How Healthcare Entities Can Use Instagram for Digital Marketing

1. How Healthcare Entities Can Use Instagram for Digital Marketing Social avenues such as Instagram must be a part of your healthcare digital marketing strategy to engage and interact with patients/healthcare consumers. Social media has become widely used by healthcare businesses to stay connected, communicate with customers, and market their products and services. It is quickly becoming an important aspect of digital marketing; and the main objective of social media marketing is engagement. The healthcare industry uses social media for increased communication, excellent engagement and organizational transparency. In order to engage and interact with prospective healthcare consumers, social media must be a part of any healthcare digital marketing strategy. Many industries are now hugely investing in social media marketing to engage with audiences and promote their enterprises. There are several social media channels today and Instagram is one of the most popular platforms. About 71 percent of businesses use Instagram to market their services, and the site boasts more than 25 million active businesses. More than 80 percent of accounts on Instagram are following at least one business and 30 percent of users have made a purchase from an Instagram discovery. So let us see how Instagram can be used for healthcare marketing: Create a profile: The first and foremost step is to create a healthcare business profile so that it provides access to great features to measure the success of your Instagram marketing efforts, and drive patients to your medical practice. The second step is to pick an attractive username that identifies you, your healthcare business or medical practice as well as your specialities. Add a profile picture like headshot or healthcare business logo. The final step is to add information to your biography that shows your name, speciality and location. Make sure to add a link to your website, so prospective patients can click directly from the Instagram app to your site.

2. Post engaging content: Once you have your Instagram account ready, start posting informative content. Valuable and informative content topics could be those related to exercising tips, healthy eating habits, key precautions to prevent flu or any other disease, or anything associated with the product you offer or your medical specialty. By creating high-quality, credible content and sharing it on platforms like Instagram, you can reach new potential patients and also educate the general public about important health issues. Here are some steps to post valuable content regularly. ✓Take time and plan your Instagram content once a month in advance. Before posting any content, know what your audience wants and provide them with something that educates as well as entertains. Instagram marketing rule of thumb is to focus 80 percent of your content on providing value for your followers and 20 percent on self-promotion. ✓Choose your images carefully and focus on those types of content that showcase the doctor’s skills through before and after pictures of your patients, patient testimonials and quotes. Ensure that you get the permission of your patients before posting their photos online. You can also use videos to engage with your patients.

3. ✓Use creative captions for your posts because captions show your creativity and personality. Use of relevant hashtags: Use of hashtag, a symbol followed by a relevant keyword, is a new trend that makes it easier for other users to find you when they search for a word or phrase. Do not forget the hashtags because posts with at least one hashtag gain more engagement. You can add up to 30 hashtags to your caption, but research has shown that engagement is highest when you use about 11 hashtags per post. Create your own branded hashtags to engage with your customers for ultimate marketing success. Expand and engage with your followers: Taking time to engage with your followers is essential to build an Instagram marketing strategy. Featuring patients in an image or video with their consent is an effective engagement strategy. Never tag or share any information that could identify specific patients without their written consent. Patients can identify themselves on social media channels, but providers should never share protected health information or offer medical advice specific to the patient. Track your profile’s success: Once your Instagram account is live, make sure to track the success of your profile. With Instagram insights you can track a number of different engagement activities related to posts, stories, and your overall account. You do not have to focus on all

4. these metrics but pick the right ones that support your goals. Keep not of which types of posts yields best results by tracking the likes and comments from your posts. Promote events: If your medical practice or hospital is hosting an event like blood donation or free check-up, then Instagram is a great venue to promote your event. It helps build the character of your business and the dedication you have towards providing excellent patient care. It can also attract more patients to your event and medical practice. Interact with followers: Instagram is a platform for medical practices and other healthcare organizations to interact with your followers and make use of this opportunity to know what your audience want. You can create posts that require people to comment on your photo. You can pose a question and ask people to answer in the comments. This is a great way to get people to interact with your Instagram page. Be consistent: Instagram becomes an effective social media marketing channel only if you are consistent with your posts. Be consistent with posting on Instagram as it is a great way to keep your brand in the minds of your followers, and it will help gain new leads. In today’s digital world, doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare entities should maintain a proactive presence on social media and also have a strong healthcare digital marketing strategy. This helps to build consumer/patient engagement, and also increase loyalty and satisfaction among patients. An experienced provider of medical SEO services could ensure a successful social media marketing strategy for hospitals, medical practices and other medical units to improve traffic, visibility and ranking and above all to build social media engagement with the audience. (800) 941-5527