices as co-pays and co-deductibles have risen. They’re more likely to collect up-front, offer payment plans, and collect feedback from patients to better serve their needs.

Which restaurant does your practice resemble? Is it the bright, airy spot with tasty, healthy options and an app for online ordering? Or do you have the stodgy standby with a stale menu, relying on incandescent lighting and word-of-mouth? To be successful today and in the future, like it or not, your practice may have to embrace new trends. Change isn’t easy, but it could be the secret to better professional satisfaction and better practice performance.

“Physician on FIRE” is an anesthesiologist and can be reached at his self-titled site, Physician On FIRE.  

Social media is an essential element of marketing strategy, but what is the best approach for pharma companies? To develop novel ways to engage patients, drugmakers need to develop resonant content and publish it on the right mix of channels, all while staying within the strict boundaries of FDA guidance.



Earlier this year, social media intelligence and analytics firm Unmetric crunched the numbers on 105 brand profiles, 200,000 pieces of content and 15 million interactions and returned a clearer picture of how 16 pharma companies have been building social media into their marketing infrastructure over the past five years.



Key findings from the Unmetric report include:

• Due to FDA restrictions, pharma companies have split their social media presence into four silos and found the highest growth rate in the Corporate and Career silos:
  • Corporate Social Profiles;
  • Careers in Pharma;
  • OTC Brand Profiles;
  • Branded Community Properties.
• Bayer and Boehringer Ingelheim were the most social companies among their peers, the report found, with an active presence across all six social networks – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram. Twitter and LinkedIn are the most preferred social networks with a 100% presence, while just seven out of 16 companies have a presence on Instagram.
• Pharma firms are less likely than ever to engage with consumers on Twitter, with a 128% decline in responses to tweets over the past five years. Eli Lilly far outpaced its peers on this platform, with more than twice the number of replies compared to any other drugmaker included in the report.



How can companies improve their social media game?
Set standards that ensure regulatory compliance, but then use the assets available. Others have weighed in on the latest social media best practices for pharmaceutical companies:

• Legal experts advise pharma firms to set firm, company-wide policy on social media engagement to ensure a smooth and unified approach and to mitigate any legal hazards.
• Andy Stafford, Commercial Director at Nitro Digital, offers drugmakers a guide to get the most from their digital assets, including social media. “The effective use of social media offers a huge opportunity to earn trust and create a win-win situation,” Stafford says.
• Digital marketing agency Klick offers several social media best practices for pharma in 2017, including:
  • Don’t hesitate to dive into social media, for the competition likely already has.
  • Start with Facebook, as it is the “obvious, easiest, and most viable choice.”
  • Stay on top of regulatory affairs with three-month submission cycles, flexible moderation approaches, and special processes for edge cases and automation.

Healthcare employees’ personal use of social media can have serious implications when it comes to HIPAA violations. red balloon CEO Jennifer Maggiore share

Digital marketing for medical professionals can be complicated, and it can take a lot of time and effort to show potential patients that you're trustworthy online.

That's why I talked to our medical marketing team and got some tips for doctors who are looking to build a better online presence. Here are their tips to help you create a better digital marketing strategy.

6 Digital Marketing Tips for DoctorsCLICK TO TWEET

Google Yourself

Our first doctor marketing tip comes from Leah Fraleigh, a digital marketing strategist in our medical pod. Leah recommends that, before you begin building a strategy, you search for yourself to see how your practice looks in online searches from a consumer's perspective.

Here are Leah's tips.

It’s easy, and perhaps realistic, for a doctor or medical professional to assume referrals are the most common way patients hear your practice’s name.

However, you should never underestimate a patient’s potential to research your name online. Imagine a friend tells you about a new pair of shoes they love—would you really consider purchasing the shoes without a second glance at the price or style?

Any patient who’s been referred to you has the potential to search your name before committing—and, in fact, about a third of patients search for and check out doctors' reputations online.

Make sure you take a look at your online presence and see yourself through the eyes of someone researching you. This will give you an idea of where to start when creating your digital strategy!

Dru Olding, a medical digital marketing strategist, says to make sure you maintain both your business and practitioner listings as well as your social media presence. This is what Dru recommends to his clients:

Engage With Your Social Media Following

I’m guessing that you need to post more frequently and engage with your social media following.

Many medical professionals underestimate the power of social media for their practice, but remember that patients will use the internet to research your business.

You should also share industry specific articles that provide tips on certain things and big news within the industry. For example, a dentist could share an article about why you should brush your teeth more than once a day.

Note: Don’t forget that patients can now use Facebook to search for recommendations. Social media can be a powerful tool that consumers can use to discover your business, so make sure you have an active presence on at least Facebook.

Manage Both Your Business and Practitioner Listings

Make sure that your Google listings are claimed and verified for both your business and practitioner listings. You want to make sure that they are both verified for instances when a patient searches for either the business name or the practitioner’s name.

If you can handle managing all your listings, then you’ll also want to make sure all other local directories have the listings claimed and verified as well.

This will make it easier for potential patients to find and choose you. However, if you’re not managing both, you could have an inconsistent presence online and patients will find the wrong information when trying to contact you.

More Tips for Maintaining Both Your Practice and Practitioner Listings

Morgan Hunt, our medical pod’s team manager, discusses a strategy that will help you get started managing multiple practitioner and practice listings.

Here's Morgan's tip:

Any practice with more than one doctor should be on one of our advanced local search plans, and each of the doctors should be on a basic local search plan.

For more information on our plans, you can check out our page on digital marketing for doctors.

Each doctor in your practice will need their own listing. You will also have to manage your entire business’s listing, which means that there’s a lot to do if you have multiple doctors at one business.

This is important because they will both show up in search results!

And, if you’re a solo practitioner who belongs to a branded organization, you’ll want to follow these rules:

If you’re the only public-facing practitioner at a location, you should share a listing with the organization. You should create (or maintain) a single listing that looks like this [company name]: [practitioner].

For more information on this, check out Google’s guidelines on listing your business on Google. 

Jason Grady, digital marketing strategist, says to make sure you’re consistently getting good reviews and talks about the importance of social media reviews.

This is what Jason had to say:

Have a Review Marketing Strategy for Your Medical Practice

Doctors must have recent positive reviews to set themselves apart as the best choice for potential patients. You should be soliciting reviews for, at least, Google and Facebook. Even if your practice shows up in local search results, without new, positive reviews, you will not appear to be the right choice.

Don't Forget About Reviews on Social Media

You should be using social media to educate, create a brand voice and create the demand for your service. And don't forget that patients can review you on Facebook; positive reviews on your Facebook profile can show that you're personable and trustworthy.

To build your reviews on Facebook, start by having someone in your practice ask patients to review you or your practice. (This can work for other review platforms like Google as well.)

You'll also want to monitor your Facebook page and reply to any negative reviews.

From Facebook to Twitter to YouTube, you’ve likely heard from friends and foes alike that without your business might as well be dead. While that way of thinking might be a little melodramatic, it goes without saying that social media is crucial to the success of all well done dental marketing strategies.

If you aren’t a social media user, you’re probably wondering what all the hubbub is about. Simply put, social media allows people from around the world to connect and build networks. Through these networks people share the good, the bad, and the ugly of their life. If they’re happy with a business, they’ll rave about the incredible experience they had. Similarly, if they’re unhappy with a business, you can guarantee they’ll rant about the particulars about their unique experience. The good and the bad have one thing in common: people sharing with their network how they feel about a business. And because these people are connected to the people they’re sharing with, there’s an inherent trust that makes those reading the message believe whatever is being said about your business.

When used properly social media is an incredibly effective component of marketing strategies for dentists. Are you doing it right? Maybe you need some dental marketing ideas. Here’s some examples of how you can post and leverage social media to your advantage.

Patient Celebrations

Like any good dentist, you want to celebrate the wins of your patients. Maybe it’s a young girl getting her braces off or your cavity free club. Having a celebratory moment with your patients to encourage them is probably the best way to show you’re on their side and care for them.

Post pictures or short video clips to really boost engagement. Try to make the viewer put themselves in the patient’s shoes. Make them feel what the patient is feeling. This invokes feelings of empathy and gets those watching excited to be a part of the experience.

Remember, however, that when posting pictures and videos where individuals are easily identified you’ll want to have their permission before posting online. Medical marketing is still subject to HIPAA privacy laws and you want to make sure you’re respecting and honoring those.

Team Fun

Your patients know your team. From the receptionist to the dental hygienist, your team often becomes like family, particularly to patients who come in for more than just their twice a year cleanings.

Show your team having fun and enjoying what they do. It speaks volumes to patients who want to relate to you as more than just medical professionals. When you show pictures of the team celebrating a birthday, enjoying dessert just because, or playing pranks on each other, it shows that you’re human and relatable.

Just because you’re fun, however, doesn’t mean that professionalism shouldn’t be abandoned. Avoid swearing, wearing inappropriate attire, or coming off as lacking compassion. All photos and videos should still present you as someone that is a medical authority who can be trusted.

Holiday And Office Celebrations

Most dental offices have holiday celebrations throughout the year. It might be an Independence Day barbecue, an ugly Christmas sweater party, or a New Year’s celebration. Whatever it is take the opportunity to share the festivities with your online audience. This content is not only great for social media, but also fun to include in website design for dentists. Afterall, before someone comes to your social media, there’s a chance they’ll visit your website first. Why not take the chance to show how fun you are in both avenues.

When it comes to holidays you also have a chance to honor the many holidays out there. Remember our lost servicemen and women on Memorial Day or wish those who celebrate it a happy Hanukkah or merry Christmas. Show people that you value and appreciate them.

Patients And Employees

Keep your phone handy at all times. You never know when you’ll catch a Kodak moment between your staff and patients. Whether it’s the two of them laughing or a staff member comforting a scared patient, a picture is worth a thousand words and sometimes, a thousand social shares. Implementing this type of content into marketing strategies for dentists shows that your team cares for patients and does their best to make them feel comfortable and at ease.

The Humble Brag

No one likes a braggart, but in the world of social media, a humble brag is totally ok. The humble brags shares about an accomplishment, such as being voted the best dentist in your town, but instead of taking credit for it you thank the people that voted.

This tells your audience that you appreciate and value their support and that you couldn’t have accomplished said ranking without their help.

The goal of the humble brag is to get people excited about your accomplishments. As people see you succeeding they’re more likely to like, share, and comment on your posts, which ultimately causes your post to pop up in the news feed of their friends.

Share Tips

Your years in the dental industry have equipped you with countless dental tips and tricks that might seem commonplace to you, but make life much easier for patients. Perhaps it’s a new way to floss or a way to reach more spots in your mouth with your toothbrush. If you have a tip that will help patients, share it with them. In fact, if you have enough tips you could create an entire video series that has 30 second dental tips. Videos like this get much more engagement, including shares, which helps increase your visibility.

Another type of tip you can share is food tips. Maybe you have recipes that taste fabulous, but are better for oral health because they aren’t loaded with sugar. Share these with your patients and ask them to share photos of their versions of the recipe. It’s a great way to create a conversation with your fans.

Imagination can be a terrible thing. When left to speculate, potential patients who find limited information about a medical or dental practice online tend to believe the worst. They may wonder what the physician or dentist has to hide. They may wonder if the practice is out of touch, behind-the-times, outdated. They may scratch the office name off their consultation list. The truth is, with so much information readily available, individuals have unconsciously raised the bar on what they expect from a doctor. As a result, brand awareness has become an essential tool for determining which specialist gets their call.

We’ve already discussed how improved social media engagement increases conversion, but this time we want to talk about the benefits of social media marketing that are harder to track (although we have our ways). Having a strong, carefully curated online presence gives patients peace of mind. “Carefully curated” are the key words here; too many posts (and accompanying calls to action) can appear overly promotional—no good—and too few raises red flags. As with all forms of reputation management, it’s important to thread the needle. And the best way to cultivate a respectable and recognizable brand is through advertising.

Many practices assume that by having a Facebook page, they can tick off the SMM (social media marketing) box and call it good. Once upon a time in a more altruistic world, that was true. But Facebook has changed its algorithms so that you have to pay to play. Now when you post newsworthy information about your practice, only a tiny fraction of your followers will see your announcement. Like so many falling trees in an empty forest, if there are no witnesses, it may as well have not happened.

Fortunately, investment does more than simply open the gate. Facebook allows you to target a specific audience based on several factors, including age, gender, location, and other increasingly specialized criteria. Our skilled team can help you customize your market so you can reach existing and prospective patients with expert accuracy. As our SMM Strategist explains, “With all these targeting capabilities, one can drill down to a particular audience subset. However, none of these targeting capabilities mean anything if you don’t support your efforts. A good Facebook marketing strategy includes a strong message with compelling visual content, a healthy ad budget, and well-tuned, layered targeting.”

Now that your message is out there and attracting eyeballs, you can focus on creating beautiful, engaging posts that establish who you are, what you do, and why people should choose you for their medical or dental needs. Social media offers a more lighthearted and playful platform, but never lose sight of the goal: to demonstrate your superior quality and unique approach to your field. Basically, social media marketing allows you to trumpet your office philosophy—so you should be certain what that is. Consistency is essential in building a positive brand reputation.

Social media marketing is a complex web, and each thread must be considered to achieve the intended outcome. If you have questions about how to enhance your practice’s presence online, or if you’re ready to take your advertising to the next level, contact our friendly and knowledgeable team today.

The mere mention of “networking” can conjure cringe-worthy images of rubbing elbows in forced social situations, or climbing the 1980s-era corporate ladder. But learning how to network effectively just might be the most powerful tool physicians can command to advance their professional careers. With career dissatisfaction and burnout among physicians on the rise (see the Merritt Hawkins 2016 Survey of America’s Physicians), it’s time to reconsider the value of actively building and sustaining robust professional networks.

Stay current to stay relevant

Healthcare is evolving at a rapid pace, and traditional approaches to practicing medicine are continually being re-examined, reformulated and replaced. Maintaining a professional network with colleagues who stay informed about the latest challenges, trends and best practices can keep your own skills and knowledge from stagnating. You can keep up with emerging areas of inquiry, new specialty fields and job opportunities by staying in touch with a variety of physicians in different work environments.

Help shape modern medicine

Physicians who interact routinely with other physicians are better positioned to develop a “big picture” view of the daily challenges that arise in healthcare. The insight and perspective gained through professional networks can help physicians identify new ways to address old, familiar problems. A broader, informed perspective can also facilitate serving in leadership roles that may help shape medical research priorities or determine healthcare standards and practices ripe for revision.

Don’t confuse social media with networking

In the era of social media, more traditional approaches to networking often get short shrift. Although Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook each serve a purpose—including keeping up with healthcare news and career opportunities—never mistake them as substitutes for good old-fashioned conversation and personal interaction.

10 tips to network more efficiently

Yes, networking can take some time, but here are 10 tips to help you build and expand your professional network in the most efficient and effective ways possible:

1. Before anything else, determine your professional goal(s) and how you can help others. This might sound counterintuitive, but only if you are genuine about helping others will they want to help you in return.  
2. Identify people who are likely to have the connections and knowledge to help you reach your goals. Start with those you know and expand outward from there. 
3. Amplify your physician job opportunities by staying in close touch with your placement specialist. The team at Merritt Hawkins is in daily contact with top health systems, clinics and practices across the country.
4. Prepare your elevator pitch. Keep practicing until you can convey who you are and your professional goals in less than 30 seconds. 
5. Join professional groups and associations and take advantage of their physician networking opportunities by regularly attending meetings and conferences. 
6. When meeting a new, professional contact, get to know the person a little and start by asking for information—not a job. 
7. Participate in online discussions and forums to make new contacts you can meet later in person at conferences/networking events. 
8. When you use social media for networking, give extra consideration to what you post and how you are represented online. Based on the American Medical Association’s policy statements, the American College of Physicians and the Federation of State Medical Boards have social media guidelines you can reference. 
9. Stay in contact with former colleagues and employers. Schedule 5-10 minutes each day for a call; slow and steady relationship building is the foundation of good professional networking. 
10. Follow up after you make a new contact. Business cards can help ensure that new professional contacts have your information, but nothing beats sending a text, email, or even a handwritten note to demonstrate your appreciation and interest.

There are many reasons why cultivating a professional network is important for physicians. Ultimately, expanding the depth and variety of your professional relationships helps you become better at what you do, and can translate into an abundance of new—and often unexpected—professional opportunities

Social media is a great way to get the word out about medical issues. If done the right way, your postings can go viral and affect many people. Here are a few tips to help you out.

Create a Contest

Creating a contest is a sure way of getting viral exposure. You can raffle off free stuff or even give away a free discount coupon in exchange for participation. This participation can be in the form of using your special hashtag in a tweet, liking or commenting on your Facebook post, completing a quick medical survey, sharing the post to their own followers, or emailing a friend about it.

Use Hashtags

Hashtags are a great way of getting people to notice your tweets. If you want to discover hashtags that are trending and popular, use Trendsmap (to discover trending hashtags based on location) or Hashtagify (to discover trending Twitter and Instagram hashtags based on industry). If you’re not sure if a hashtag will work, use Ritetag to find stats about how much exposure each hashtag will get.

Mix Up Your Postings

Don’t use your Twitter and Facebook accounts to blast out links to your site, day after day. The best way to get new followers and exposure is by constantly sharing links to high-quality sites that offer great tips and advice on health issues. You can also tweet short tips that don’t contain links at all. This will attract a fan base and will help you get more traffic when you do share links to your site.

Most doctors frequently use social media for both personal and professional purposes. That creates risks for hospitals. 

Using social networking sites can have many benefits for healthcare providers. For example, many hospitals and doctors are using Facebook, Twitter and other sites to:

• market their services and attract new patients
• promote general health and wellness, and
• recruit employees.

On top of those business uses, doctors, nurses and other healthcare employees do a lot of personal social networking, just like people in any other industry. But in healthcare, social media comes with a unique set of risks.

For instance, employees may post information online that violates patient privacy. Even doctors, who should know better, can be careless when it comes to social networking activity.

Guidelines for docs

To avoid those problems, it’s important that doctors and others know some guidelines for positive social networking. Apparently, issues are becoming common enough that state agencies are now creating rules on social media for doctors.

For example, Rhode Island’s medical licensing board recently approved a set of guidelines for the appropriate use of social media in medical practices.

The nuts and bolts of the rules: Doctors will be held accountable for what they post to social media sites.

These are some of the specific guidelines, which are good to follow for medical professionals in all states:

1. Doctors should have separate personal and professional accounts.
2. Doctors should avoid interacting with current or previous patients using a personal account, and those interactions should only directly relate to the person’s care.
3. Photos of patients should never be posted.
4. Medical professionals should never post any information about a specific patient that could in any way be traced back to the person.
5. Information about the organization should be accurate and up to date.
6. General medical information should be accurate and not ambigious or able to be taken out of context.
7. Doctors should behave in a professional manner at all times, even when they aren’t discussing actual work.

Examples of social media mistakes

While appropriate social networking may seem like it should be common sense for doctors and other medical professionals, here are some examples of mistakes clinicians might make:

• Posting a video for a hospital marketing effort that includes clips of real patients being treated. If any patients’ faces are visible, that would constitute a violation of privacy.
• Venting about patients who fail to take medication or take other steps, using disparaging language about one patient in particular. Even if the person isn’t identified, the patient could find the post and know who is being discussed.
• Discussing “partying” on a personal Facebook page. If patients see such posts they could become worried about the doctor’s professionalism.

If there’s one thing we love the most that technology has given us, it is the debut of the Internet and everything else that comes with it especially social media. Imagine how social media has changed the lives of virtually everyone on the planet. It’s not just used for leisure but even for work and business too. People can spend hours on the web browsing through their various social media accounts and never feel bored at all. Access to the Internet is no longer a luxury but a basic human need that should be met without much of a struggle.

Social media got everything covered. Whatever your field, profession or interests may be, you are sure to find a page where you can feel at home and connect with like-minded individuals. The use of social media is not just about maintaining existing relationships with previous and current offline contacts but even in making new contacts from complete strangers you meet online.

Just as Snapchat and Instagram and YouTube have influencers, so too does medicine. Chronic diseases occupy an online world of memes, hashtags (#hospitalglam), and people who provide information and insights to communities that too often feel they have no voice. A growing number of companies are hiring these patient influencers to reach, and understand, these folks. And, of course, sell them stuff.

Last month, the Boston company Wego Health launched a web-based platform that introduces pharmaceutical firms, medical device manufacturers, hospitals, and insurers to people like Ingles. Those firms, in turn, pay influencers for access to their experiences, expertise, and followers. Ingles started working with Wego’s beta pilot last year and takes a few jobs a month. Wego is something of a bulletin board where companies post their needs—someone to recruit 50 people for a survey, for example, or represent the patient perspective on a panel—and influencers vetted by Wego apply. All the details are left to the parties involved; Wego only coordinates the introductions.

And social media serves as a powerful, efficient and cost-effective tool in helping everyone learn more about various health conditions and management direct from the social media posts of patients themselves who have the disease or tried specific treatments (especially medical breakthroughs and innovative treatments) and medical experts who now act as social media ambassadors for these causes.

Some people on the platform put their personal disease journeys front and center of their social media channels—posting hospital gown selfies and live tweeting colon imaging procedures. But other patient influencers work more behind the scenes. Jodi Dwyer, an oncology social worker from Boston who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2008, has recruited other MS patients for surveys, sat in on focus groups, and spoken on panels hosted by various pharmaceutical manufacturers.

(Via: https://www.wired.com/2017/03/social-media-influencers-finally-come-medicine/)

We live in a world dominated by technology. So, it does not come out as a surprise that people often make their choices according to what they often see on social media or what is shared the most by the people or pages they follow. Traditional advertising is no longer the only platform to deliver key messages to the masses. Social media is where almost everybody is, so it makes perfect sense to tap this channel to reach a wider audience without spending a fortune.

There’s no point in denying that millennials are influenced by opinions posted on social media. They frequently consult blogs, Facebook, and other social media sites before making decisions relating to education, career, finances, travel and purchases. But does the influence of social media expand to include health care decisions?

As it turns out, the answer is yes. Millennials rely strongly on social media as a source of education on healthcare issues. Further, social media has a huge impact on provider selection, general medical advice and lifestyle choices.

Over 75% of Americans use social media to research their symptoms. Also, 90% of people aged 18 to 24 stated they trust medical info shared on their social feeds, according to PwC Health Research Institute. This survey makes it pretty clear that medical and health information isn’t simply being shared to spur conversation, or because it’s interesting. Millennials, or at the least the youngest segment of that generation see social media as a trustworthy source for medical information.

This could be problematic if they are using that info to make healthcare decisions without vetting the information, or foregoing medical advice, especially as, according to Epiphany Resources, one in five Americans admit to taking medicine either prescribed for someone else or misusing their own prescription for nonmedical reasons.

(Via: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jimmyrohampton/2017/04/13/does-social-media-influence-millennials-healthcare-decisions/#791892357657)

However, we likewise need to remember that when it comes to our health, we should not rely solely on the opinions and experiences of others when making decisions. One should consult with a health care provider and get a proper and thorough assessment before taking anything internally. Each of us is unique and so is our body. Another person may react differently to a set of drugs or treatment than the other person, so you really can’t expect to get the same results.

Moreover, you may have underlying conditions that are different from the other or are currently taking other medications that may trigger a different reaction. Even if you read all health care reviews, you can’t always expect to experience the same thing although it helps that we raise our awareness over something by enriching our knowledge about various medical conditions and management. A word of caution, though, that not everything you see on the web is true. So, the best thing to do is to always have that talk with your doctor before believing in any medical hype that is trending on social media to stay on the safe side. At least, you can confirm whether it really is true or not. There is no harm in asking, after all, because it is your life and health that is at stake.

The Healthcare industry is one of the industries that has been slow to get on the Digital Marketing bandwagon. In any industry it can be intimidating to adapt to the ever changing marketing trends and especially in this heavily regulated industry, it has posed problematic. But saying that, the number of Irish people using the internet to research health problems and health / medical related information is increasing rapidly. According to Irish Health, “43% of adults use the internet to look up health matters, while 24% use it to source information on medicines”.

These days Digital Marketing has become more of a requirement in the Healthcare Industry. It’s no longer an option to invest time / money in Digital Marketing for pharma companies, hospitals, practices, healthcare insurance providers, medical device manufacturers etc. This industry has learned that to be able to reach and engage today’s tech savvy patients or HCP’s (Healthcare Professionals), they have to be where their audience is. That’s not to say that you have to be on every social media platform but they have to be online where their audience is hanging out.  

Content Marketing

Nowadays it’s crucial for a websites to have a content strategy focused around your top keywords. Content marketing is not a fad and it’s not going away. Google’s new algorithm has changed to favour quality content.

When you create content such as blog posts, videos, whitepapers, research reports and webinars, it gives people something to link to or to share. In addition, the content you create can rank by itself in the search engines. For example, if you write an article on “healthcare marketing” there is a possibility it will rank for some of the keywords you are using.

In the ever changing world of healthcare and pharma, there’s plenty to write about: news about your company, products, events, announcements but also technological trends, health informatics, mobile innovations, policies and legislation, clinical trials, research and reports, business news and so on.

Once you create content make sure you have a systematic approach in getting it out there. This could be creating a list of all the social media platforms, through email marketing etc. When you write an article you want it to be shared. Make sure you’re sending it out on the right platforms and even tagging the right people! It helps your website tremendously if high-quality websites are linking back to you.

You can also chose to promote your content on other websites through native advertising.

“Native advertising is a type of advertising, mostly online, that matches the form and function of the platform upon which it appears. In many cases, it manifests as either an article or video, produced by an advertiser with the specific intent to promote a product, while matching the form and style which would otherwise be seen in the work of the platform’s editorial staff.” [1]

For example, sponsored content can be published in the pharma business section of a national newspaper.

Video has exploded online and has become one of the key components to content marketing. More and more companies in the Healthcare Industry are following suit using Explainer videos to showcase their product / service, or to educate the public about a certain disease, like in this video we created for Debra Ireland.

Medtech companies in particular often produce complex and innovative medical devices and solutions that can be hard to explain in writing in a simple and quick way. An explainer video animation or an infographic are often effective ways to educate patients and healthcare professionals through demonstrating your product, service or content in a visually friendly way.  Videos or infographics can also be quicker and easier to watch instead of reading a lot of text, particularly considering HCPs’ busy schedule.

If you are looking to get an explainer video created contact us today.

SEO For the Healthcare Industry

A lot of people think SEO is a fad or that it’s dying out. This is completely untrue – unless you want your website to die off on Google then it will need search engine optimisation.

We believe ‘a website without SEO is like a car without petrol’.

It’s important that your company develops a search engine optimisation strategy to improve your company’s online appearance and visibility.

Are you a GP with a practice where patients can see you on Google search results when they look for doctor on Google? If your competitor has a better SEO strategy than you, they will rank higher in organic search results which means they will be found before you. So how do you start?

1. Get things right from the very beginning, from an SEO viewpoint, and you will save hours of work further down the line.
2. Research keywords that are relevant to your organisation.
3. Search for keywords that patients are looking for and implement them where relevant on your website i.e “GP Dublin” or “Doctor in Dublin”. Keyword tools including Keyword Planner by Google will give you an understanding of the competition surrounding specific healthcare industry keywords. This will also give you the average monthly searches for specific keywords.
4. Make sure that you have the right keywords embedded within the Title Tags, Heading tags, Meta Descriptions and content.
5. Choose a relevant focus keyword for each of your website’s pages, as well as landing pages, social and blog posts and any other content your organization creates and publishes. These keywords should not be set in stone – analysis of keyword performance and adaptation are key, especially due to Google’s constant updates
6. Regular Keyword analysis. SEO isn’t a one time thing – in order for your website to improve ranking on Google and other search engines you need to be maintaining and optimising your SEO on a regular basis.

Google needs to ensure that it’s search engine is providing the best results for the users so that they keep coming back. Google updates its algorithm quite frequently so analysis of keyword performance are key on a regular basis.

Meeting attendees are pushing back against the enforcement of severe restrictions on social media posts that discuss the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 2017 Scientific Sessions taking place here this week.

Since the meeting began on Friday, June 9, many of the attendees' Twitter posts, including photographs from sessions, have been met by a polite yet firm appeal from the ADA asking them to delete their tweet.

"Thanks for joining us at #2017ADA! Photography isn't allowed during presentations — we'd appreciate it if you would delete this tweet," reads a typical Twitter response from the ADA's official handle, @AmDiabetesAssn.

Twitter users immediately began expressing anger and frustration over the seemingly draconian attempts to limit social media conversations at the association's scientific sessions. Many say they see it as an unethical attempt to maintain a monopoly on data and educational effort.

"Those in power are counting on you to NOT speak up & to comply. Stop deleting, Start tweeting, Don't be thanked for ur compliance," C Michael Gibson, MD, an interventional cardiologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, Massachusetts, tweeted several times to his more than 300,000 Twitter followers. One prompted a long string of replies in agreement, as well as 150 likes and 90 retweets. Similar posts are also receiving brisk engagement.

At times, the flood of negative reaction has dominated conversations about the conference on Twitter. The phrases "Freethetweet," "ludditeofthemonth," and "freedomoftweech" were just as often associated with the conference's official hashtag, #2017ADA, as phrases like "insulin," "mortality," and "changingdiabetes," according to the Twitter analytics site, keyhole.co.

"The refusal of the American Diabetes Association to allow sharing of publicly presented content is out of step with the policy of other medical societies that have embraced social media to the benefit of both patients and healthcare providers alike," Dr Gibson told Medscape Medical News.

"In the interest of speeding the transformation of diabetic care, patients and healthcare providers should call upon the ADA to reverse its policy to restrict the sharing of photos and slides from the meeting," he added.

Tweeting From a Meeting "Not Considered Prior Publication," Says NEJM

Even those not in attendance but still following the meeting on Twitter chimed in. Dr Kevin Campbell, a cardiologist and medical expert who makes frequent media appearances, posted more than a dozen tweets to his 137,000 followers, admonishing the ADA. In his view, the restrictions are an archaic form of censorship that only serves to stifle discussion and creativity.

"All societies go out of their way to promote interaction and sharing on social," Dr Campbell told Medscape Medical News. "If we do not share data and information, we will only make slow advancements. Real-time interaction provided by SoMe [social media] allows us to make real progress much faster."

Another highly prolific physician tweeter who blogs for theheart.org on Medscape, Dr John Mandrola, agrees. He said he finds the policy nonsense and largely unenforceable, a viewpoint he tweeted out several times to his nearly 20,000 followers.

"This is the beginning of the end of the 'closed' or 'hierarchical' model of medicine," he told Medscape Medical News, adding that influential publications such as the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) encourage tweeting from medical conventions.

In fact, NEJM guidelines state: "Online posting of an audio or video recording of an oral presentation at a medical meeting, with selected slides from the presentation, is not considered prior publication."

More than a dozen people tweeted out a screen shot of the journal's policy.

ADA Says "It's a Copyright Issue"

But the ADA said it views the tweets as a copyright issue.

"The association understands and appreciates the desire to publicly share photos of research slides and posters presented at Scientific Sessions, especially considering today's technology and the prevalence of instant communication via social media.

"However, all research slides and posters are the legal property of each of the research authors and their study team, not the association," said Linda Cann, the association's senior vice president of professional services and education, in a written statement provided to Medscape Medical News.

"Many presentations include unpublished data, and while researchers are eager to share it with their peers through their presentation at Scientific Sessions, they maintain legal ownership of their research work (intellectual property)."

Ms Cann further asserted that the association is legally obligated to protect the legal rights of the study authors who submit their work for presentation.

When registering, all attendees agree to the meeting policies and to follow all local and federal laws, including those related to the intellectual property rights of all parties, she pointed out. Reversing the policy could unwittingly dismantle the long-standing discourse and engagement of medical and scientific research meetings around the world and lead to a restriction of published medical research, she said.

The majority of the feedback on Twitter does not agree with the ADA's point of view, however.

And at times, the controversy has spilled out into the conference itself. While some presenters told participants it was fine to tweet about their poster or session, others said they couldn't.

Many attendees took pictures and tweeted out their thoughts regardless. A growing number have defiantly ignored deletion requests.

And some users expressed frustration that all the noise surrounding this was interfering with the legitimate purpose of most people trying to use social media at the meeting. For example, @RenzaS tweeted: "Impossible to follow the #2017ADA feed with all the discussion about photo ban."

The association will be reevaluating the policy after the meeting is over, Ms Cann said. However, it seems too late to stem the digital ire surrounding this year's event.

An official slide of the top 10 Twitter influencers at the conference, created by the ADA, was dominated by its most vocal critics, including Gibson and Campbell. And one tweeter, MZ Khalil, who was clearly miffed at the restrictions, summed it up by posting a picture of a large, empty conference room.

"#2017ADA is this OK?" he asked. "Does this comply?"

Liz Neporent is social media editor of Medscape. Follow her on Twitter: @Lizzyfit. For more diabetes and endocrinology news, follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

Despite strict rules and regulations, pharma brands are finding ways to use social media without breaching any laws.

Conventionally, pharma has been using social media for marketing activities, creating disease awareness, educating patients, engaging with patients and healthcare professionals. But there is one area—Social Media Analytics & Insights— that is increasingly becoming important for the pharma industry but has not been fully leveraged.

There is wealth of information available on social networking platforms these days. Patients are quite vocal about their health issues and trust peer discussions/recommendations on social media. 33% of U.S. Consumers Use Social Media for Health Care Info. Even healthcare professionals/physicians are using social media for professional networking, keeping a tab on the discussions done by other physicians. 31% of healthcare professionals use Social Media for professional networking.

Typically, pharma companies have been using Social Media Insights for -

• understanding brand/drug awareness
• competitor benchmarking
• patient behaviour analysis
• identifying digital KOLs or influencing healthcare professionals
• key conversation/theme analysis
• campaign analysis

But there is lot more insightful data that the pharma companies can get from social media, which can help them beyond just formulating messaging and content strategy. Leveraging social media analytics completely can help Pharma companies with insights around the following.

Prescription analysis – Understanding patient conversations around prescriptions. Are patients adhering to the prescription, and if not, why not? What are the other patients suggesting or recommending? Are patients looking for advice from other patients or from physicians? Are physicians sharing suggestions/recommendations? If so, who are they? Can they be leveraged for any marketing activities?

Over the counter (OTC) or Pharmacy conversation analysis – What are the kind of conversations consumers having with the pharmacists about your OTC drugs? Are they switching from your drugs to competitors? If so, why and to which drugs?

Drug side effects/alternative treatment discussions – Get details about the side effects caused by your drug to different patients. Are the side effects other than those mentioned on the package? Are patients looking for alternative treatments? If so, what are those? These alternative treatment conversation analysis, may help drug makers in creating a line extensions.

New Product launch/Product launch in a new market – For launching a new product, the pharma companies need to seek insights to understand market perception around the therapy area, which will not only pave a way to connect well with the target audience but also help in analysing competitor drugs much before the launch. Pre, during and post product launch conversation help to understand consumer behaviour in two different markets for the same product.

Insights for Clinical Trials – Are patients discussing clinical trials around a disease? What are the patient experiences through competitor clinical trials? Where are patients sharing their trial experiences and their expectations? Get insights about the compensations given for trials

Identify new audiences – Be it patients or physicians/healthcare professionals or digital key opinion leaders (KOLs), you can get a list of influential and engaging target audience for planning targeted online campaigns.

Unfortunately, churning out above insights requires quite a bit of manual work. And doing this analysis manually is neither scalable nor feasible considering the following two factors -

• Huge volumes of data – Million and trillions of social users create and share content on daily basis
• Noise in the data – Unstructured data brings in irrelevant, inappropriate social data which needs to be cleaned up before analysis

A solution that can work best in this case is to use Machine Learning (ML) algorithms, which can help segregate and categorize as well as eliminate the noise from the social data in no time. The ML algorithm can identify tone and patterns based on the sample mentions given as input. With ML algorithms used for Social Media Analytics & Insights, one can get

• Answers to precise business needs
• Data Accuracy and filtering out of noise
• Detailed analysis from huge complex volumes of data

We think Social Media Analytics, Insights & Intelligence can provide immense opportunities for pharma companies to engage with the right audience, optimize social media campaign spends and recruit qualifying patients for clinical trials.

If you are from pharmaceutical background and/or use social media analytics, do share your thoughts with us. Because we at TechM believe in “Connected World. Connected Experiences”

About Author

Kirti Kakad, Social Solutions Lead

Hospital marketing is tricky, to say the least. You just cannot inspire patients to visit a hospital. However, it is important for you to increase your patient base in order to do justice to all the investments you have made in your hospital. The solution: marketing your hospital in a subtle but effective manner.

Recent research by Capstrat on hospital purchasing trends revealed that how today’s customers research and purchase medical services does not correspond with the marketing strategies designed to reach them. From the way they reach the target audience, to how they brand their products and services and which networks they utilize to connect with potential patients, hospital marketers need a fresh approach.

Hospital marketing should not be restricted to brand-building or sales support.

It is about making a positive connection with patients, on their terms.

If your hospital’s marketing program is focusing on any of the following areas, it is time to reconsider your branding strategies and how you want to portray yourself to patients:

• Non-care focus: Hospitals that focus on luxuries misinterpret why patients choose medical facilities. Patients choose hospitals on the basis of specific treatment expertise and online error-free or minimum-error medical histories.
• Overusing outbound strategies: While many hospitals still use electronic media such as TV and radio ads and direct emails to capture patients’ attention, the marketing world has shifted away from outbound strategies. Instead, according to HubSpot, almost 92 percent of companies using inbound techniques such as blogs, search engine optimization (SEO) and social media witnessed an increase in site traffic and lead generation.
• Short-range focus: Medical marketing requires patience. Since most patients do not need care immediately, hospital marketing must focus on the long-term nature of the industry. One of your potential patients may view an advertisement for your hospital but not need medical service for months or even years. Persistence and patience are must-haves for hospital marketers trying to attract more patients.

New rules for hospital marketing

Hospital marketing has taken an unforeseen turn. Some medical facilities are using hotel-like comforts to attract and pamper potential patients. However, these luxuries do not lessen concerns about high healthcare costs. Here are some of the newfound marketing rules you should adhere to for attracting more patients while building a strong, health-first brand.

1. Know your product

As a medical marketer, you spend most of your time thinking about your product. How to improve it, sell it, talk about it, whom to sell it to – this is what you are paid to dwell on. But here’s what you need to know: Customers rarely evaluate your product solely against other products in the same category. They have limited money to spend but have a lot of options. And if your products are deemed less important than others in the same category, beating out your competitors may not help you win the sale.

The solution

You must understand how your product category is perceived by your target audience in order to fully understand the environment in which you are operating. One of the easiest ways to start is by making some calls to current patients. Just ask them about the product options they have today and those they were considering when finalizing your product. Of course, a formal survey would be better. In addition, a survey would give you a reason to reach out to current and potential patients about things other than your product or service, which is a good thought.

2. Listen

What part of your marketing budget do you spend on listening versus telling your story? Most marketers spend most of their budget on telling. However, recent research has uncovered some surprising insights about what customers value most while purchasing a product. When asked, “What’s the advice you would offer to marketers trying to win your business?” empathy appeared at the top of the list. So, if you understand what customers demand and the challenges they face, your chances of success can go way up. Listen to your patients and hear what they have to say. Do not just assume that your product will fit everyone’s needs. So, are you listening?

The solution

It is about time you introduced some fresh elements into the marketing mix. To begin with, you can design a questionnaire. If you have tried almost every “telling” strategy under the sun, why not borrow a page from the political playbook and go on a listening tour? You can consider visiting current and potential patients, without any “promotional” agenda, and try to gather intelligence and build interpersonal relationships. However, if in-person visits do not sound like a good idea with your customer list or budget, you can plan a similar survey in a virtual environment.

3. Focus on after-sales

Skilled marketers focus on making the sale, but great ones know that what happens after the sale is just as critical. This is an important lesson for marketers. In most organizations, marketers focus most of their energy on the lead-up to the sale. This is because, essentially, salespeople and marketers are judged on sales numbers and their sales pipeline. Identifying potential clients, contacting them with the right message through the right channel, closing the deal. That is a typical sales routine. However, what happens after the sale is just as important.

Imagine replicating this scenario on hospital marketing teams and patients. Why? Because most potential patients depend heavily on word-of-mouth. They call their family and friends and look up online reviews in order to learn more about your hospital. And in those environments, what you did before attracting the patient to your hospital is not important at all. They want to know what happened after a patient visits your hospital. The real story is about the patient’s experience and his or her overall journey. If you are unable to shape that story, you are likely to miss the boat.

The solution

It is critical to map your marketing strategies against each touchpoint in the patient’s journey. If you are not spending a significant part of your total effort on what happens after patients visit your hospital, you have a lot of work to do. Surveys are certainly an effective way to keep in touch with patients after the consultation, and they can provide valuable feedback. Regardless of what strategy you choose, your goal should be to equip current patients with the information they need to help sell your services to their family and friends. Convert your patients into brand ambassadors.

4. Prioritize social media

As compared to other industries, hospitals have been slow to adopt social media. Most medical facilities have only a vague idea of what they would like to accomplish, but no defined goals, objectives or methods. They just “want to be on Facebook.” Many healthcare facilities understand the value of social media but are unsure of how to get the ball rolling or get their feet wet. Having a robust social media presence that supports all facets of your marketing strategies and engages your patients cannot be implemented overnight.

The solution

Consider the success of Mayo Clinic when crafting your social media strategy. The clinic’s Center for Social Media is the first of its kind. Mayo Clinic also has a YouTube channel that shows doctor interviews, treatment videos and stories about patients receiving outstanding care. New patients get eyewitness reports of the experience, right from check-in to follow-up care.

For healthcare marketers, social media is an opportunity to connect with potential and existing patients, discover partnership opportunities and seek professional advice. However, as medical professionals, you must keep in mind HIPAA guidelines when promoting your hospital and services on social media. Also, some social networks indulge in data-mining practices, which may turn off some of your patients. Having said that, most social media platforms provide benefits along with the much-needed security demanded by medical marketers. Design a social media strategy and start engaging with your patients. You can provide general healthcare advice and customer support and create brand awareness. Do not discount the power of hashtags and relevant images. With the right social media strategy, your marketing reach can get an incredible boost.

5. Strengthen the content marketing

The biggest mistake in content marketing is to create content that your target audience may not connect to or that does not portray your hospital as planned. Most content writers focus on creating sales-related and promotional content. Such content offers only a little or no value to your patients. Do not forget, your target audience is smart enough to identify and classify promotional content from informative content. Consequently, it is an attempt to sell your services and glorify your hospital brand that may make the potential patient abandon your website.
How to overcome this problem?

The solution

Whether a hospital wants to increase its email marketing conversion rate or improve the click-through on its website, content is the key. All you need to do is to create unique, useful and engaging content for your target audience. When a valuable piece of content is created, your readership will grow. This will gradually increase your viewership. Effective content marketing programs take time to stabilize. Do not expect a new blog to drive 100 new patients the first day. However, rest assured, if you consistently create useful and informative content, you will notice an increase in your marketing ROI.

Get the first-mover advantage

Traditionally, hospitals have been observed as caregivers embedded in a ‘build it and patients will come’ approach. Marketing and branding were not always given priority since it is critical to keep costs low.

While some of the modern hospital marketing rules are playing to the strengths of online communications, traditional media continues to play a role. However, because the technology has shrunk the desktop to pocket size, greater personalization and patient engagement is the way to go. You must evaluate if your hospital is falling short and then follow these modern rules for hospital marketing. Your patients and your bottom line will thank you.

The hospital marketing rules discussed in this article can help to build strong, sustainable marketing campaigns that will foster brand awareness, expand your patient base, improve your online reputation and help you to deliver on your promises.