#SocialMedia Tips for Physicians

Social media is a great medium today to boost one’s business, presence, and relevance. Knowing how to use it will certainly put you in the ranks of the most successful people in your field.

How can a physician use social media advantageously? Here, we will tackle tips that can help you in the online world. But first, let’s take a look at the most used social media platforms today.

Facebook – The granddaddy of social media platforms. Facebook was once known as a replacement for MySpace and Friendster. Now, Facebook serves as an all-in-one place to cater to your personal and professional needs. Facebook can help you sell goods via the marketplace, have groups, and even organize your meetings and events.

Twitter – Just a couple years ago, Twitter only had room for 140 characters per tweet. It has doubled but still encourages pithy commentary. Twitter’s popularity stems from the ability to easily scan through hundreds of users, reading their tweets rapidly. In today’s world, this is especially important since our attention span has depleted tremendously in the last decade.

Instagram – Instagram is widely known as a photo-sharing app. Today, creatives use it to showcase their work and act as a mini portfolio. It’s best known for its 9-12 square grid type format and stories, which share a similar function as that of Snapchat’s.

LinkedIn – This platform is geared toward professionals. It’s like Facebook but instead of meeting random people, you meet co-professionals and other physicians who are looking to further their career or network.

Now that we’ve gone over the different social media platforms, let’s look at some tips that will help you in social media as a doctor:

• Use Facebook groups to announce news and other matters for convenience.
• Set appointments using the event function in Facebook.
• Tweet to disseminate information and utilize its thread function.
• Create informative Instagram stories.
• Make infographics for sharing.
• Post relevant articles on LinkedIn.
• Make your availability known.
• Keep contact information up to date.
• Give concise and relevant updates.
• Be present consistently.
• Be able to use images that are connected to your posts.
• Post original fun content.
• Respond to your audience in a timely manner.
• Engage your audience and build relationships.
• Know where your audience is hanging out online.
• Follow other doctors on social media.
• Be aware of trends and current events.
• Include emojis and know when and how to use them.
• Track and analyze your activity on social media platforms.

Takeaways

The key to being successful in social media is to know who your audience is and what niche you will be specializing in. It is also important to feed your audience quality content instead of drowning them in senseless posts. Branding yourself is also important as it will determine who you are in the online world. Also, remember that you do not need to please everyone since not everyone will be interested in your niche. Once you create a stable following, you only need to nurture and provide what your patients or audience need.