With more than 326 million monthly active users, Twitter has proved to be a great healthcare marketing tool for medical practices, especially small practices. If you implement Twitter strategically in your overall healthcare marketing plan, it will help you engage with your patients, increase your reach, improve your brand image and generate qualified leads.
Regardless of the size and specialty of your practice, you can use Twitter to find your target audience and make a strong connection with them. These connections will help you create an entire network of loyal patients for your practice.
With 85 percent of small and medium businesses using Twitter to provide customer service, there is an immense opportunity for healthcare practitioners to make the most of this free and effective marketing tool. If you post the right images and share the right content, your potential and existing patients will soak up your message without any strategic marketing efforts. Twitter could be the magic spell for attracting potential patients and growing your practice without sounding pushy. This social media platform can play an integral role in converting passive patients into loyal and paying patients.
How Is Twitter Different From Other Social Networks?
Your approach to every social networking site should be different. For instance, your Twitter marketing strategy should not be the same as your Facebook or LinkedIn marketing plans. Understanding how Twitter works and where it can fit in your social media marketing strategy will shape the way you use it.
The fast-paced nature of this social networking platform helps businesses communicate with their target audience who are overwhelmed by short attention spans. Twitter is like a marketing pitch for your brand – an effective way of getting your point across quickly, connecting yourself with a wider audience and achieving some great PR for your practice.
According to Forrester, for every 1 million followers on Twitter, businesses can expect nearly 300 interactions. Twitter thrives off effective communication. Most healthcare brands post one-dimensional tweets, which are just broadcasts. Being more conversational and posting interesting updates will yield higher engagement, which is likely to result in increased activity for your Twitter account. In addition, being responsive and replying could result in new patients.
However, it is important to post meaningful posts. Your Tweets should not just consist of inspirational quotes, headlines with a link or funny statements. They should open the door for effective two-way communication with your target audience.
Why Market Your Practice on Twitter?
When it comes to patient engagement, Twitter is at par with, if not better than, all other social networks. No wonder so many famous healthcare brands have an active presence on this platform. Because your target audience is on Twitter, you should be there, as well. Twitter is an efficient way to promote your practice in front of thousands of potential patients – even if you are running a small setup.
Cost
Twitter is a free social media platform unless you opt for paid ads. Twitter Ads let you build a tailored campaign around your practice goals, budget and target audience. With flexible management options, Twitter ads give you the power to promote content, drive traffic to your practice website and attract new followers.
Usage
Twitter supports more than 40 languages. This could be the reason that only 69 million of those 326 million monthly active users are located in the US, while 257 million are international users. According to reports, nearly 21 percent of American adults use Twitter. In addition, 36 percent of Americans aged 18 to 29 use Twitter. Even Twitter admits that 80 percent of its users are millennials.
Engagement
If you are looking to target audiences who are willing to engage with your posts, Twitter is your place. According to published stats, a day’s worth of tweets can fill a 10 million-page book. According to Twitter’s spokesperson, the platform’s overall ad engagements increased 99 percent year-over-year in Q3 2017. However, healthcare marketers must create content that can drive views and engagement on Twitter.
Advertising
Twitter advertising is all about increasing your brand awareness. According to reports, engagement rates for Twitter ad campaigns grew by 151 percent last year, mostly due to the popularity of video ads. The beauty of Twitter ads is they are not annoying. Most of the ads are scrollable and integrated into the feeds of followers. Twitter confirmed that 41 percent of its users purchased a product within 30 days after exposure to an ad.
How Can You Attract More Patients on Twitter?
Twitter is a great way to get your practice in front of thousands of potential and existing patients. The world of healthcare marketing is changing at the speed of light, and almost every day we hear of new strategies that require less time, yet produce amazing results. One of the best ways to make your medical practice stand out is by promoting the treatments or services that make you unique.
So, how can healthcare marketers make the most out of this platform to drive patients to their practice? Here are some tips to attract more patients:
- Make use of Twitter chats: Twitter chats are an excellent way to gain exposure, grow your followers and engage with your target audience. The reason Twitter chats are so effective is because users who participate in them are usually the ones who enjoy actively engaging on social networks. These types of people will reply to your tweets, retweet your content and spread your message. In order to be more successful with Twitter chats, you must be more than a receiver or a spectator. You must add value to the conversation and make your brand stand out.
- Get listed in Twitter directories: Apart from helping you increase brand visibility, Twitter directories make it easy for you to find influential people in your industry and connect with potential patients. Some of the top Twitter directories include Wefollow, TweetFind and Twellow. Using directories, you can easily find potential patients based on categories. You can be listed for free on most of these directories and get more exposure without having to spend money.
- Attract relevant followers: Attracting followers is one thing, but attracting the relevant ones is a different game altogether. Followers “relevant” to your practice can be defined as people who are interested in your services and like what you post. Such people are not just potential patients but they can also be likely promoters of your practice. Relevant followers can help spread the word about your practice or services either through word-of-mouth or their social media accounts. You can get quality followers by finding people who are considered leaders or authorities in your industry. You can also search for people who share the same interests.
- Hashtags are critical: Hashtags are essential for your tweets as they allow potential patients to find you even if they have never heard of your practice before. In addition, hashtags let you reach a wider target audience by increasing your content exposure. One of the most effective ways to include hashtags is to see what your competitors are using. You will know what is working by observing the level of patient engagement your competitors are generating.
- Host contests: Contests are a proven way to get your followers involved in your tweets while making them interactive. Hosting contests will create buzz around your practice and this will have a significant impact on increasing your practice’s followership. You can host contests such as “Share this post to win a free consultation…” The information that you will gather from these contents will allow you to analyze patient engagement levels and the best time to tweet.
- Include visuals in your blog posts: Twitter is one of the fastest-growing social networking platforms to drive new eyeballs to your blog posts. You can consider using text-based images that highlight key points in your content. Alternatively, you can consider complementing your content with an illustration. This is an excellent way to drive traffic and improve your SEO ranking.
Wrapping Up
Regardless of the size and location of your practice, Twitter is an effective channel for promoting your practice. Healthcare brands all across the world are utilizing graphics and videos to increase their online visibility and connecting with the target audience. By following the tips discussed above, you can develop a strategy for including Twitter in your healthcare marketing plan.
The social media marketing experts at myPracticeReputation can help you get started on Twitter marketing. Contact us to learn about our social media marketing services and how we can help you grow your medical practice.