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Social Media Marketing: What Do Prospective Patients Want to See? - 

BACKGROUND:

Presently, access to platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ is near ubiquitous, providing an audience of almost 3 billion people. Society is dramatically changing, which marks the evolution of marketing strategies by plastic surgeons and aesthetic doctors alike. This unknown territory provides excellent opportunities, but many pitfalls as well, still leading to uncertainty in the most effective manner to promote ones practice/services.

OBJECTIVE:

We designed a social experiment using Instagram to give guidance for efficient self-promoting.

METHODS:

An Instagram account called "doctor.aesthetics" was created. Content was produced and categorized in four groups: Aesthetics, Private Life, Disease, and Science. No bots or other Instagram-based promotion were utilized. Every post was evaluated regarding likes, comments, clicks, new followers, impressions, and savings.

RESULTS:

After 5 months and 37 posts, 10.5k people followed the account. Scientific posts were excluded from the analysis due to a low response rate. A significantly enhanced number of likes for private postings was found. Additionally, private posts led to most clicks and new followers, while aesthetic posts were saved by most people.

CONCLUSIONS:

To benefit the most from social media advertising, it is required to give insight into private life. While aesthetic and disease postings showed similar response rate, scientific posts fail in attracting people.

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15 ideas to increase healthcare social media reach

Some 72 percent of U.S. adults use social media, according to the Pew Research Center. Given these numbers, it’s almost inevitable that the majority of your target patient base has a presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or another popular social media site.

Of course, reaching your patient base on social media isn’t always easy. In fact, growing an audience is one of the most common challenges of social media marketing, according to Buffer. 

If you’re having trouble generating a sizeable following for your healthcare social media profiles, try these tips to increase your reach.

1. Create a presence on the most popular networks

Different people prefer different social media platforms. For example, 69 percent of people use Facebook, 37 percent are on Instagram, and 22 percent have a Twitter account, according to Pew Research Center.

Diversifying your healthcare social media presence is important because your patients don’t all use the same networks. Focusing exclusively on one platform will cause you to miss out.

Podcast: Social media best practices for doctors

2. Complete your profile

Optimizing your profile is crucial for social media marketing success because it helps patients find you. Choose a recognizable username — i.e. Dr. Mike or Dr. Pimple Popper — write a biography that shares a bit about you personally and professionally, and include a link to your practice website. This will provide a thorough introduction to new patients and ensure existing ones know the account is yours.

3. Set goals for your healthcare social media

Decide exactly what you want from your social media presence. This will allow you to create goals that help your practice move forward.

For example, you might strive to get a certain number of referrals from social media each month or garner a specific amount of shares. This will help ensure you’re not aimlessly posting content.

Read: Steps healthcare providers should take before using social media for business

4. Follow the right people

Part of gaining a following is showing an interest in others. Extend your reach by following users relevant to your practice — i.e. medical associations, your peers, and people in your local area. Many people will return the follow but, at the very least, they’ll likely check out your profile to learn more about their new follower.

Look: 5 doctors who are killing it on social media right now

5. Decide who’s in charge

Managing multiple social media accounts is a big job. Busy healthcare providers don’t have time to be effective in this role, so they should delegate it to an employee or outside agency.

Having someone else oversee your social media accounts ensures they’ll receive the attention they deserve. Provide your employee with the time and resources to really become a resident social media expert.

6. Join the conversation

In life and social media, no one wants to be around someone whose favorite topic of conversation is themselves. Avoid falling into this trap by showing an interest in others. Engage with other users by liking, commenting, and sharing their posts. Your attention will flatter them, and they’ll be more than happy to return the favor.

Also see: 5 ideas to take your social media to the next level

7. Know when to automate

All social media posts do not have to be sent in real time. Automating pre-approved content saves time and makes it easy to post outside office hours, without hindering anyone’s work-life balance.

Do note, one thing that should never be automated is your replies to comments left on your post. This always requires a human touch — even if it means a reply isn’t instantaneous.

8. Respond to comments quickly

Most people (76 percent) expect businesses to reply to comments on social media, according to Clutch. When you respond also matters, as 83 percent want to hear from you within a day or less. 

Fast replies make patients feel valued. Make sure your profiles are monitored frequently, so no engagement opportunities slip through the cracks.

Check out: How to engage on social media with HIPAA in mind

9. Focus on quality content

If you don’t have anything interesting to say, don’t join the conversation. Posting content just for the sake of doing so won’t extend your reach.

Curate content designed to engage and inspire your target patient base. Putting thought into the process will take more time, but it will generate more attention.

10. Post often

There’s no hard and fast rule about how frequently you should post for social media in healthcare. However, users’ feeds are flooded with posts from their followers, so you want to share content often to ensure it doesn’t get buried.

Try to aim for one post per weekday on every platform, except Twitter. Sharing more is better on Twitter, according to HubSpot, so tweet several times per day if possible.

11. Promote your pages

Properly maintaining a social media account is hard work, so make sure people know you’re out there. Include icons linking to your social sites on your website and in your email signature. Alternately, you can feature feeds to your social media accounts on your homepage. If you make it easy for them, patients are more likely to follow you.

12. Use hashtags

There are two different types of hashtags and they’re equally useful. First, patients can click on all unique hashtags you’ve created — i.e. #AdviceFromDrSmith — and quickly locate all content you’ve posted containing it.

Second, you can capitalize on trending healthcare social media hashtags by including them on relevant posts. Anyone following the hashtag will see your posts, putting you on their radar.

13. Take advantage of sponsored content

Your patients are on social media, so using these platforms to get in front of them makes sense. Presented in the form of an engaging article or video, social media sponsored content is a type of native advertising.

It’s not actually an ad, but posts are marked “sponsored” or “promoted” for full transparency. This designation allows you to highlight a specific product or service and include a call to action, encouraging patients to reach out.

14. Analyze your stats

All types of content won’t interest your patient base. Determine what appeals most — and least — by carefully examining the statistics attached to each post.

Most platforms have insights tools and there are also plenty of other free and paid options. As an added bonus, you might determine optimal days and times to post, so you can reach your patient base when they’re most active.

15. Cross-promote with relevant brands

Get your name out there by teaming up with brands you trust. For example, if you’re a dermatologist, you might take over the Twitter account of a company that makes a product you recommend to patients and answer questions from their followers for an hour. This allows you to highlight your expertise while tapping into an entirely new — and potentially much larger —  follower base.

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The perfect digital marketing strategy for doctors

Advertising and marketing for your medical skill and practice are a very difficult, confusing and let’s admit it a complicated task. From one side you have ethics, rules, and regulations and on the other side, you have all the misconceptions and wrong medical information that is spreading everywhere across the web.

I believe that it’s the care provider role now to be more present online and to assume their responsibilities as the trusted healthcare information source on the internet!  This is how they can save more patients and fulfill their mission in this new information era.

I would rather say that doctors, surgeons, and care providers should consider this as an opportunity to reach more patients and improve their awareness about diseases and health issues!

To help you canalize your effort and prioritize your investment in term of digital marketing, I grouped 9 gradual marketing strategies that you should explore to boost your online reach and optimize your marketing

  1- A personal brand:

Personal branding for individual doctors is a useful and effective extension of the differentiating brand message of a medical practice or organization. It is a means to control and direct what is unique and relevant about who you are, and thus guide how the audience perceives your professional reputation. In addition, personal branding can…

Spotlight distinctive strengths and capabilities; Establish credentials and credibility; Inspire champions and influencers; Extend visibility and public awareness; Increase patient demand and allegiance; Engender stronger patient compliance; Increase professional referral confidence and frequency; Enhance personal and professional satisfaction.

Imagine you buying a stethoscope, would you rather choose a Littmann or cheaply made in China? Which kind of doctor do you want to be? Give your practice the right image!

Get in touch now so I can brand you!

 2- Well-designed medical website:

Today more than ever, potential patients are searching on the web for local physicians and healthcare services. 90% of patients start their doctor selection by an online search, and guess what happens when they don’t find you, they will visit the one that they found!

Improving your patient’s experience on your website will significantly increase patient leads and retention.

Your website design should have customized features, fast page speed, be mobile friendly, and interactive.

Most searches are done via mobile or tablet devices, so having a fully responsive medical website design is crucial.

Make sure your website design includes flexible images and website structures that allow them to navigate in different pages with ease.

The practice website should be built for all platforms, so you capture the maximum number of website visitors and not just limited to desktop searches.

Page speed can be the #1 reason for a high bounce rate for your medical website as people attention span is dropping and the voice search is gaining momentum.

Your website also is your first touch point with the patient, if it’s slow and difficult to navigate it will give a first negative experience that will affect his selection decision.

A negative experience makes users more likely to leave your website to go to a better one. It is critical to evaluate and put a plan together to improve website page speed to lower bounce rates and increase lead conversion.

Be very clear on the services and procedures you offer on your home pages so the patient gets straight to what he is looking for, as your credential and certifications are crucial for sure but at a later stage!

When patients are visiting your practice website, they should find all your services and treatments easily if your medical practice offers a wide variety of services down select to the main procedures and services that you want to feature.

When deciding on what treatments to promote, think of your ideal audience, key differentiators, and high revenue procedures.

Lead forms improve website conversion rates and drive new leads for medical or dental practice.

Your medical website needs to be built with proper medical SEO and keywords, so it drives free organic traffic with a long-term return.

To stay competitive and show up in search results, your website design needs to have all the essential keywords and proper SEO structure.

A top performing website will have a solid SEO and keywords at the foundation of the website design.

A medical SEO expert will spend their time building out each page of your practice website and do competitive keyword research to make sure your site is on top in local search results.

  Check my medical website offers now!

  3- Social media marketing for medical practice

Some doctors are social media superstars. We’ve all seen them: they may host television shows or serve as frequent commentators on healthcare matters, making them a go-to source as a social media influencer. Some even use YouTube or Instagram to showcase procedures that fascinate the general public (but we can’t all be Dr. Pimple Popper).

For the rest of us, social media for doctors can be a bit of a mystery. You may just post occasionally on your platform of choice and hope for the best, or you may not have a social media presence at all. There are all sorts of misconceptions out there about the importance of social media for doctors and how it should be used, so let’s clear a few things up.

In a perfect world doctors do a wonderful job and their work will speak for them, but the healthcare market is in a constant change, an missing up on being out there to talk about yourself, some other people with good social media reach may be there to talk about you in the wrong way! So, the only way for the good to overshine the bad, you need to have a consistent online presence to talk about your services and preserve your reputation.

I want to highlight here a very important fact about boosting your social media posts!

Facebook offers some really useful tools as part of their business feature, allowing you to spend money to boost or promote a post so it reaches a wider target audience in your area.

It seems easy enough, in theory, and the button is built into the Facebook platform. In practice, though, you miss out when you use this feature without any planning in advance. Facebook advertising can reach a wide range of people in your area who may be searching for your specialty. It doesn’t just go out to friends and fans, but to “lookalike audiences” that may be interested in your practice because they’re similar to those who already like it.

Or, your ads can reach the wrong people at the wrong time, people located nearby but with zero interest in your services. It’s wasted money and wasted time,  and could even turn some people away. Social media for doctors requires strategy, which may mean hiring somebody to do the job for you.

  As a summary social media marketing for medical practices must be:

Consistent and organized

Optimized properly

Interactive

Regular Posting

Contain unique images and content for your practice

Create consistent brand continuity

Share content that drives patients to your website

Plan your paid campaign to optimize your invested money

  You get in touch today, so I can help you with your social media campaigns!

4- Local listing for your practice:

  Local business listings have a significant impact on local SEO as part of your overall digital marketing strategy.

Your business listings are the business contact information that displays when patients search for you online in other websites, directories and review boards. It’s important to claim, verify, and optimize your business listings across all platforms. (Read more on how to list your practice with google)

The more directories and reviews sites that contain the same business information gives Google additional confidence to return your information over a competitor’s practice.

Popular business listings platforms are Google, Yelp, and Facebook, but there are multiple smaller listing sites that are important to your reputation.

Google indexes all the listing sites to better collect the information for your medical or dental practice, and uniform listings will ensure higher local search engine optimization.

After your business listings are claimed and updated, it is essential to continually monitor them for duplicated or errors that can arise.

  5- Medical content strategy for doctors:

Creating healthcare marketing content for your blog, website and online presence require more than quantity as 9 out of 10 good content may not be driving any result. You also need measures of quality, credibility, and engagement in the formula to:

Attract and retain the target audience

Enhance SEO and results in good ranking

Establish and grow relationships

Inspire digital influencers

Present content worth sharing

Stay top-of-mind with prospective patients

  6- Email marketing – Streamline New Patient Communication

Stay in front of your patients and website visitors with email marketing! Email as part of your medical marketing strategy is a great way to retarget patients or reach new patients that have expressed interest in a procedure or treatment.

Utilize email marketing to create touch points with your practice website visitors and share new promotions, specials, blog posts, and the latest practice news. Grow your practice patient email list by encouraging website visitors to sign up for a newsletter.

A newsletter will help you share monthly content about your medical practice and keep your practice in front of mind for patients.

  7- Reviews Generation

Patient reviews are one of the top 3 most important local SEO factors when it comes to local search rankings. Studies have shown that 68% of potential patients form an opinion about your medical practice and it’s physicians with as little as five reviews.

What does this mean? Patient reviews are an essential way to convert potential patients and a huge reflection of your medical practice reputation.

When it comes to medical marketing strategies generating positive patient reviews needs to be at the top of the list!

The best healthcare marketing agencies will work with your team to generate positive, HIPAA compliant patient reviews and streamline the process.

  9- Before & After for Cosmetic & Aesthetics Procedures

Sharing high quality before and after pictures of actual patient results can be one of the single most important medical marketing strategies, a practice that provides aesthetics services can do.

medical marketing agency before and after-2

When it comes to cosmetic surgery and aesthetic marketing before and after photos are an absolute must in the healthcare marketing strategy.

Develop a large before and after gallery showcasing multiple examples of successful patient’s before and after for various surgical procedures and age ranges.

If your medical specialty is not cosmetic based, consider working with a patient that is willing to share their treatment journey as a case study for your practice.

Many potential patients are continually seeking the best treatments for medical conditions and improving their quality of life.

Sharing successful patient stories and educating the online visitors of your experience and expertise will turn online visitors into real patients.

This can be a highly successful part of your medical marketing strategy if done correctly.

  10- Physician Liaison Marketing Program

Physician referrals can be the lifeline of medical practice, so developing a physician outreach-marketing program is essential for sustaining strong doctor referral relationships.

A successful healthcare marketing strategy will center efforts on expanding your healthcare network and increasing patient growth.

Physician liaison marketing is hiring a representative for your practice to meet with local referring doctors and medical practices to increase patient referrals for the practice.

As the physician relations representative, they extend the bridge of communication between referring doctors and medical practice.

Physician liaison marketing results in a significant increase in patient referrals and overall practice growth.

Physician liaison marketing is especially an excellent fit for surgeons and specialty medical practices because their patient base is majority referrals from general practitioners.

Other medical and dental practices can significantly benefit from having a physician relations manager to help grow their healthcare network and meet with local physicians.

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Health regulator in public consultation to revamp patient engagement |

In a document launching the consultation on how to best engage patients and the public, the MHRA stated: "The responses will help inform the MHRA’s future engagement with patients and the public." The move is aimed at helping the MHRA "adopt a more systematic approach to listening to and involving patients" and ensure "that the patient voice is more clearly heard when safety issues, concerning medicines or medical devices, are identified and in the licensing of new medicines". In addition, it will look at how patients and the public would like the MHRA to communicate with them, as well as how they can raise concerns with the regulator.

MHRAgovuk

  ✔@MHRAgovuk

    Launching today! Take part in our consultation and let us know how we can best engage with patients and the public https://bit.ly/30zH3bg  #PatientEngagement #PublicEngagement

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5:16 PM - Jul 15, 2019

Twitter Ads info and privacy

  57 people are talking about this

    Patients, healthcare professionals, carers and patient group representatives are the target audiences of the new consultation, which closes on Monday 7 October 2019. The MHRA is planning to do more to "communicate about who we are and the results of our work," as part of its aim to "increase public awareness and understanding of the work that we do", according to the consultation document.

Digital options

Currently, the regulator relies on its website, media coverage and social media for the bulk of its communication with patients and the public. 

Direct engagement is through public meetings of the MHRA board, as well as the regulator attending conferences and events, and via the MHRA’s Patient Group Consultative Forum which has more than 100 members. In the future, the MHRA is considering doing more digitally led comms, depending on the outcome of the consultation. These could range from regular email bulletins/infographics, webcasts of relevant public meetings, and YouTube videos explaining the agency’s work, to podcasts explaining specific aspects of its work. "We want to do more to involve patients and the public in our work, including early in the regulatory decision-making process," the consultation document states. Dr Ian Hudson, chief executive, MHRA, said: "It is important that the MHRA continues to evaluate and improve how we can best communicate and engage with patients and the public." And Rachel Bosworth, director of communications, MHRA, commented: "We recognise the need for a step-change in our approach to engaging with and involving patients in the MHRA’s work." She added: "The responses to the consultation will inform this work and help us to identify what our priorities should be for patient engagement and involvement in the future."

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Doctors and Social Media: A Response by Daniel Sokol •

On June 10th, 2019, Stat published a short article of mine entitled ‘Doctors: use social media with restraint’.  Within hours, criticisms flooded in.

Shortly before the Stat publication, I had been invited to deliver a lecture on Sir William Osler.  I took this opportunity to re-read Osler’s essays and came to the conclusion that, were he magically revived, Osler would be horrified by the exhibitionism, braggadocio and inter-specialty mud-slinging of some doctors on Twitter.

In the Stat piece, I described the ‘descent [of doctors] onto the bustling crowds of social media’ and the fact that ‘doctors, who hitherto got things off their chests in private, now bellow their discontent to the world.’  I suggested that, as well as benefits, there may be risks associated with this and that doctors on social media ‘must ask themselves whether the benefits of this candor outweigh the possible harms to their own reputation and to the image of the profession as a whole.’

The response from the medical community was immediate.

Some resorted to insults, saying “eff this” and calling me an idiot.

Some misread the article and assumed I was calling for a total ban on social media for doctors.  The title of the piece was accurate: ‘use social media with restraint’.  Social media can be a force for good.  Doctors can correct falsehoods and advocate for change.  They can shed light on the practise of medicine, flaws in the system, and practical implications of policies.  They can reach people that do not read articles in newspapers or journals.  They can direct people to reliable sources of information and engage them in public health discussions. They can create professional networks, support each other and inspire others.

    Some doctors questioned whether I was qualified to make such comments as a non-doctor: “the best part is that the author is – wait for it – a lawyer”.  I am not a medical doctor but I have studied doctors and bioethics for many years, taught ethics in medical schools and hospitals, and then sued and defended doctors (and medical students) for many more. In any event, I fail to see why only a doctor can opine on the appropriate use of social media by doctors.

Some assumed that I believed doctors who suffer from mental health problems should just ‘stay silent’.  Nothing could be further from the truth: they should seek help, like anyone else, but whether they should tell the world on Twitter about their drug addiction, depression, or any other condition is more contentious.

Dr. Dana Corriel, in a recent blog post on this website, commented:

  ‘SOKOL’S COMMENTARY SCHOOLED THE WRONG GROUP OF PEOPLE.  PHYSICIANS ARE ADULTS WHO HAVE SURVIVED EXTENSIVE YEARS OF TRAINING, AND ARE SOME OF THE BRIGHTEST AMONG US – ARE THESE PROFESSIONALS REALLY NOT CAPABLE OF WEIGHING THEIR OWN OPTIONS AT HAND, FOR SOCIALIZING (ESPECIALLY WHEN ADVICE ABOUT IT IS DOLED OUT BY SOMEONE NOT IN THEIR FIELD)?’

  I do not share her optimism.  My own experience is that there are many doctors in the Twittersphere – however academically gifted they may be – who use Twitter in a way that does the profession and their reputation no favours.  Only today one doctor tweeted: “So much negativity toward interns today on #SoMeDocs”.  Surely such negativity can be harmful to these new doctors, and to the public’s perception of them.

The danger of Twitter’s informality is the gradual, imperceptible erosion of one’s social filter. I doubt the doctors who said “eff this” and “idiot” would have spoken in this way in a conference.  The consequences of an eroded social filter can be serious for doctors, lawyers, pilots and other such professions, and no doubt some do get into trouble for ill-judged posts or tweets.

  The #danger of Twitter’s informality is the gradual, imperceptible erosion of one’s social filter. I doubt the doctors who said “eff this” and “idiot” would have spoken in this way in a #conference.CLICK TO TWEET

  The Stat article was not written out of hate or contempt for the medical profession but out of a profound admiration for it. Some doctors wondered why doctors should be held to a different standard to anyone else.  After all, they observed, doctors are human. In ‘Tough Choices: Stories from the Front Line of Medical Ethics’, I asked whether being a doctor was ‘just a job’.  My answer:

‘Being a doctor is not ‘just a job’, or at least it should not be.  It possesses a moral dimension not found in nearly all other jobs.  Hence why there is no Professor in Baking Ethics, or Painting and Decorating Ethics, or Hairdressing Ethics, and why [Richard] Selzer was so incensed when he saw the medical graduates making light of the [Hippocratic] oath.  In the Hippocratic oath, the doctors swore by ‘Apollo, Asclepius, Hygeia, Panacea and by all the gods and goddesses’.  In the secular version, doctors ‘solemnly’ pledge.  The purpose?  To acknowledge the privilege, importance and dignity of treating a fellow human being in need.’

    In the public sphere that is social media, doctors cannot conduct themselves in the same manner as anyone else.  This is because they are doctors.  They must act with dignity and respect and avoid damaging the hard-earned reputation of the medical profession.  It may be common sense but, as Voltaire allegedly said, ‘common sense is not so common’. The need for medical associations and regulators to issue guidance on doctors’ use of social media also suggests that the matter is not self-evident.

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Social Media and Medical Misinformation

In an essay in  Nature, Heidi Larson, director of the Vaccine Confidence Project at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, wrote: “The deluge of conflicting information, misinformation and manipulated information on social media should be recognized as a global public-health threat.”

You might not be thinking of it that way, but a recent study found that one third of U.S. consumers use social media as a source of healthcare information. 90% of the youngest consumers trust health information shared by their network.

Another study reported that 83% of Americans in general are concerned about whether that health info in social media is trustworthy, and 38% admit that they have no idea whether such information can be trusted or not.

A study of individuals identified as influencers found that they started their search for health care information at Facebook, and trusted social media more than Pharma websites. While influencers are a small proportion of patients, they are unusually popular and influential, so their choice of information sources is likely to affect the kind of information other patients see. 

This smattering of statistics is turning up the same results as plenty more sources: Americans often use social media as a source of health info, and they can’t tell whether to trust it or not.

Studies on health misinformation in social media

A round up of research on the question looked at a set of experiments conducted with a special social media set up for information on the Zika virus. Subjects were asked to read a Facebook or Twitter conversation created for the experiments, and then to answer questions about Zika. 

The students probably saw this as a reading comprehension or critical thinking test, but the point was actually to see what kinds of comments are most effective in combating misinformation. 

The elements of the experiment:

Three pages of typical social media conversation about Zika

For the experimental group, an anonymous posting of an article (created for the experiment) saying that Zika was “caused by genetically modified mosquitoes in Brazil”

A choice of replies in which two individuals debunked the story, with or without sources 

For another experiment group, two responses apparently from Facebook were posted, debunking the story with posts from the Centers for Disease Control and Snopes

A false information feed on Twitter, with debunking responses from individuals and apparently from the CDC

In general, responses with sources were the most likely to influence students to disbelieve the false story. Posts thought to be from the CDC or Facebook were the most convincing, followed by anonymous Facebook posts, with tweets trailing behind, and then the posts without sources. The number of responses was less important than the sources.

Students who already believed that Zika was caused by genetically modified mosquitoes were more likely to believe the false information.

Implications for medical practice websites

One important takeaway from this series of experiments is that people believe what they read on Facebook or Twitter. These students were in a carefully constructed experience, so they did not have the option of checking the facts. However, we know that most users don’t check their facts before sharing stories. Mostdon’t even read the articles they share. They share the headline.

The good news is that a trusted source can keep people from believing false information.

You are a trusted source for your patients. Your accurate, accessible information helps them not only to be better informed, but also to avoid the frustration of getting information from a source they don’t feel sure about. Consumers who can’t tell whether they should believe what they read on Facebook aren’t having a good experience on Facebook.

Helpful, accurate information at your practice blog and your social media platforms is a valuable service for your patients, your prospective patients, and social media users in general.

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The Link between Social Media Marketing and Facial Plastic Surgery | 

The Internet has become the main source for information over the years. We use search engines to find anything and everything from how to cook, and where to vacation, to what are the best doctors for specialty procedures. There is more than enough data out there whether good or bad. Weeding through all the information to find the reputable sources is a challenge. As consumers, we seek sites that are trustworthy with the information we are searching for via search engines and social media sites. Merriam Webster defines social media as “forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).”

Social media is growing every year and more medical professionals are seeking this avenue for their marketing. Doctors are realizing that their potential patients are using social media to find doctors who are well-respected and experts in their field as well as a modern-day referral system. With an abundance of information just a click away patients can experience information overload. Doctors can use social media outlets to get reputable information out there so patients will be well-informed. A doctor’s website is one avenue patients go to but with the various social media sites available their search is extended beyond that doctor’s website.

There are several social media sites and each one has targeted demographics and use. Each site has unique features that can be useful for medical professionals. The major sites that Dr. Laxmeesh, Mike Nayak and Dr. Gary Linkov focus on in their article “Social Media Marketing in Facial Plastic Surgery: What Has Worked?” are Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram and YouTube. Facebook is the most widely known with a total number of users and targets adults in their mid to late 20s – over 65. Facebook allows multiple detailed posts with photos and videos. Dr. Nayak and Dr. Linkov state “For these reasons, education-heavy, explanatory posts, or posts about surgical and nonsurgical antiaging interventions, may be fit more naturally on Facebook than other current platforms.”

Two more social media sites are Snapchat and Instagram. They both mainly target preteens to late 30s. They both allow users to post photos, messages, and videos. Snapchat allows users to post to their “story” for a limited 24 hours before it will sunset (disappear). Knowing a post will be gone in 24 hours gives patients a certain comfort level in posting their surgical results or experiences. The Snapchat videos are quick and posted in the right-now moment. Unlike Snapchat, Instagram posts do not disappear and come with editing features of photos. Users post photos and videos with short descriptions or use hashtags for keywords. Hashtags are a good method for facial plastic surgeons to get information out there that is consistent and accurate across all sites. The last media site is YouTube. YouTube is the largest video-based social media site. Videos can be a few seconds to many hours long and tagged by keywords. According to Dr. Nayak and Dr. Linkov, “YouTube is the best platform for hosting and sharing detailed videos with semiprofessional or even professional production values.”

There could be several downfalls to social media marketing for facial plastic surgeons. Time and content are crucial in maintaining social media sites. Patients want more content and doctors want to ensure the information out there is factual while still protecting patient’s privacy. Advertisers will try to promise new followers but the best way to promote your practice is by posting relevant content your patients are seeking. As the social media presence grows the more doors will be open for negativity, unrealistic expectations by patients, enhanced photos versus actual patient photos, credentials overlooked by the number of followers and blurring the lines between personal and professional content the public will be privy to.

Dr. Laxmeesh, Mike Nayak and Dr. Gary Linkov state it best in their article “Social Media Marketing in Facial Plastic Surgery: What Has Worked?” that “Asking patients about their favorite type of content may help improve a plastic surgeon’s success in building a practice through social media.” “When asked about which website content was most important to patients, the leading factor was before and after photographs followed by information about procedures… A surgeon’s social media presence can dramatically increase their perception of being an expert and showcase to patients their style and approach.”

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The evolving data landscape will transform healthcare: here are four trends to watch

The healthcare system generates approximately a zettabyte (a trillion gigabytes) of data each year, which includes both classic data from sources such as EHRs, diagnostics and genetics, as well as newer data sources such as gut biome sensors, wearable devices and environmental monitors, and social media. Consequently, it’s now possible to quantify a person across three dimensions of human existence: biological, environmental and digital/social.

Big tech is leading the way in quantifying our existence, creating tools and technology to track and measure consumers’ weight, heart rate and other traditional health signifiers, as well as their social determinants of health—information on where and how people live, such as what (or if) they eat, their access to travel, how much they exercise and how they socialize. Social determinants account for roughly 60% of human health and well-being, while healthcare accounts for only 10%. In other words, having the data on where and how people live provides the power to influence people’s health status, so as tech companies race to collect and link this information, they’re reshaping how we view and deliver healthcare. Pharma companies—and healthcare stakeholders more broadly—should take note, paying attention to what’s coming, how healthcare delivery could change, and what it means for their vertical.

    Data advances abound—and challenges too

As most anyone following business news these days knows, all of the biggest tech players have announced efforts or products to claim a piece of the exploding healthcare data pie, and they’re partnering with traditional stakeholders across the industry to plan their entry. For example, Apple has its FDA-cleared electrocardiogram feature on its Apple Watch; ResearchKit, a software framework for clinical trial apps; Health Records, an app that aggregates existing patient-entered data from its Health app with a user’s electronic medical record data; and a collaboration with Aetna on Attain, an iPhone/Apple Watch app that tracks and rewards users for healthy behaviors. Apple is using its iPhone and other technologies—and even a new Apple credit card—to systematically build a platform to quantify many aspects of human existence, and has implemented methods to assure that the information can be readily shared and accessed if permission is granted.

Other companies such as Amazon and Google have created an integrated suite of offerings (with Amazon acquiring Whole Foods and Google offering hardware like Nest, Google Home and Pixel). These tech companies will have enough data on consumers to gain a holistic view into their lives and to offer targeted solutions to their healthcare needs.

The healthcare industry has already found itself behind the eight ball, and it’s now grappling with the larger question about how data structure, ownership and access will work in the fully integrated healthcare data landscape of the future. Moreover, there are still considerable challenges to using the emerging healthcare data effectively. Some data is messy or is missing altogether, and AI and machine learning systems often lack the necessary training data sets. And, of course, interoperability issues abound. The fragmented nature of healthcare data has led to the formation of data aggregators that sell data to other stakeholders in data marketplaces, and these data marketplaces either aggregate data across different data types or focus almost exclusively on one data type.

For example, the HealthVerity Marketplace contains HIPAA-compliant, de-identified data on more than 300 million U.S. consumers, pulling together medical and prescription claims, lab results, EMRs and other data types from more than 30 data suppliers across the country. Meanwhile, Nebula Genomics offers a blockchain-based network that houses users’ genetic information.

Some of these data marketplaces are starting to partner with each other and form more comprehensive marketplaces, which is a step in the right direction, and other solutions are emerging. For example, Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR), a new web standard that enables healthcare information to be shared electronically, and SMART on FHIR, which are open specifications that can be used to integrate health-related apps with EHRs and other healthcare IT systems, are burning down interoperability barriers.

Big players like Intermountain Healthcare and Partners Healthcare are using SMART on FHIR to build and utilize apps that work seamlessly with their EHR systems—providing better access to data for them and their patients while expanding data collection. Regulators are on board: New rules from CMS and ONC require healthcare providers and insurers to implement open data-sharing technology that will ensure data movement across plans and expand patients’ access to data.

Furthermore, there have been advancements in structuring some of the unstructured data that better describe the “whole person.” For example, the American Medical Association has partnered with UnitedHealthcare to create 22 new ICD-10 codes for social determinants of health (such as food insecurity, access to transportation, and social connectedness) so that researchers can structure information about wellness.  

Pharma needs to track—and adapt to—four major data trends

To capitalize on healthcare’s data-driven evolution—and to keep pace with the change—pharma needs to keep an eye on four major trends.

1. New patient segmentation: Payers have a strong incentive to harness all of the data that they can get to ensure that their members are as healthy as possible. As a result, they lead the pack in applying machine learning, big data analytics and even natural language processing (from phone conversations) to segment people by risk.

For example, Anthem has created an integrated data warehouse that holds its claims data along with EHRs, lab results and other necessary data sets—allowing analysts to investigate members’ specific characteristics and determine their risks for emergency medical treatment or unstable health conditions, and creating the ability to segment and target members with offers of health coaching or additional services.

What will this new approach to patient segmentation mean for pharma’s clinical trial design and recruitment? How will it change the way that payers evaluate patient populations for access to drugs? Pharma companies are going to have to modify their clinical trial designs to match new evidence standards that link social determinants of health to outcomes. They’ll also need to consider new dimensions of patient segmentation along the lines of access to travel, food security, social engagement and the like. This will be necessary as payers consider this information in their population health analyses.

2. Care model change: Fueled by data, the healthcare delivery model is beginning to change, shifting the focus from treating sickness to maintaining and encouraging wellness. While there will always be specialty care, the majority of healthcare is moving towards localized health hubs offering social program-like services related to education, prevention and treatment in a retail setting.

For example, Cityblock, a company under the Alphabet umbrella, is partnering with health plans to reach people in neighborhoods with high poverty rates and other social challenges. They collect structured and unstructured data, and synthesize it into dashboards to enable community health practitioners to create personalized overall life wellness plans that address personal habits and social behaviors—ideally heading off health conditions before they start.

For pharma companies, the increasingly local and down-skilled care model indicates that it’s time to assess the new influence points for care decisions and to optimize their commercial models appropriately. This tech-enabled care delivery will rely on pathways and rules-based decisions.  Pharma will need to identify where and how to influence these predetermined care decisions in a more business-to-business manner. For example, as payers move patients to post-acute sites of care, providers here are gaining the power to switch treatments to generics or drive biosimilar adoption.

3. Evolving engagement dynamics: In the race for access to healthcare data, many former enemies are “frenemies.” Everyone is a potential partner. For example, Pfizer buys cancer data from Flatiron, which is owned by Roche. Roche and Pfizer are competitors. Everyone is cool with this. Meanwhile, the Yoda Project at Yale has direct competitors contributing their data to an open-access platform.

Data-oriented partnerships and alliances are becoming the norm, so pharma companies should consider adding more data-focused roles to their roster. In addition to the chief data officers and chief digital officers being recruited now, they’ll need data alliance/venture teams and data stewards, with savvy data monitoring and licensing experts leading the way on finding and securing valuable data relationships.

4. Using data as an R&D value generator: Increasingly, pharma companies are using new forms of data in new ways, in all parts of their business and throughout their product development cycle. For example, Daphne Koller, a computer science professor at Stanford University, founded Insitro, which is focused on reversing the death spiral of R&D productivity by leveraging machine learning, CRISPR and other techniques to make drug discovery more efficient. Leveraging technologies such as organs on a chip and stem cells, mutating these cells, and phenotyping, Insitro has created a bio-data factory to explicitly enable machine learning. The results have been promising—leading to a partnership with Gilead.

Data is now a strategic asset for pharma companies. As data sources paint a more complete picture of biological function, pharma companies can examine their small molecule libraries for new applications.  In addition, they can design new biomarkers (including digital) to create product differentiation and, ideally, to enable earlier read-outs on clinical trials, which will bring products to market sooner and cut development costs. More rich and complete data handled in the right way will enable better and more effective decisions from R&D all the way to commercial.

The race is on to acquire and aggregate data, clean data, structure unstructured data, find new forms of data and generate missing data. In the next decade, navigating the data marketplace will be as critical as navigating the reimbursement landscape was in the past decade. Commercial viability will depend on it.

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The Legalities Behind HIPAA and Social Media -

A well-executed social media campaign can be extremely beneficial to a medical aesthetics practice. Millions of businesses use social media channels—such as Twitter, Facebook and Instagram—to increase their brand awareness, and successful social media campaigns can help build strong bonds between practices and their patients.

Unfortunately, medical aesthetic practices and medical spas are particularly susceptible to certain types of social media violations that can attract the attention of the federal government, and investigators will not care whether or not you were aware of these transgressions. You must educate yourself about what you can and can’t post on social media channels to stay on the right side of health care privacy laws.

Understanding Your Identity

It’s important that medical aesthetic and medical spa physicians, owners and operators understand that these practices are, in fact, medical institutions—unorthodox medical institutions, certainly, but medical institutions nonetheless. However, they exist in an unusual market. The services they offer are elective, so they typically market themselves in ways that traditional health care outlets do not. They often present their services as commodities, in much the same way as outlets such as traditional spas and salons do. And because the medical aesthetics market is expanding, there is a great deal of competition for a prospective client’s attention, so marketing campaigns need to be cost-efficient and effective.

This is why many medical aesthetic practices and medical spas turn to social media to help publicize their businesses. However, it is shockingly easy for such a practice to expose itself to patient privacy issues with even the most harmless-seeming social media activity.

An Introduction to HIPAA

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) is a piece of legislation that regulates the many ways in which the business of health care is conducted in the United States. Since its adoption, however, it has become virtually synonymous with the issue of patient privacy. HIPAA’s Privacy Rule prohibits medical institutions from sharing protected health information, which it defines as anything that can be used to identify a patient. This includes any information at all that could possibly reveal the identity of the patient—his or her e-mail address, street address, name, birth date, Social Security number, etc. All this must be kept completely confidential.

If a medical institution is found to have violated HIPAA, it may be subject to very substantial fines—sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars per violation. Additionally, many states enforce even stricter patient privacy statutes, so medical institutions must go to great lengths to ensure that absolute patient privacy is observed at all times.

See No Evil

There are three major ways that medical aesthetic facilities and medical spas often violate patient privacy laws on social media without even being aware of it.

1. Publicly reaching out to a patient. If you are connected with clients via a social media channel, such as Facebook or Twitter, it might seem like a good idea to reach out to them after a visit to publicly thank them for coming in. Ideally, this could build a relationship with these clients and entice their friends to follow suit. Unfortunately, this seemingly innocuous act may constitute a violation of HIPAA (and possibly a gaggle of state laws), because you’re revealing that person is one of your patients.

You can still thank your patients via social media; however, you just need to be very careful about how you go about doing it. Consider reaching out to your patients using the private messaging feature of whichever social media platform you are using. You will not be able to reach your client’s friends, but you’ll still strengthen your relationship with your client. However, as any number of disgraced celebrities will tell you, it’s very easy to post something to the public that you intended to keep private. Use extreme caution if you decide you want to attempt this.

Also, if you’re starting a Facebook campaign, establish a fan page rather than a standard user page. That way, your facility’s followers won’t be visible to users.

2. Publicly responding to a positive comment from a patient. Let’s say that one of your clients posts the following on your practice’s Facebook wall: “Had a great Botox treatment here today!” You may be inclined to post a response, such as: “Thanks! We hope to see you again soon!” However, it is important to understand that even this can represent a breach of a patient’s privacy, since you’re confirming that your practice provided the customer with treatment.

This is an emerging legal issue that has yet to be put to the test by litigation, and it could be argued that, by publicly posting that message, the patient is tacitly waiving his or her HIPAA protection. Unfortunately, HIPAA and other state-based privacy laws are very strict, so it’s probably not a good idea to test them.

You can attempt to avoid falling into this trap by stating on your social media channels that, although you appreciate all comments, the best way to deliver them is via e-mail or to call the practice directly. If you do this, you can avoid appearing unappreciative and reduce your potential exposure to patient privacy violations. Alternatively, you can try to draft a form that acknowledges that a patient who signs it wishes to waive his or her HIPAA protection for social media; however, this form would need to be very complex in order to stand up to legal scrutiny.

3. Responding to negative reviews. Yelp is a social media service that allows users to rate the experiences they have with businesses. As of the fourth quarter of 2015, more than 86 million unique visitors per month use mobile devices and 75 million unique visitors per month use desktop computers to refer to Yelp’s more than 95 million user-generated reviews, so make no mistake: This service is immensely powerful. The success or failure of businesses can be determined by their Yelp reviews alone.

This can empower ordinary people and, ideally, lead businesses to provide exceptional service to everyone. Yelp even encourages the businesses that are critiqued to become part of conversation, allowing owners and operators to respond to reviews and engage with users.

Unfortunately, Yelp’s enforcement of its user content guidelines is spotty, so it can have a dark side for businesses. Some reviews are unfair, made by people who have ridiculous expectations or axes to grind. Additionally, some Yelp users post negative reviews if they aren’t allowed to pay the prices they want to pay for products and services, regardless of whether those prices are reasonable. And those negative reviews can impact prospective customers—even if a business has a preponderance of four- and five-star reviews, readers are often compelled to peruse the handful of one-star reviews for entertainment purposes or to familiarize themselves with the worst-case scenarios.

Most businesses have recourse for dealing with problematic Yelp reviews—they can openly engage critical users using the service and attempt to demonstrate that they’ve done nothing wrong. The owners and operators of medical aesthetic practices, however, absolutely cannot respond to these posts, because if they do, they could identify unhappy users as patients, thereby violating patient privacy statutes.

The best way for medical spas to combat bad Yelp reviews—the only way, really—is to encourage satisfied customers to post positive reviews. Unfortunately, this means that you’re essentially asking customers to work to promote your business for free, but there is little else that can be done to address the situation without violating patient privacy laws.

Given the importance of Yelp and the lack of a level playing field regarding its reviews, the owners and operators of medical aesthetic facilities may be tempted to engage in what is known as “astroturfing”—using employees or associates to post fake positive reviews in order to bolster ratings. However, they must resist that urge, as astroturfing can be interpreted as consumer fraud. New York state regulators recently issued enormous fines to several facilities for astroturfing.

The Final Word

Social media can be a valuable tool in the promotion of a medical aesthetic practice, but its use can also be fraught with peril. Owners and operators of these practices should make sure that everyone involved in their social media campaigns—as few people as possible, ideally—understands that it is critically important that patient privacy be respected at all times. Few practices can survive the penalties associated with these violations, so they must be avoided at all costs.

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Top 5 Social Media Content Ideas For Your Dental Office

Social media doesn’t have to feel overwhelming or scary. It’s one of the best marketing tools to grow your practice. So, why not be present and consistent on your socials? Social media is a way to connect with your current patients and with potential patients as well. These are tools where you can share what you and your practice are all about. 

I want to make it a bit easier for you. Here’s a list of the top 5 social media content ideas for your dental office. 

Services

What services do you provide? Through social media, you can share valuable information about the services your practice provides. If you have a general practice explain more about it. Why would families want to visit your practice?.

If you are an endodontist explain what you do. Educate people on the importance of your specialty. Your audience wants to know.

Every week share about a specific service you provide and go into depth about it. This is an incredible way to educate about all the services you provide. 

Team members

Clients already walk into dental offices nervous and hesitant. After dental visits, clients tend to connect with their dentist or hygienist. Why not share more about them? Sharing about your team will help clients connect with them even outside of the practice. 

If you share about your team members on your stories, save it as a highlight. It will always be there for people who visit your profile. 

What can you share about your team? Anything really! – as long as your team members agree. Here’s an example of what your caption can be:

  “Mary is our amazing Dental Hygienist. She graduated from _______ and she is originally from _____. She moved to Toronto when she was 12 years old and has lived here ever since. She loves to play with her puppy Toby. She also enjoys reading and being outdoors. 

Mary is passionate about Dental Hygiene, she is caring, a hard worker and loves working with kids. We love having her as part of our team!”

New equipment

We all know investing in new equipment for your dental practice is important. As a practice, purchasing new equipment has many benefits. One of the main reasons is to assist while performing procedures and for overall client care. 

Did you buy a new cavitron for a hygienist’s room? Share about it. How will it improve client care? How is it going to benefit your hygienist? These are all valuable and educational information worth sharing. Here’s an example of a caption:

“Today we received our new cavitron/ultrasonic scaler. Having the latest technology and equipment for our practice is fundamental. 

Let’s talk about our new cavitron! it’s a power-driven scaling device, that we know our hygienist will love.

You probably wonder what does it do? It makes the dental cleaning comfortable and efficient for both the patient and hygienist. I am sure you are saying “Ok, that sounds great but how? The vibrations (ultrasonic waves) of the device helps break tougher and harder calculus (build up on your teeth!). Therefore, it can reduce scaling time. By doing that our lovely hygienist can spend more time with you going over at-home oral hygiene.

Oh…It also helps while performing dental cleanings on our ortho patients! Check our stories to see how this cool device works”

  You can post similar captions when it comes to any new tool that you know your clients will find interesting! 

Before and after pics

People tend to be visual. A picture really speaks a thousand words. At times people question a procedure and are hesitant about moving forward with it. Seeing pictures can make a difference!

You don’t have to specialize in cosmetic dentistry to be able to show before and after pictures. An ortho practice can benefit from these types of posts. 

When it comes to these topics dentist sometimes worry about consent. But it’s nothing to worry about. Ask your client for consent and post! If the client doesn’t want a full face shot you can just post a picture like the one shown above. 

When posting before and after pics, talk about the procedure. Share how long it took.  You can also share the patient’s name to make it more personal (if the patient gave consent to this).

Pictures are one of the tools that will have the most impact on people! So why not share them? It’s a fun way to share and explain different procedures.

Activities

When was the last time you attended an event as a team? I am sure not long ago. In a dental office, the team tends to go to courses, conferences and/or community events. Share about these fun activities that bring your team closer together.  And bring your team closer to the community.

Here are ways to share about different events and activities:

-What kind of event is it? Hop on your stories and share what the event is about. 

-Behind the scenes (take pictures at the event)

-Show who is attending the event (which team members)

  After the event is done,  write a post. Explain in stories what you learned or what you enjoyed about the event.

Posting fun and educational content on social media is KEY. You want your existing clients and potential ones to see what your practice is about. Showing this type of content will help you to continuously reach a bigger audience.  It will also help you further connect with your existing clients.

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Millennial GPs 'back expansion of digital communication with patients' | 

The ‘Will Millennial Doctors Change Healthcare?’ study spoke to more than 300 GPs and primary care physicians in the UK and the US, of whom half were aged between 26 and 40.

It looked at issues for health professionals including the doctor/patient relationship, use of technology and job satisfaction.

The survey - carried out for communications agency 3 Monkeys Zeno - discovered that 89% of millennial GPs found it hard to spend enough time with patients to develop trusted relationships, although more than half felt this was one of the most important aspects of providing patient care.

GP/patient relationship

Meanwhile, pressure on resources that made it hard for people to book an appointment, coupled with the lack of time GPs had to spend with them, was eroding the doctor/patient relationship, the survey found.

A strong majority of millennial doctors said they felt digital communications between GPs and patients was having a positive impact, while three quarters said direct communication with patients via mobile phones had a positive effect on engagement.

Commenting on the survey results, David Berkovitch, head of UK healthcare at 3MZ, said the survey showed that both patients and GPs were benefiting from digital communications.

He told GPonline's sister publication PRWeek: 'Connecting with patients through digital channels can help put the doctor/patient relationship back at the centre of things where it belongs.'

Social media

Mr Berkovitch argued that GPs could be supported to deliver 'concise and impactful information' to patients if they were given the tools to create short videos and podcasts, shared through social media platforms such as LinkedIn, as well as augmented reality displays.

He added: 'We should continue to challenge ourselves to balance traditional channels… with more digestible content through contemporary channels that are based on their daily content sources.'

He added: 'This is a generation of doctors and, in many cases, patients who grew up with social media and apps. For them, two-sided communications is not only welcomed, it’s expected – social and digital communications is how they engage in most areas of their lives.'

Strategy and insight consultancy BritainThinks said it regularly surveyed younger patients who said it was intuitive for them to access healthcare via technology. Research director Anastasia Knox said: 'The use of technology in healthcare brings benefits for hard-pressed doctors.'

However, she warned: 'There are still groups – notably older people or those who are socially deprived – who do not have access to the internet, or who simply have a strong preference for face-to-face communication when it comes to their healthcare.'

The survey findings came as BMA leaders warned that plans to use digital-first providers to bolster access to general practice in underdoctored areas risked 'short changing' patients.

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How Healthcare Marketers Can Create Multi-Channel Strategies

Integrated, Multi-Channel Healthcare Strategy

You don’t have to be an experienced marketing professional to understand the complex, multi-channel nature of today’s advertisements. Consider the messages you see every day: a product banner follows you to different websites; a brand email reminds you about a sale happening at a store you recently visited; a message bot checks in to ask about a purchase you abandoned in your digital cart.

Integrated marketing strategies are no longer a futuristic concept – they are essential for marketers to keep up with consumers. As the public becomes even more empowered and digitally savvy, marketers must stay one step ahead to create a seamless and impactful experience. When it comes to healthcare marketing, decision making not only involves patients, but also healthcare professionals (HCPs) and caretakers who can act as gatekeepers for the end user. By recognizing the qualities of each of these groups and navigating their relationships, healthcare marketers have the opportunity to create integrated messaging (IM) strategies that are efficient and relevant for every stakeholder in the journey.

When considering the integrated messaging approach, we need to acknowledge that an initial strategy aggregates insights and information and provides a clearly articulated, insights-driven area of opportunity for all brands and services. Strategy further defines the unique and coordinated plan for a given target and creates an integrated messaging experience for each audience.

This approach is cyclical, forever iterating and improving by leveraging data and insights from cross-functional teams to interpret concrete learnings.

Figure 1: Integrated Marketing Cross-Functional Teams

While the thought of coordinating this process across patients, HCPs, and caregivers may seem overwhelming, tapping into the pain points of these groups can provide informed direction, and is as simple as:

Asking your customers how they want you to talk to them.

Focusing your planning around being responsive to customer actions.

Being flexible in how and when you deliver messages and offers.

Interacting with people in a prescribed manner that allows them to derive their own path to your relationship.

Rewarding that relationship with better experiences.

Special consideration should be given to stakeholders’ channel preferences. Given that less than 45% of all HCPs will allow a pharmaceutical representative in the door, it is critical to measure and capture their channel engagement, quantifying input from their actions and measuring and acknowledging the impact of the correct action. By targeting with multiple tactics/channels and truly understanding the synergy between them, we can better understand their impact on each other and on HCP prescribing behavior. Conversation is measured through actions and engagement across multiple channels, from social media and e-mail to microsites and online forums.

Once the many layers of data have been gathered for each stakeholder, individual journeys can be designed to ensure that you are delivering a timely, relevant, and influential message. T the standard HCP prescribing journey is impacted by several primary influences that include age, gender, and education, and secondary influences including practice characteristics and peer input.

Figure 2: HCP Prescribing Journey

Sending messages based on a target’s previous communications with you allows them to choose their path with your value proposition, ensuring ownership and value. This approach not only works for you as you move the HCP further along the journey from trialist to loyalist, but also rewards the HCP, as they receive the information they need to continue to prescribe, educate, and support their staff and their patients.

It is critical to do what is right for the customer based on interpretation of their actions. Through evaluation of everything from call plan metrics to the cadence of your tactics, the derived learnings serve to align and inform your approach with the end goal.

The healthcare communications landscape is multifaceted and mercurial. Key stakeholders each have their own winding journeys that intersect at multiple points. By being flexible, understanding the key components of your strategy, creating a rich bank of research and data for your three “consumers,” understanding their channel preferences, and creating multi-branched journeys that build off their prior actions, you will be able to form a powerful integrated messaging strategy. One that guides patients, caregivers, and HCPs seamlessly to the information they want and that you want them to see.

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What is healthcare PR and how does it work?

Many healthcare businesses hire a PR team either in-house or from an agency to act as their voice out in the world. Public relations teams are specifically hired to use various marketing strategies, both traditional and digital, to get your company out there and into the eyes of the media.

As the world of journalism evolves, fewer reporters now even make it two steps out of the office to source and write stories. The New Yorker claimsthat much of this is down to Google Search, Facebook and BuzzFeed. 

This now means that PR companies cannot simply send mention requests to the media. Teams have to work to build reputable relationships with both newspaper titles, individual journalists and social media outlets to ensure that news coming out of your business is read by the wider world. 

Yet sometimes, even this isn’t enough. PR companies have adapted over the years to learn exactly how to use other marketing methods, such as social media and blogs, as a much more tactical way of reaching a wider audience. 

As with everything, the modern era has flipped the world of public relations on its head. With that in mind, we’ve created this guide to tell you exactly how healthcare PR teams work.

Objectives

Every time a healthcare PR company starts a new campaign, the team has to consider what they would like to get out of it. For many, objectives will centre around increasing brand awareness, or boosting sales. 

By telling your marketing company exactly what you’d like to achieve, ie a 10% boost in Facebook engagement over 8 weeks, you’re giving them something to strive towards. 

Setting goals has a range of benefits, from keeping the team accountable to making sure your business continues to propel forwards.

Make sure you know the audience you want to target, and keep it realistic. Chances are that your first campaign won’t make huge news, but will be enough to get your business’ name out there and secure a foot in the door.

Content

If there’s anything you should know about marketing in 2019, it’s that content is king. However, this can’t just be any old article, photo gallery or video thrown together in ten minutes, you need to make sure that every piece of content associated with your brand is of top quality.

For a potential customer to stay around, they need to be shown that relevant information comes out of their search queries from the word go.

After all, content helps with link building. Creating content people actually want to read and share will get your name out there.

PR teams have much more time than you to be able to perfect said content, which is why they are so helpful to have around. Content marketing helps to build brand awareness in a way that is already helping the customer - which is perfect for building those crucial workplace relationships.

The team could look at hosting podcast interviews with other healthcare experts, writing ‘how to’ guides, or even creating infographics to help promote your business.

Industry specific publications

Having a team that will get your business’ name featured in industry specific publications is invaluable. After all, it’s more about quality than quantity. Many really specific healthcare publications may not have the readership numbers you’d ideally want, but will have the readership interests you want more.

This puts you right at the centre of attention of the people that really are interested and care about what you have to say.

According to Digital Authority, simply conducting a Google search could help you to find the industry related publications that you would like to reach the most.

Having a browse of different publications will make it really apparent to you as to which ones you’d like to be published in the most, so that you can then explore means of getting in touch and offering content. 

Rise of influencers

Social media has changed the game when it comes to marketing and PR, especially when it comes to influencers. Over the last 5 years, the world has seen a massive rise in the amount of people creating personal brands on platforms such as Instagram to make money.

And now, as young people grow up with these figures, they’re becoming the most effective way to market products.

Reaching out to influencers to promote your service or product will get you instant access to a target audience that you may have been trying to reach for a long time, but so far haven’t received any luck with.

After all, how many young people read newspapers nowadays? By becoming part of the community of young people, your brand will reach a whole new level thanks to the sheer power of sharing on social media.

Customer service

To make sure you’ve providing the ultimate service to the public, you should ensure that all of your staff are trained in customer service.

Treating your customers well and always putting them first is a great way to boost your business, and should never be undervalued, especially in the healthcare industry.

Training every staff member in basic customer service is the best course of action, according to Healthcare Weekly. Having a behavioural policy in place is a great way to ensure your business’ relationship with the public remains steady, and will help to build a great reputation.

Making sure to reply to every comment and review and pick up every call, good or bad, will put you in good stead and show you really care about the service you are providing.

The bottom line

Healthcare PR is all about reaching out to as many potential clients as possible, and the way we do this is now changing. 

To ensure your business is ever-growing, it’s time to start getting heavily involved with social media and caring about the online reputation of your business.

It’s now very well known that your online presence is very much your second shop front, so make sure to look after it and in turn, it will look after you

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Pharma Influencers to Follow

Hone your Pharma Marketing Skills by Following the Greats

      Vas Narasimhan @VasNarasimhan

As the Chief Executive Officer of Novartis, Vasant Narasimhan holds an inspirational passion for health care that is very easy to spot; he has worked on public health issues with many NGOs in India, Africa, and South America before joining Novartis. There, he served public- and private-sector clients on health care engagements. His powerful views and passionate insights give a fresh energy to the pharma and healthcare industries, and he inspires influencers around the globe with his views on leadership, sustainable policy solutions, and the roles that pharma companies (including Novartis) need to play in giving back to society. Keep up with Vas Narasimhan and his ideas on pricing, access, engaging physicians and patients, and even major global health challenges by following him on Twitter.

Vas Narasimhan

  ✔@VasNarasimhan

    How do you value and pay for a one-time treatment that provides a lifetime of benefits? My thoughts on @CNBC: https://cnb.cx/2HtziwN  @Novartis @cnbcevents

Commentary: Novartis CEO: Gene therapy offers hope of cures in one treatment, but US needs new...

The current global health system treats chronic diseases with a pay-as-you-go model, spreading costs over months and years. It's unprepared to pay for a surge of new, single-treatment therapies with...

cnbc.com

  195

8:56 PM - May 20, 2019

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  92 people are talking about this

            Chris Iafolla @ChrisIafolla

A digital and social media healthcare leader for Marina Maher Communications, Chris Iafolla has amassed an impressive following on Twitter. With a focus on the healthcare industry and integrated communications, this pharma marketing exec has plenty of experience developing global marketing strategies at brand and corporate level for Fortune 11 pharmaceutical companies. In addition, Iafolla has experience in categories like diabetes, oncology, women’s health, men’s health, rare diseases, mental health, and oncology. He’s responsible for the evolution of service and growth at Marina Maher, bringing new and innovative capabilities to its roster of healthcare clients. Stay ahead of emerging trends in the healthcare and pharma industries by accessing powerful take-aways as a follower of Chris Iafolla on Twitter.

Chris Iafolla@ChrisIafolla

    Millennials don't care about coordinated care, they want convenient care. Via https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2018/10/millennials-dont-care-about-coordinated-care-they-want-convenience.html …. @kevinmd

Millennials want convenient care

If a world existed where one could get great convenient accessible care with the same doctor, wouldn’t millennials opt for that?

kevinmd.com

  1

10:22 PM - Oct 30, 2018

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            Andrew Grojean @andrewgrojean

Andrew Grojean is the Senior Manager of Innovation for a pharma marketing agency in Kansas City, MO. As a specialist in healthcare marketing, his main focus is developing emerging technologies like artificial intelligence for the pharma industry. Always at the forefront of progress in pharma, Andrew’s expertise with social media marketing has been highlighted on Mashable, CNN, and many healthcare industry publications. In 2015, he was named Medical Marketing and Media’s Young Marketer of the Year and in early 2019, he was the recipient of the SMCKC Trailblazer of the Year award. With an amazing 6,266 followers on Twitter, it’s easy to see that when Grojean has something to say, the pharma marketing industry listens. Follow along with Andrew Grojean on Twitter and gain powerful insight into how to help your highly regulated pharma company use disruptive technologies to achieve its marketing goals.

Andrew Grojean@andrewgrojean

    Concerned about how #Facebook’s Clear History tool might affect your brand? > http://bit.ly/32IPT8r  #pharmamktg #hcsm #socpharm

Facebook’s Clear History Tool: Should Pharma Marketers Be Concerned? | Intouch Solutions

Facebook will soon roll out a new tool called Clear History that would give users the option to disassociate their online activity from their Facebook profiles, essentially erasing their personal...

intouchsol.com

  10:01 PM - Jul 22, 2019

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            John Baresky @JohnGBaresky

With ample experience in pharma marketing management, pharmacy benefit management, digital strategy, and health services marketing (to name just a few), John Baresky is the king of healthcare marketing leadership success. He leads through collaboration, customer engagement, revenue goal achievement, and future-focused strategy, making him the highly recognized industry guru he’s become today. With almost 4,500 followers on Linkedin and over 2,700 on Twitter, Baresky has accrued a following comprised of software techs, pharma marketers, healthcare strategists, and dozens more. If you’re looking to round out your knowledge base, be sure to follow John Baresky and stay updated on all the most pressing pharma issues as they develop.

John Baresky - Healthcare Marketing Guy@JohnGBaresky

    50 Most Influential Clinical Executives - 2019 https://www.modernhealthcare.com/awards/50-most-influential-clinical-executives-2019 … via @modrnhealthcr

50 Most Influential Clinical Executives - 2019

The 50 Most Influential Clinical Executives program (previously 50 Most Influential Physicians Executives and Leaders) honors physician and nurse leaders working in the healthcare industry who are...

modernhealthcare.com

  1

12:06 AM - Jun 29, 2019

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            Brad Pendergraph @bradatpharma

Social digital powerhouse Brad Pendergraph has been in the pharma industry since 1991, and has worked with domestic and international markets in the U.S. Just one of his many claims to fame is that he’s developed sales force sizing and structuring tools, automated reporting tools, and has authored procedures and add-ins for the intent of removing low-value work from projects. If that’s not impressive already, Pendergraph also was a consultant to teams that created the Novartis Social Media Guidelines and Standard Operating Procedures. After working in pharma on the industry side for over two decades, he transitioned to agencies, to which he provided data visualization using social digital network data sources, integrations of real-world health care provider data, analyses of social digital influencers, and more. Enjoy his unique wit and clever humor for a fresh alternative on pharma info delivery. Follow Brad on Twitter and find him on Linkedin as well.

bradatpharma@bradatpharma

    #alternativefact Everyone has the capacity, time, resources, and understanding to get the best insurance and health care.

  3

2:56 AM - Jan 24, 2017 · Raritan, NJ

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            Dave deBronkart @ePatientDave

With an unbelievable 39,000+ followers on Twitter, Dave deBronkart leads the universe when it comes to patient advocacy. As the author of “Let Patients Help: A Patient Engagement Handbook”, he is considered the leading voice of patient centricity today. deBronkart is an international patient engagement activist who brings the biggest issues in pharma to the table with a clear, concise voice mixed in with just enough familiar content to present his ideas in ways that are easy to digest. Dave’s website, e-Patient Dave.com, showcases his books he has authored, articles in peer-reviewed journals and health-related blogs and publications, as well as books he has co-authored. Browse his vast and impressive collection and be sure to follow Dave deBronkart on Twitter to engage in a continuous feed of valuable information about patient engagement for the pharma world.

Dave deBronkart@ePatientDave

    Hey @DrDannySands I'm gonna be trying this at home, and may bring it to our next visit. @AbridgeHQ ... we shall see https://abridge.com/ 

Abridge: Record Your Health Care Conversations

Abridge is the easiest way to record, review, and share your health care conversations.You record. Your record.

abridge.com

  8

10:48 PM - Jul 19, 2019

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            Joan Mikardos @jmikardos

Joan Mikardos is the Senior Director at Sanofi U.S. and is a self-proclaimed digital and social evangelist within healthcare. With an uncanny knack of being able to combine traditional and new media with her experience, she brings a unique perspective in digital innovations for communications in healthcare. She has worked on both the agency and client sides for various industries and has led the media planning for McNeil Consumer Healthcare, piloted a new media mix for the company’s brands with technology testing, and then jumped to pharma in 2007. Mikardos is well-known for her dedication and reliability, and is the recipient of numerous industry awards and accolades. Her profound impact on pharma and its patients fuels her drive to continue to transform as new technologies develop. Be sure to follow Mikardos on Twitter to stay in the loop of healthcare and pharma technology and her progression as a dynamic pharma influencer.

Harvard Business Review

  ✔@HarvardBiz

 · Sep 24, 2015

  Relationships at work matter http://s.hbr.org/1Qz1t8K 

joan mikardos@jmikardos

  True! RT @HarvardBiz: Relationships at work matter http://s.hbr.org/1Qz1t8K 

  3

4:42 PM - Sep 24, 2015

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            Elliott Berger @elliottberger

As the Vice President of Global Marketing and Strategy at Catalent Pharma Solutions, Elliott Berger is an uncontested king of pharma influencers. With more than 4,000 tweets under his belt, he’s a consistent wealth of valuable information for those looking for a solid feed covering all the latest news and developments in the industry. He’s a founding board member of the Catalent Applied Drug Delivery Institute, which was established to improve patient outcomes through academic and industry collaboration. Previously, he was Vice President of Marketing for the Innovation Group at Johnson & Johnson and was responsible for introducing new product launches. He also was Global Group Product Director for the company and led marketing and media innovation and digital strategy for Johnson & Johnson. Having plenty of experience leading emerging markets’ growth strategies, he specializes in creative and energetic global marketing, strategy, product development, and customer experience management. If you’re searching for a consistent source of influential pharma news, ideas, and tips, be sure to follow Elliott Berger on Twitter and on Linkedin.

CHEManager International@CHEManager_EU

    @elliottberger of @CatalentPharma commenting on challenges caused by M&A and role of small players vs. Big Pharma in molecule development http://bit.ly/2zu2Pkb  #pharma #Mergers #clinicaltrials #medicalresearch

  1

6:35 PM - Nov 9, 2017

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            Eileen O’Brien @EileenOBrien

With more than 20 years of digital marketing experience in healthcare across a wide variety of therapeutic areas, Eileen O’Brien brings a seasoned, yet fresh, voice to pharma issues. She has focused her talents and expertise on social media since 2010 and has supported the launches and management of branded, corporate, and disease awareness social channels for dozens of medical device and biopharmaceutical clients. As a dynamic pharma influencer, O’Brien has collaborated on strategy, content creation, social media policies and processes, paid media, and building influencer relationships. Eileen O’Brien is well-known in the pharma world as a leader who guides clients to engage in innovative and compliant ways, thanks to her profound knowledge of the FDA and FTC social media regulations. In addition, she founded and moderated the #SocPharm Twitter chat on pharma marketing and social media. Need another reason to follow Eileen O’Brien? She has also been named as one of the Top 50 Most Influential Healthcare Tweeters. Follow Eileen O’Brien now to guarantee that you always have information from the voice of a top authority in pharma at your fingertips.

Eileen O'Brien@EileenOBrien

    Fascinating! Merck tests temperature-controlled drug delivery by drone in remote locations https://www.fiercepharma.com/manufacturing/merck-and-collaborators-launch-literally-drone-delivery-temperature-controlled-drugs …

With test, Merck takes temperature-controlled drug delivery by drone from remote idea to remote...

Drugmakers have speculated about delivering temperature-sensitive vaccines and drugs to remote locations using drones. Now, Merck & Co. is testing the method. 

fiercepharma.com

  9:46 AM - Jul 13, 2019

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        Alexandra Fulford @pharmaguapa

Alexandra Fulford is a digital and social media strategy expert who specializes in the pharmaceutical industry. From social media processes to strategy and implementation, her expertise shines across several sub-areas of the pharma industry, and she is also a strong proponent of patient advocacy. In addition, Fulford plays an active role as a Hashimoto’s patient, where she shares support and resources with other patients. She speaks fluent French, Spanish, and German, in addition to basic Mandarin. If you’re interested in cross-cultural pharma topics, she’s your gal to follow. Fulford has extensive experience working with pharma companies including Astra Zeneca, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Novartis, Merck Serono, Sanofi, and others. Her projects have included developing and running digital and social media training programs and workshops, developing cross-functional local-to-global implementation processes and strategies, and more; her passion lies with pharmaceutical digital strategy and marketing. Specifically, she is focused on how the industry can use social media and new digital technologies in order to positively impact patients’ lives. Follow Alexandra Fulford and her blog, and be sure to become a follower of hers on Twitter.

Alexandra Fulford@pharmaguapa

    Not overly surprised RT @richmeyer: Only 34% of physicians feel that pharma websites are trustworthy https://worldofdtcmarketing.com/only-34-of-physicians-feel-that-pharma-websites-are-trustworthy/ … #pharma #hcmktg #digitalhealth #MMMNews #pharmaforum #pharmatimes #pharmaexec #doctors20 #hcsmeu #hcsm #pharma

Only 34% of physicians feel that pharma websites are trustworthy

KEY TAKEAWAY: A survey by the Decision Resource Group reveals that only 34% of physicians feel that pharmaceutical websites are trustworthy. Even fewer (barely a quarter of the 2,784 doctors survey…

worldofdtcmarketing.com

  8:06 PM - Jul 16, 2019

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      Still interested in advancing your skillset in this high-powered, quickly changing industry? Attendingpharma marketing conferences is one of the best ways to keep up with and soak in all the latest news and advancements in the industry on a consistent basis. They usually fill up quickly, so be sure to secure your spot as soon as possible.

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Can Social Media Buzz Increase Your Academic Citations? –

It used to take decades of publishing for a medical researcher to gain recognition. Now, with social media, recognition can be almost instant.

The appeal of instant gratification — which can inspire further research — isn’t lost on the scientific community. Medical journals have begun publishing authors’ Twitter handles. Some journals ask authors to submit tweets with their articles. At scientific meetings, attendees post about research presentations in real time.

“There’s a push to share research on social media,” says Cleveland Clinic neurologist Vineet Punia, MD, MS, who until recently limited his social media activity to a personal Facebook account. “It made me wonder about the value of sharing. Does social media engagement increase the impact of scientific research?”

His question triggered a study recently published in JAMA Neurology on whether and how social media popularity (or “buzz”) correlates with academic impact.

“The purpose of research is not just to create knowledge, but to spread knowledge,” says Dr. Punia. “So, understanding how knowledge spreads — whether through social media or other means — should be important to researchers. Everyone wants to increase the influence of their work.”

Fortunately for the neuroscience community, neurology research tends to spread quickly on social media. More on that below. However, Dr. Punia’s study found that the number of blog posts, tweets and other mentions do little to boost academic clout.

Buzz vs. academic impact

Dr. Punia and colleagues compiled a list of all original research articles published in 2016 in five leading neurology journals:

Annals of Neurology

Brain

JAMA Neurology

The Lancet Neurology

Neurology

Using the Dimensions (Digital Science & Research Ltd.) online research tool, they recorded each article’s Altmetric attention score as of 2019. This weighted score reflects the attention an article receives online — including mentions on social media, blogs and Wikipedia — and in mainstream media and public policy documents.

Of the 1,050 neurology research articles analyzed, the median Altmetric attention score was 18. Compare that to a similar study that found cardiovascular research articles had a median score of 8 (higher scores indicate greater attention).

Nearly half the neurology research articles (493 articles, 47%) had a score of 20 or higher. Only 5% of all research articles achieve an Altmetric attention score that high.

“I was pleasantly surprised at how much online attention neurology research gets,” says Dr. Punia. “I had always assumed that cardiovascular research gets the most.”

Next, the team recorded each article’s academic citations. The 1,050 articles had a median of 20 citations between 2016 and 2019.

According to analysis, the correlation between Altmetric attention score and number of citations was significant (P < 0.01) but weak (r = 0.32).

“While we were excited to learn about neurology’s online popularity, we were humbled to learn that it didn’t necessarily translate to academic popularity,” says Dr. Punia. “More tweets and other mentions don’t mean bigger academic impact.”

Why neurology research draws so much attention

Of the 100 analyzed articles with the highest attention scores, more than one in four (n = 27) were about neurocognition topics, including memory issues and dementia.

Dr. Punia speculates that finding may be due to the public’s growing concern over a pending “dementia epidemic.” But he suspects there’s more to it.

“The brain is often called ‘the last frontier,’” he says. “It makes each of us unique, yet it’s the part of the body we understand least. That’s why the general public is so fascinated with any small finding that helps explain the brain or how brain health affects us. And that fascination is well deserved.”

This realization has prompted Dr. Punia not only to further his research but also to get a Twitter account. “I figured this study was a good first tweet,” he says.

Can patient outcomes be improved?

He and his research team now are comparing the social media power of neurology subspecialties, such as neurocognition versus stroke. They hope to uncover why some subspecialties get more online traction by analyzing research articles’ geographic origin, study format and other factors, including scientific committees’ social media presence.

Future studies will involve mining social media data to understand how neurology research spreads online. Is it primarily through the neurology community, or does the general public also play a role?

“Ultimately, we want to know if there’s a correlation between spreading knowledge and improving patient outcomes,” says Dr. Punia. “If we find one, perhaps we can better target our social media activities.”

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5 Examples of Videos that Enhance Customer Experience in the Healthcare Industry

Today, pretty much every industry uses (or should be using!) video marketing. The healthcare industry is no exception.

According to a report from HubSpot Research, 2019 is the year for video as a “holistic business approach”, meaning video content will be produced by all industries in a conversational, actionable, and measurable way.

Video on landing pages is capable of increasing conversion rates by over 80% (it’s eighty!), and the mere mention of the word “video” in your email subject line increases open rates by 19%.

When it comes to products, the numbers are even more notable: 4x as many customers would rather watch a video about a product than read about it.

For modern healthcare, video is a new way to simplify communication, convey complex information in a way that is more memorable and impactful, and essentially serves patients better.

According to Google Think, 1 in 8 patients have watched online video on various health sites.

They might have been looking for a clear and concise explanation of the disease.

Or searching for video reviews to choose the best dental office. Or simply googling an overview of the new clinic, to know what to expect.

The healthcare industry is vast, so it’s very hard to narrow the list of the best video types to just 5 examples.

But, here are the 5 videos that really bring healthcare marketing to a new level.

1. Explainer videos – Break Down Complex Information

An explainer video is a short 1 to 3-minute video that helps explain a complex subject in a short, compelling, and engaging way.

These types of videos require story-boarding, sound, and often a voiceover. The visual usually includes stock or custom video, 2D (vector-based) animation, and motion graphics (typography, animated logos, and other elements).

I get it, healthcare marketing is very tricky. You have a lot of technical jargon, compliance requirements, and privacy laws that limit your creativity and require you to speak to a viewer in a certain way.

It isn’t easy to find the right balance between all these limitations and the creative side of the video.

I really get it because I myself created healthcare explainer videos. I know it isn’t easy but the result is worth it!

Here’s the first example, courtesy of our own Sensei Marketing team. We created this explainer video for our client – LifeWIRE Anesthesiology.

“So, what does LifeWIRE do?” – you may ask. Their website says:

LifeWIRE is a patented communication platform designed for population management to empower healthcare providers to have on-going patient contact and insight through personalized, automated remote dialogue.

As the general public, we understand all these words separately but…not so much in one complex sentence. And that’s exactly why a short explainer video is a perfect solution for LifeWIRE.

For this video, we used the insanely effective content marketing strategy – storytelling.

There are many reasons why video makes content “stickier” in people’s minds. Studies show that our brains are “particularly attuned to stories”, and that stories of people overcoming problems are particularly irresistible to us!

So, in 3 minutes we tell the story of “Ted”, a very relatable persona who faces a common problem. Then we introduce the solution (you got it, it’s LifeWIRE), and finally, we show exactly how the technology works on Ted’s example.

Taking a complicated process like a doctor monitoring Ted’s health and prescribing medication through LifeWIRE’s tech, and breaking it down into a short video with colourful graphics and key takeaways, helps doctors, patients, and even investors of LifeWIRE work better together.

The video is bright, simple, and engaging. This marketing tactic does a much better job of explaining the service and enhancing customer experience than, say, another banal brochure.

2. Testimonials – Use Social Proof

A well-executed patient testimonial video hits all of the points that help people remember your healthcare brand. With this type of video, your main goal is to make a testimonial —and the subject of a testimony—trustworthy.

My piece of advice here is to encourage a relaxed atmosphere when you’re filming a testimonial video. Get to know your subject, show them that camera doesn’t bite, be prepared to take breaks if necessary to lower the pressure. You want your subject to speak naturally, so, please, don’t allow reading from a script.

What exactly to film?

Provide credibility for your clinic/office/product and ease the mind of your patients by sharing video testimonials from past patients.

Before-and-Afters, reviews from happy patients, will make your new patients feel more comfortable working with you.

Watch this great example by ClearChoice Dental Implant Center.

They managed to incorporate storytelling in the testimonial – and did it brilliantly!

First, they make us emotionally attached to Krista – the hero of the video, by showing her kids, and hard work she does.

And only then we hear the review from Krista, a couple of professional comments from her doctor, and her Before and After. I would trust a testimonial like this 100%!

3. Expert Videos – Educate & Build Trust

Do you still think there is no influencer marketing in the healthcare industry?

Well, we already proved it wrong in our blog post about 5 Examples of Influencer Marketing in Healthcare.

Now, have you ever thought that your doctors are really powerful influencers?

Start now!

Your doctors are your experts, the most credible source of information to both patients and the general public.

Building a personal brand for your doctor is a real influencer marketing tactic.

Expert reputation always starts with educating the audience.

Do you have a complex issue, medical procedure or treatment that needs an explanation?

It’s time to introduce your doctor to the audience through expert videos.

Here’s a good example featuring Dr. Sebastian Fernandez Bussy, a pulmonary physician at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.

In this video, he talks about a new option for patients with emphysema, an alternative to invasive surgery.

4. “What To Expect Video” – Put Patients At Ease

Another way to use the influence of your doctors is to feature them in a “What to expect” video.

It may be a virtual tour of the hospital or private practice, or a walk through the treatment details.

It’s no secret that even a simple visit to the doctor can cause anxiety for patients.

It’s comforting for your audience to know what to expect during their appointment or procedure.

A “What to expect” video is a great way to educate patients about the treatment and explain what will happen during their visit.

By setting a patient’s expectations before their visit, you are positioned to meet or even exceed those expectations, and that creates a positive patient experience.

Sandstone Chiropractic in Texas sets patient expectations with a video “What is Different about Sandstone Chiropractic?”

Note how they literally walk you through your future visit  – you see the clinic, you know what’s going to happen when you come in, and of course, you get to meet the doctor.

5. Share Healthcare Tips On Social

Love it or hate it, video has absolutely dominated social. According to a recent HubSpot Research report, 4 of the top 6 channels on which global consumers watch video are social channels.

What can you do on social in the healthcare industry?

Share general health advice because you care about the well-being of your patients!

You can use video to share tips on how to improve general health, stay healthy in summer, do exercises at home…

Have a look at the YouTube channel of US-based Mayo Clinic, it’s a brilliant example of great video marketing on social.

Making Mayo’s Recipes is a weekly content rubric Mayo Clinic posts on a regular basis.

All the recipe videos are focused on healthy ingredients to help viewers make better choices with their diet.

Because these videos are posted regularly, the viewers are motivated to come back for the update.

And if the content is good enough, they won’t just come back – they’ll share your content with their network!

What I especially like about this example is that it’s not just about health, it incorporates aspects of lifestyle, daily life for the audience.

It stays relevant no matter what and can be easily re-used in the future. Creating such evergreen content is a best practice in video marketing!

Also, don’t forget that you can also curate content.

It’s a great solution for those who are not yet ready to commit to custom video production. You can create a library of resources, a playlist on YouTube.

And of course, remember to re-use your existing content, don’t let anything go to waste.

We’ve looked at a lot of evidence that videos are perfect for the healthcare industry. There’s no better way to build connections with your audience, communicate your message, increase your brand reach, and enhance the customer experience.

Creating a great healthcare video is not easy — it takes a greater investment of time and effort than many other digital marketing methods. But a well-made video will be one of your most valuable assents!

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Where to Post Healthcare Jobs for Faster Hiring

Healthcare job posting sites are used by employers to reach out to potential employees in this very competitive field for employers and recruiters.

Our list of medical job posting sites, along with posting sites for the most in-demand healthcare jobs, will help you hire medical help faster.

Special Offer

  Send jobs to 100+ job boards with one submission

Post Jobs for FREE

 Completely free trial, no card required.

 Reach over 150 million candidates.

Top 10 Healthcare Job Posting Sites:

Our Rank

Job Post Site Name

Posting Options

1.

Indeed

Free and paid.

2.

Google for Jobs

Free.

3.

Glassdoor

Free and paid.

4.

Ana Enterprise

Starting at $299.00.

5.

Healthcare Source

Paid postings.

6.

CareerVitals

Starting at $29.99.

7.

  Free and paid.

8.

HealtheCareers

Paid.

9.

HealthJobsNationwide.com

Paid.

10.

MedZilla

Paid.

FAQs:

Are there any free healthcare job posting sites?

Indeed.

HealthcareJobsite.

Google for Jobs.

See our full list of healthcare job boards.

Are there any good niche sites that I can use to post my medical job adverts?

Yes, we've listed a bunch of them with the specific jobs they're best to hire for. These are some of the best job posting sites for healthcare hiring because they let you focus narrowly on the position you need to fill.

Read our list of healthcare job boards.

Are healthcare job ads more expensive than other fields?

They can be. In general, niche job boards for medical hiring will charge you for posting. Healthcare and medicine is a very competitive industry for hiring, so you may have to pay to advertise some of the more in-demand jobs. That said, there are still plenty of free medical job posting sites to try.

Check out our list of healthcare job boards.

Where can I post my home health aide job ads?

Care.com - Free job postings.

Indeed - Free and paid options.

Monster - Starting at $375.00 per post.

Snagajob.com - Starting at $89.00 per post.

Glassdoor - Free and paid options.

Hire a home health aide quickly with this home health aide job description template.

Are there any free sites to post my home health aide jobs?

Yes. Care.com is a great healthcare niche site to post home health aide jobs free. You can also post them to Indeed, Snagajob.com, and other free job posting sites.

Can I post a job for a home health aide on social media and expect results?

It depends on a lot of things, but there's no harm trying. We've written a guide with tips for social media recruiting that should be a big help. Advertising on social media can be especially effective because you can target people by profession.

Where can I post my medical secretary job ads?

iHireMedicalSecretaries - Staring at $265.00.

Indeed - Free and paid options.

Glassdoor - Free and paid options.

US.Jobs - Free job postings.

LinkedIn - Free and paid options.

Hire a medical secretary fast with this free medical secretary job description.

Are there any places to post my medical secretary job ads for free?

Niche sites for medical secretaries are not free, but you can try posting to Indeed, Snagajob.com, and other sites. You might also try posting your medical secretary jobs to social media sites, and asking employees to help spread the word.

Any suggestions on how I can post my medical secretary job ads effectively?

When you're posting jobs in very competitive hiring markets, you've got to think of your potential applicants as customers that you're advertising to. Focus on what makes your job and your workplace the one they'll want to work for. Minimize requirements and qualifications down to the ones that are actually essential. Don't bore them with a long list of irrelevant bullet points like "Microsoft Office Proficiency."

Where can I post my medical case manager job ads?

Nurse.com - Paid postings.

Flexjobs - Free job postings.

Google for Jobs - Free job postings.

CareerBuilder - Paid job postings.

Care.com - Free job postings.

Hire a medical case manager with help from this medical case manager job description template.

Where can I post my medical case manager job ads for free?

You can try Care.com if you want to post to niche medical job posting sites. There are also general job boards like Snagajob.com, Jora, and Indeed, and social media sites.

Where can I hire a medical case manager offline?

If online hiring isn't working, you might try putting the word out with your current employees, letting them know that you're hiring, and see if they can use their networks to refer employees. You might also try local universities and see if they have an alumni network you can offer your jobs to.

Where can I post my dietitian job ads?

Nutrition Jobs.

iHireNutrition.

Indeed - Free and paid options.

Craigslist.

LinkedIn.

Hire a dietitian right away with this dietitian job description template.

What is the best site you can recommend to post my registered dietitian job ad?

Try niche job sites like Nutrition Jobs and iHireNutrition. You might want to look for industry forums such as the Dietitian Central forum, and see if you can reach registered dietitians there.

Where can I make a free dietitian job posting?

Indeed.

Glassdoor.

Jobvertise.

Ladders.

Where can I post my hospitalist job ads?

HospitalistJobs.com - Starting at $60.00.

HospitalistWorking.com - Starting at $299.00.

Today's Hospitalist - Paid.

Monster - Paid job postings.

Ladders - Free and paid options.

Hire a hospitalist fast with help from this hospitalist job description template.

Where can I post my hospitalist job ads for free?

Niche job posting sites for hospitalists tend to be paid, so you may want to try posting to social media and general job boards such as Indeed, Glassdoor, and Snagajob.com. Be sure to alert employees to the opening as well so that you can take advantage of referrals.

Any advice on how to hire hospitalists efficiently?

Hospitalist jobs posting sites can be very competitive right now. Try getting in touch with alumni networks that graduate hospitalists, putting the word out on online forums like HMXexchange.org, and telling people in your network who work directly with hospitalists about the job. Be sure to emphasize what makes working at your hospital attractive to candidates who may already be employed.

Where can I post my medical assistant job ads?

iHireNursing - Starting at $265.00.

Indeed - Paid and free posting options.

CareerBuilder - Starting at $419.00.

LinkedIn - Free and paid options.

Ladders - Free and paid options.

Hire a medical assistant with this medical assistant job description template.

How can I write an effective medical assistant job post?

The key to all job posts and this is even more important with very competitive hiring markets, is to focus on writing the post from the perspective of the applicant. Why should they work for you? What makes this job better than others? For more advice on this, check out our post on job posting templates.

Where can I post my medical assistant job ads for free?

Check out the big, general job posting sites like Indeed, Snagajob.com, Jora, and Ladders. Also, look to professional forums that medical assistants use, and try posting on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Where can I post my medical secretary job ads?

HealthcareSource.

iHireMedicalSecretaries.

Indeed.

CareerBuilder.

Monster.

Hire a medical secretary with this medical secretary job description template.

Do you have any tips on where to hire a medical secretary if job boards aren't working?

Do you have any tips on where to hire a medical secretary if posting sites aren't working? Start by posting to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Let all your employees know that you're hiring for this position and ask them for referrals. Consider posting to local newspapers as well.

Where can I post my medical secretary job ad for free?

Despite the competitiveness in healthcare hiring, there are still opportunities to post for free if you look at general job sites like Indeed, Google for Jobs, Jora, and FlexJobs. Social media is also free if you don't run an ad to promote the job. There are often online community forums you can use as well, such as the AMSPAR website.

Where can I post my occupational therapist job ads?

JobsOT.com.

AOTA.

TherapyJobBoard.com.

LinkedIn.

CareerBuilder.

Hire an occupational therapist with this Occupational Therapist job description template.

Any recommendations on where to post my job advert for an inpatient rehab occupational therapist?

With something so specialized, I'd try niche job sites like JobsOT.com and AOTA. They might cost a bit more, but you'll probably save money in the long run by filling your position faster. Of course, it also makes sense to make free job posting for an occupational therapist on sites like Indeed.

How do I write an effective occupational therapist job ad?

Focus almost completely on what your ideal applicant would love about working at your company in the job posting, and keep the requirements focused only on the must-haves. Don't drown applicants in bullet points for every imaginable qualification. Think about what makes your job and your company attractive as an employer and focus on that.

Where can I advertise my post speech pathologist jobs?

SpeechPathology.com.

SLPJobs.com.

ASHA.

Glassdoor.

Monster.

Hire a speech pathologist with help from this speech pathologist job description template.

Any advice on how I can make an effective speech pathologist job advert?

What tips do you have on how to make a job posting for a speech pathologist that gets results? Always focus on what about your job, company, location, etc. would make a speech pathologist want to work for you. One way you can do this is to visit Glassdoor and see what speech pathologists are saying in employer reviews of competitors. If you see a common issue they name, and you can offer something better, be sure to put that in your post.

Where can I post a speech pathologist job for free?

Try general job boards like Indeed, Glassdoor, Jora, Google for Jobs, and FlexJobs. Also, you can post your jobs on social media for free.

Where can I post my surgical technologist job ads?

National Board of Surgical Technology and Surgical Assisting.

Indeed.

Glassdoor.

LinkedIn.

CareerBuilder.

Hire a surgical technologist with help from this surgical technologist job description template.

Where can I post my surgical technologist job ads for free?

Facebook, Twitter and other social media are a start. Care.com is a medical job post niche site that may work for this position. You might also try big general job boards such as Indeed, Glassdoor, Snagajob.com, and Google for Jobs.

Where can I post my radiologist jobs?

ACR.org.

Radworking.com.

New England Journal of Medicine.

Monster.

LinkedIn.

Where can I post my radiology job ads for free?

Niche radiologist job posting sites all seem to charge, but you can post jobs to Indeed, Google for Jobs, FlexJobs, Jora, and other sites for free.