Top 10 Advantages of Social Media for Health Care Professionals

Long gone are the days when social media was mainly flocked by influencers and youngsters having fun. Sharing pictures of all kinds of fun and amusing events.

Social media platforms became the #1 vehicle through which all types, shapes and sizes of businesses promote themselves. It’s not just a “nice to have” anymore, but an essential, really. It’s free advertising, after all.

And it’s no different for the medical profession or the health & wellness industry. Whether you’re a coach or have a medical practice, you’re a business owner. And you need to handle your business as such.

Pew researchers found that a whopping 5 billion people in our world own a mobile device of some sort.

But what’s even more astounding, is that we not only check our mobile devices about 150 times during the day…

But

We end up using it for about 70 seconds each time!

As a health professional myself, I know the workings and challenges of running a successful and profitable practice. And as a copywriter in the medical, health and wellness space, I’ve identified 10 benefits of a social media presence.

1. The Know, Like and Trust Factor:

For someone to like you, they have to get to know you first. Your business, and especially you, the human behind the business. Only then will they be able to trust you and your business. And TRUST, my friend…is the KEY factor here. Without trust, you can kiss your medical practice or health coaching business goodbye!

And how is that possible, you ask? By showing up (and also sometimes showing your face) on various social media platforms. Consistently and regularly.

But…

Pick those most suitable for your specific business and your specific personality. It might seem daunting at first, but you have to show them who you really are. If you’re not a natural TikTok’er for instance, don’t even go there. Not at first anyway. Show up on those platforms where you feel most comfortable and which suits the time you have to spend.

Most medical professionals and health & wellness coaches don’t make use of the free advertising method of social media. They simply don’t have the time (or the energy) for it. But please don’t fret! That’s what we as copywriters and content creators are there for. To do what we do best so that you have time for what you do best. While patients and clients are streaming in… money in hand.

2. Building Rapport:

Social media is a great tool to build rapport with your audience, a.k.a. your potential and current patients and clients. Be relatable and approachable. Someone they’d most likely not only book an appointment with but show up excited to meet you in person.

3. Organic traffic:

According to the research, people spend a lot of time on social media platforms as well. And they’re constantly searching online FIRST for what they want. Whether they’re looking for a medical practitioner, weight loss coach, e-commerce store, etc.

Like I said before, social media is a free advertising tool and an easy way to get organic traffic.

Blogs are another excellent way (when done correctly and search engine optimised) to bring streams of organic traffic to your website. This is a big must for healthcare professionals to present valuable knowledge and a way to be found on Google. The more blogs you post and frequently too, the better it will rank on Google too.

It’s not easy and a whole science behind playing a successful social media and search engine game. The best is to hire an expert in that field to take those tasks off your hands.

4. Communicating New and Important Information:

An easy way to get the word out is, of course, social media. It’s a quick way to communicate a special program you have, a new promotion you’re running or when you launch something.

But with more important matters like moving offices, for instance, the SM algorithm might not be your best option. That’s where the old trusted email comes to the rescue.

5. Fierce Competition:

Competition online is fierce! But you know that already. If you don’t show up, your patients/clients will go to someone else that does. And I’m sure you don’t want that to happen, do you?

The same goes for F.O.M.O… the fear of missing out. That’s a big one and the reason why many professionals hire a copywriter to take care of those tasks. They can’t afford to miss out.

6. Extra Visibility:

By showing up on different platforms, you’re more visible. You get recognised. One tip is to use the same profile picture across the board, specifically for that reason.

7. Staying on top of Mind:

This actually goes hand in hand with being visible. But you should interact with your connections as well. Don’t be hiding in the shadows. Get out there. Like, comment, share and post. It’s what we can call “networking”. And send heartfelt direct messages when they know you already.

That way you make valuable friends. You don’t only connect with potential patients/clients. You might get referrals too. When you stay “on top of mind”, you’ll be remembered when someone needs your services. But also by someone who refers a friend to you who might.

8. Promoting your Business:

Medical practice is a business like any else. But you know that. How else could you get paid yourself, right? And it has to be advertised and promoted like any other too. Again… free advertising. See, as easy as that!

9. Standing out as the Expert:

We all know that everything you read on the internet isn’t necessarily true and correct. Some so-called medical advice is plain dodgy and extremely dangerous.

By providing your audience with true and correct advice and information, you position yourself as the expert. You become the go-to person in their social media feed. But not only that. They start searching for your daily contributions when the algorithm gets funny.

You’re trusted, remember? And you provide your loyal audience with excellent value. The more value you provide regularly, the more they’ll interact with you.

10. Links between Different Platforms:

When you cross-reference and cross-link your content between different platforms and mediums, your visibility increases by 10x.

Meaning…

➡️ putting a link in your blog to reference another blog you’ve posted before

➡️ building a blog post around a bulleted list of tips on Instagram or LinkedIn

➡️ sum up a LinkedIn article and post it as a carousel on Instagram

➡️ launch a promotion on Instagram stories, Facebook and if you’re brave enough, a short IG reel of Tic Tock video

➡️ share a blog post on Pinterest and link another in it

➡️ use any of your content in a newsletter or regular emails to your list

There are countless ways that you can repurpose and cross-reference your content to stay visible and “on top of mind”. Remember to place social media buttons on your website, Facebook page, email signature, etc. to make it easy for people to follow and connect with you across the board.

The bottom line is to stand out in a crowd.

Being authentic and unique, and being you, makes you stand out in the masses. By posting your unique content, true to you, you’ll stand out.

There’s a lot of noise on social media. But there might not be a lot of medical professionals and health&wellness coaches in that crowd.

But remember…

It’s very much like dating.

You won’t go up to a stranger for the first time, asking to marry you! That’s where the know, like and trust factor comes in. You have to be patient and play the long game on social media. But believe me…it’ll pay off in the end.

Now is your time to make your mark!

UNDERSTANDING THE DIFFERENT SEARCH ENGINES There are lots of different search engines and they all have different Search Engine Results pages – or SERPS. Bing: Microsoft’s answer to Google, launched in 2009 with a one third market share in the US – although opinions differ Yahoo: Has a market share of around 9% Baidu: A Chinese Search Engine founded in 2000 AOL: Market share of less than 1% com: Previously known as Ask Jeeves Excite: An online service portal DuckDuck Go: A popular search engine known for protecting the privacy of its users YouTube is the world’s second-biggest search engine. But remember, anything that allows users the ability to search through indexed content is a search engine – so yes even Instagram and Facebook. As we discussed yesterday Google has the biggest market share so we’re going to focus on that through some of the elements and most search engines have common features. UNDERSTANDING THE SEARCH RESULTS When we look at the search results these days they can be a little confusing. The good old days of 10 blue links (or organic links) have gone! It used to be that getting the first spot was the goal, but then Google added all manner of things to the SERPS, we call them SERP Features. And they’re adding new ones all the time. We’ll try a search I do quite a lot – ‘Sydney Copywriter’: Paid listings: These are different from organic listings, these are ads people have paid for. They bid on these spots using tools like Google Adwords or Bing Ads. Organic results: Usually around 10 results that link out to different web pages: Most have a headline, description, and some links, Related listings: Other listings you might be interested in. BLENDED RESULTS The search engine results page on Google are now blended (universal search), blending results from different vertical search engines like Google images, Google News, Google Local, YouTube and Google Depends on what you type in: Featured answers: Answers to questions. Featured snippets: Lists, recipes videos, paragraphs. AMP carousel: Recipes and news Videos: If the query demands it Social results: You might also see things based on social media sites you’re logged into. Images: Again if the query demands it, think piglet food over piglet jumper Map or local pack: If a location-based keyword is used, or if on mobile. Products: Google shopping Now let’s try looking at my own site: Title tag URL Meta description Site links Now let’s try search specifically Knowledge graph panel These changes to the SERPs are causing a fair bit of panic. Why? 1. They’re pushing organic listing further down the page. 2. The SERP features can result in lower click-through rates (as the user already has the info they need) Is Google doing this to sell more ads? Possibly. But it’s also doing it to deliver a better result to the user. It just makes our job a little harder, and that’s why SEO is really important. UNDERSTANDING RANKING Ranking is about making sure your site has the right ingredients that search engines want for their recipes. The higher your rank, the more exposure your site gets, and the more visitors who will find you. This chart on Advanced Web Ranking shows that Desktop position 1 gets 31% of the clicks Mobile position 1 gets 23% of the clicks Desktop position 2 gets 15% of the clicks Mobile position 3 gets 14% of the clicks But after that? Well, it all goes downhill pretty quickly. Psst: things change depending on the intent, and length of phrase but we’ll dig into that on the 10 Day Challenge. Ranking well also helps you: Increase brand visibility Improve traffic Attract better quality leads Improve conversion rates Reduce the cost of sales Instill trust So yes, SEO is about getting your site to rank well but it doesn’t stop there: It’s about ranking for the keywords that will deliver the right traffic and drive conversion (keyword research) About getting the user to click on your results (click through) About getting the user to stay on your site and take action (conversion) UNDERSTANDING PERSONALISATION If you’re anything like me, you probably LOVE Googling your business to see how well you’re ranking. Unfortunately, just typing your keywords into Google won’t give you an accurate result. Psst: If you’re not sure what a keyword is here a reminder: A keyword is a single word or phrase that someone types into Google to find stuff. So for our Piglet Jumper site, someone might type in ‘Piglet Jumpers’ or ‘buy organic piglet jumper online’. How are the search results personalised? All Google search results are personalised to whoever’s doing the searching. As you probably know, Google keeps track of your every Internet move to ensure you get the best possible (personalised) search results, and hopefully improve your experience. But this means no two people will ever get the same search results. What you see might be completely different from what your customers see. Google’s search results are personalised using several different factors, including: Your previous searches and site visits. Google keeps track of the sites you visit and every search you perform. Your location. Google uses your IP address to find your location. Your social buddies. Google looks at who you connect with on sites such as Twitter and Facebook. If you’re signed in to any of your Google accounts, Google will personalise your search experience based on previous searches and visits. If you’re NOT signed in, Google will use your cookies to personalise your search. (They store up to 180 days of signed-out search activity.) The truth is, it’s highly unlikely that Google will ever provide a totally depersonalised result. But you can reduce the level of personalisation. SO, WHERE DO YOU REALLY RANK? Often because of personalisation it’s hard to get an unbiased view of how you rank. If you search yourself you’ll get different results to a friend searching in a different state with different search history. There are tools you can use to check your ranking. The one I’ve recommended here is called Keyword Rank Checker you can of course also use one of the bigger tools to check your ranking and Google Search Console (we go into this in the 10 Day SEO Challenge). You can also try to search incognito to get a rough idea. HOW DO I SEARCH INCOGNITO? All web browsers have different ways to allow you to search incognito. I’m going to show you how to search incognito on Chrome, as it’s my favourite browser. If you don’t have it, I’d recommend you install it ASAP. Download Chrome browser Step 1: Log out of all Google services, including Gmail. Step 2: Go Incognito Using Internet Explorer Use ‘Private Browsing” (under the Tools menu). Using Firefox and/or Safari Use ‘Private Browsing’ That’s it. Now you have a handy little benchmark of where you currently sit in the SEO universe.