The most popular social media platforms are Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, LinkedIn, and Google+. Not every business needs to be on every platform, so which of these popular social media platforms should doctors use? An article from Social Media Today helps us answer this question.
Facebook has an astounding 2.23 billion monthly active users. This makes it the largest social media platform in existence right now. There are over 60 million active business pages. From these business standpoints, it is easy to target potential clients and widen their reach. The only large downside to using Facebook is the new algorithm change. This algorithm increases users’ family and friends posts over businesses. Despite this change, over 90% of social media advertisers and marketers use Facebook Ads.
For doctors specifically, Facebook could be a platform to post news and blogs about your health field. It can be a way to be conversational with your patients, while showing your practices’ strengths and values.
Twitter has 336 million active users, who tweet a total of 500 million times total per day. These users feel connected to brands that they follow. They also feel positively when a brand replies to their tweets. More and more small businesses are looking to Twitter to start the conversation with new clients and continue the conversation with existing ones. A negative is the potential of getting lost among the tweets because there is such a wide influx, 6000 per second.
For doctors specifically, Twitter could be a space for other medical professionals to share personal experience and knowledge. When doctors follow other doctors who are posting the latest news, it is easier to stay up to date in your own area of medicine. Utilizing a social media platform to repost blogs will increase traffic to the blog and therefore increase traffic on your site.
LinkedIn has way fewer users than Twitter and Facebook, with 101 million active users. Although their number of users is less than the others, it is the biggest professional network in the world. LinkedIn is responsible for 80% of business-to-business leads. For this reason, over 90% of B2B marketers use LinkedIn to distribute content to other businesses. It can be difficult to build a large following on LinkedIn, but access to 61 million senior level influencers is a great resource for businesses.
For doctors specifically, it is important to create a thorough profile – ensuring a higher rank. Kevin Pho says, “LinkedIn is a low-threat, low-resource, high-yield action.” LinkedIn can be a place for doctors to be active in medical communities and connect with colleagues.
YouTube
YouTube has over 1.8 billion users every month. Forbes mentions that 73% of all adults use YouTube, making it an important platform in the business world. YouTube ranked highest in multi-use – meaning that at least 87% of users of the other platforms use YouTube too.
For doctors specifically, YouTube can be used in tandem with other social media platforms effortlessly. Doctors can upload videos of them discussing medical problems/injuries that their patients might encounter. Patients are increasingly looking to the internet to research their procedure or health condition. They will begin to trust you and your medical practice if they see the information you are providing is what they are looking for.
Conclusion
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube are only four of the popular social media platforms that doctors can use to reach patients and increase their credibility. Each provides a unique opportunity and should be selected based on the specific medical field.
Go out and start posting away!
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