Adding hashtags to your posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Google+ and Tumblr can drive higher engagement rates, which can attract new patients to your practice.
Including hashtags with your social media posts is an excellent way to participate in trending online conversations. Of course, social media is about being social, but it’s full of noise from endless sources of information. Hashtags help cut through all the noise and provide a way for the online audience to see, learn and talk about your brand.
While hashtags may seem like a trend, you’re really missing out on expanding the online reach of your practice if you don’t use them. They connect your practice with your target online audience and put it at the center of their conversations and trending topics on social networks.
Here’s why Hashtags matter for your practice:
Join the conversation
Almost all social networks have a list of trending hashtags through which users can get acquainted with the latest trends, news, discussions and popular topics in real time. Including hashtags in your social media posts will pave the way for you to directly join these conversations. Your posts with a hashtag will be visible to all who search for that exact term in search engines. This is an excellent way to gain online visibility and attract potential patients from the pool of audience members who actively take part in online conversations.
Reach out to those who are looking out for reliable medical information
Special days and important events usually get a lot of attention on social media. A specific hashtag becomes a trend in a matter of a few seconds on social media platforms. For instance, during the Zika virus outbreak, the topic was trending high on Twitter. These times provide a great opportunity to use your medical expertise to educate the masses about the disease, prevention and medical treatments available. It shows your concern about the cause and you’ll be able to directly reach out to people looking for more information. Posts with hashtags that people like and share can go viral in a matter of a few minutes. This will help you gain more online visibility and followers, which in turn can be an opportunity to convert followers into potential patients in the future.
Increase engagement
Hashtags can significantly increase engagement levels on social media. You can create hashtags for all important activities at your practice — for instance, launch of a new clinic branch, special discounts, inaugural of an important service, feedback and so on. With hashtags, you are likely to see up to two times more engagement from users.
However, it’s important to note that when it comes to hashtags, less is more. Don’t overdo it, as adding too many hashtags might take away the real essence of your post. Just limit it to one or two per post so that readers stay engrossed reading the post, else they might get agitated looking at too many hashtags.
Whatever your social media strategy may be, it needs to accommodate hashtags for delivering more effective results. Using hashtags effectively will increase traffic to your social media profiles and website and help you gain more online visibility. If leveraged correctly, hashtags can brand your online presence and can help you cut through the noise to effectively engage your followers.