For years now people have been telling businesses and brands that they have to be more social. “Your business has to be on social media.” As marketers we hear that phrase all the time and we see this happen all the time: Social accounts are set up on every platform possible, but there’s no real strategy or thought put into it. It’s often a brand or business using a platform intended to generate sharing and conversations as a one-way street of pushing out spam. And today the behavior of constantly linking to your website or putting out sales type messages is frowned upon and even punished. If no one is interacting, you’re not being seen – plain and simple.
But what about healthcare providers, pharma and physicians, is it the right time to be more social? And if you want to be active on social media, what’s the right strategy?
According to Martha Walz, senior content strategist for Ogilvy CommonHealth, in a recent article on MMM-Online, “More than half of the physicians who use the Internet for professional purposes use professional social-media channels, proving that they find relevance in social media to educate and manage themselves. By seeding messaging on the social networks where physicians go for professional information, pharma can reach an already-qualified engaged audience. At the same time, over a third of physicians use consumer social networks for professional purposes, so leveraging these channels—in the appropriate ways at the appropriate times—can also boost engagement.”
Martha points out that the right platform and communicating with the right audience allows for a more engaging experience. Simply being on social media shouldn’t be the goal. Being social with good content and the right context provides value to the platform and other users. For Pharma, going to professional social platforms where physicians are having conversations allows for a much more targeted approach to social marketing. The same can be said for HCPs, being on social should be an area where you have a strategic plan of providing valuable information about your practice and newsworthy topics that are worth talking about and sharing. Of course with stringent guidelines and HIPAA laws you have to be cautious about the information you provide, however, social can certainly be a place for healthcare with the right strategy in place.
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