With some finessing, healthcare marketers can tackle the challenges of building and sustaining engaging social media strategies without breaking their budgets.
It's no secret that social media has become an increasingly important element of hospital communications in recent years. A new study by the Ohio Hospital Association (OHA) and Mindset Digital LLC is shining a light on exactly how hospital marketers are using social media and how those practices have changed since they conducted their first study in 2012.
OHA researchers wrote the "Healthy Dose of Social Media" study using survey data gathered from 83 Ohio hospitals and health systems. Overall, they found that hospitals are devoting more time and money to social media communications:
- 69% of 2015 respondents said they devoted 10% or more of their time to social media efforts, versus 34% in 2012
- 50% said they expected their social media budgets to grow by 10% or more in the next year, versus 36% in 2012.
Hospitals and health systems are prioritizing social media like never before, but "the increased commitment to social media comes with some substantial challenges," researchers wrote. "Hospitals listed 'time and staff' as their biggest challenge in using social media. This problem far exceeded other typical challenges, including growing followers and posting good content, [which] all organizations face when developing their social media channels."
Of the 83 organizations that responded to the survey, these were the biggest challenges cited:
- 46% - time and staff
- 23% - growing connections/likes/followers
- 12% - consistently posting quality content
These pain points align with anecdotal evidence I've been hearing for years from hospital marketers struggling to incorporate social media into their communications strategies. The good news is that with some strategic finessing, marketers can tackle each of these problems without breaking their budgets.
Pain Point 1:
Not Enough Time/People
For many organizations, hiring a designated social media coordinator to join the marketing staff is not realistic, but with some tweaks, marketers can enhance their social media efficiency so it will take up less time.
If you tend to post the same content on Facebook and Twitter, try syncing your accounts so you don't have to write the same post twice. It might not seem like a lot, but over the course of a month the time savings will add up.
Experts also recommend that you use a social media management tool or dashboard such as Tweetdeck, Hootsuite, or Buffer to schedule posts at the beginning of the day, week, or month. By doing so, you get the bulk of the work out of the way and can spend the rest of the time monitoring follower interaction, posting newsworthy updates, and analyzing results.
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And, of course, prioritization is key. It's better to run one or two social media accounts well than spread yourself thin by trying to keep up on a number of platforms. Make sure your Facebook and Twitter game is strong before venturing into the likes of Instagram, Vine, Pinterest, Periscope, or whatever the next trendy social media app may be.
Pain Point 2:
Building Relationships
Trouble growing followers, likes, and other interaction measures is often a symptom of marketers not having enough time dedicated to social media. But don't worry—there are some steps you can take to enhance relationship building efforts that won't have you working overtime.
Keep the page fresh. If someone finds your Facebook account and sees it hasn't been updated in more than a month, they'll probably think it's not worth liking your page.
On the flip side, don't overpost—users are wary of organizations that will clog up their feed. Familiarize yourself with the posting norms for each social media platform you're using. For instance, it's acceptable to tweet 10 times a day, but make that many daily posts on Facebook and followers will flee.
What Can Periscope Do for Hospital Marketers?
And when you make a new post, take some time to interact with your followers; like their relevant posts, favorite their tweets, and reply to their comments. The opportunity to have a dialogue with consumers is what makes social media such a valuable marketing tool. So interacting with patients and the community online will not only help you build relationships, it may yield valuable insight into how your brand is perceived.
Finally, everything you post online should have some sort of call-to-action, whether that be a link to a microsite where patients can learn more or simply a prompt for them to share their favorite healthy recipe. Your followers want to interact—let them know you're ready to listen.
Pain Point 3:
Developing Fresh New Content, Consistently
While it can be time-consuming, consistently posting new, quality content is crucial to successful social media communications.
At the start of each year or quarter, create an editorial calendar and stick to it. Make sure it's realistic—it's better to post high-quality content once a week than lackluster material every day.
Remember that it's OK to recycle your own content. That blog post about heart health can be broken down into several helpful tweets and the accompanying photo or infographic can be posted on Facebook. And, next year, don't feel you have to reinvent the wheel—if the basic information is still accurate, freshen the article with a new introduction and a different photo and you're good to go.
Soliciting guest contributors throughout the organization is another great way to generate content and strengthen internal relationships. Physicians and other clinical staff are often pleased to offer their expert opinions for a blog post or Facebook Q&A. Eventually, you can line up regular contributors that will gain a following, which will boost user interaction and alleviate the marketing department's content creation workload.