Social Media, Healthcare Style!

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In the past several years, social media has gone from a lifestyle niche to a way of life. From Facebook to Twitter and beyond, these social network platforms have changed the way we interact with one another, both in our personal and business lives. Believe it or not, social media has a huge impact on the healthcare field. The relationships physicians and healthcare practitioners have with their patients/clients is based on trust and confidence. Social media allows us to take this relationship to the next level by establishing channels of social engagement communication.

Just by regularly updating Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks, those of you in the healthcare field can interface with patients multiple times per week or even multiple times daily. This is very different from the pre-school media days, when patients only thought about healthcare practitioners when they needed to make an appointment.

The Mayo Clinic has a whole center dedicated just to social media, which facilitates the use of  social media throughout the Mayo Clinic and beyond. The center works to help other hospitals, professionals and patients to promote health education, health literacy and healthcare delivery. For more on the May Clinic’s social media center, read Joan Justice’s post.

In general, social media sites are an amazing free marketing tool. As you keep up with social media trends, you can target your patients/clients and potential new patients by offering unique content related to your specialty (e.g. a dermatologist might write about how cancer patients can better take care of their skin, or about remedies to alleviate skin irritations cause by radiation or chemotherapy).

This can be a lot of fun, because you can use your creative side. Use photos, videos, podcasts, music, and well-written text to get your message across. Videos are super easy to make and upload, as most cell phones have a camera you can use to make a short video presentation  that you can post or link to your social media sites. Bay Harbour Med Spa which formulates the Acne Solution, does an excellent job doing this. They make short and informative videos answering their clients’ skin care questions. Anyone in the healthcare field should adopt this same video method. Don’t let your practice be left behind! With some simple social media tools, you too can engage with patients and ensure a profitable patient/client retention rat