Healthcare Social Media Management

To avoid raising any privacy concerns or turning a serious matter into flippant marketing tactics, many healthcare organizations avoid using social media. Only a quarter of all U.S. hospitals have social media profiles.

So what do 1 out of 4 hospitals know that the other three do not? They realize the opportunity social media can provide them to serve the public, communicate with patients, connect with physicians and build awareness of their healthcare organization.

Who Is Using Social Media?

41% of people said social media would affect their choice of a specific doctor, hospital or medical facility. These patients are turning to social media to not only ask friends and family for recommendations, but researching their healthcare options as well.

People trust what they find in their social media communities- 88% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a friend’s recommendation, giving healthcare social media a unique opportunity to gain trust from potential patients before they have even made an appointment.

Healthcare social media allows your organization to connect with the public where they are and using the tools and technology they use. Not only can you communicate with potential patients, current patients and physicians in a new way, you can appear more transparent and accessible.

Compliance With Rules and Regulations

Another concern with healthcare social media and online marketing efforts in general, is breaking HIPAA compliance and raising privacy concerns for patients.

Organizations that plan on using social media need to ensure that their electronic records are secure and on a different network that where their marketing efforts take place.

Another step to take is to create specific social media guidelines, which 31% of healthcare organizations use in their social media efforts. Not only can this be clear about privacy concerns, but it can establish the organization’s social media voice and who has access to the social media profiles.

Social Media Dashboard for Management

Once you’ve decided to move forward with your healthcare social media strategy you need a way to manage this additional communication channel. On top of your other marketing efforts, patient communications and general day-to-day business, adding another channel into your marketing strategy can be daunting. The best way to handle this new channel is keeping all the activity in one place through a dashboard.

A social media dashboard allows you to manage all your social activity from posting onto various social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn, to being able to respond to comments, shares and direct messages on these same social networks.

By keeping this activity all in one place you can save time and effort in your healthcare social media strategy.

Be able to manage all your healthcare organization’s online marketing with the help of LocalVox. From our social media dashboard, which also includes the ability to respond to reviews on Google and Yelp, to publishing new content from your organization, you can manage all your online marketing in easy-to-use dashboard. Get a demo of LocalVox today!

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60% of social media users trust social media posts and activity by doctors over any other group online making social media a benefit to your healthcare organization. Get in front of new patients through a social media strategy and manage this strategy with a social media dashboard.

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from Local Marketing Blog – LocalVox http://localvox.com/blog/healthcare-social-media-management/
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