We spend a lot of time sharing social media tips and strategies for eyecare practices, but many of you may be wondering why your practice should be spending any time on social media in the first place. For most companies, social media doesn't bring in the majority of new customers, but it does increase brand awareness and widen the reach of your marketing efforts.
So today we want to talk about four of the biggest benefits your practice will get from maintaining a strong and consistent social media presence. Because it's not always just about promoting your practice.
What Benefits is Your Optical Practice Getting from Social Media?
Practice Marketing
Using social media to market your practice is the most obvious benefit. Social media provides a great opportunity to reach a wide audience at a good price. On a pretty cheap budget you can promote your page and posts to very defined target audiences. Building a strong online community will help boost your web traffic, search engine ranking, and credibility among your followers.
Patient Education
In today's healthcare world, many patients turn to the internet to get information about their symptoms, diagnosis, and treatments. Social media gives you the opportunity to provide important patient education materials for richer patient experiences. The more helpful information you can provide, the more engagement and trust you'll build with your followers. In another survey, U.S. patients said they would check their doctors' social media feeds daily or weekly if their doctor was posting regularly. And, here's what patients would like to see the most:
- 20% Healthy lifestyle tips
- 19% How-to posts
- 19% Trending health news commentary
- 18% Resources
- 16% Links to health studies/articles
- 8% Practice updates
Professional Networking
While most of this article will talk about ways your practice benefits from a strong social media presence, building your personal and professional brand has its benefits as well. Social media can be a great place to build your professional network, find new career opportunities, and share second opinions on patient cases. This survey evaluated the top ways physicians use social media for professional networking:
- 46% Get/give second opinions
- 41% Casual talk
- 37% Practice management advice
- 32% View/send medical images
- 14% Search for a job
- 11% Refer patients to peers
Research and Discovery
The world of healthcare is always changing, and social media is a great place to keep up with the latest trends and changes. Social media allows you to spark up conversations and perform research and discovery to stay up to date with what your current and future patients are looking for and what your competitors are up to. Checking in daily will keep you on top of your game.
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Editor's Note: This post was originally published on November 2016. It has been updated for relevance and richness of content on October 2019.