Social media platforms are fast becoming a cost-effective and easily accessible solution for healthcare providers to engage with their patient community, and to better promote their services. If you are in this field, it is crucial for you to not only be active on social media platforms, but also determine how effective your social media efforts are. So listen to your audience first. With social media listening, providers now have greater access to feedback and insight into the patient experience than ever before. According to a report from DC Interactive Group, 41% of people said social media would affect their choice of a healthcare provider.
Social media monitoring helps you to know what’s being said about your practice on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Yelp and act accordingly, at the same time maintain control over your practice’s reputation. Social listening helps you to:
- Learn about treatment solutions that are found helpful
- Identify patient frustrations
- Understand their unmet needs and wants
As Medical News Today reports, according to a San Diego State University study published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research, monitoring social media websites such as Twitter could help health officials and providers identify in real time severe medical outbreaks, allowing them to more efficiently direct resources and curb the spread of disease. Some of the top social monitoring tools that medical practitioners can benefit from include HootSuite, Trackur, Buffer, Piktochart, TweetReach and Tagboard.
Tips for Social Media Listening
- Set up HIPAA compliant social media policies
- Keep in pace with the latest social media trends
- Join the online conversation
- Choose the right monitoring tools that meet your purpose
- Integrate the insights gained from monitoring to a planning process
Make sure to respond to all the opinions from patients even if they are negative and join all healthcare conversations. By interacting directly with patients and acting on patient’s feedback shows patients that they are heard and their input is respected.
A busy physician or plastic surgeon may not always have time to spend on networking in social media platforms. In such cases make sure to utilize the services of a professional SEO company with an experienced team to help with your social media participation and social media listening efforts.
