Social Media For Urologists
Social Media for Urologists
Most marketers will tell you that social media can be one of the best ways for a urologist to increase the awareness, size or profitability of their practice. That is, if it’s done correctly. It’s important to choose the right social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) that will work best for your practice and with your patients.
The list of social media platforms is growing, and well-known platforms like Facebook are always evolving and adding new features. With a greater and greater need for a social presence and an overwhelming amount of platform choices, it can be hard to pick which social channels to use. Historically,
- Facebook is most used and has the widest audience. It’s also the most favored by patients of the age where they need a urologist.
- TikTok is immensely popular, it’s usually a younger person’s platform. That may not be right for who you are trying to reach.
- LinkedIn is more of a business or professional platform and may be great for hiring and attracting talent and staff for your practice.
- Twitter is great for many uses as well, including news and updates at your practice. And we’ve found it’s the most common platform for nurses.
- Instagram is popular, especially with images, but it’s limited in how you can convert posts to actual appointments.
All of these social media platforms enable you to use pictures of video and we highly encourage you do so. The open and click rates go up dramatically when you include them.
Goals for social media
Picking these social media platforms should also be centered around what your goals are.
- Are you trying to generate more awareness for your practice, name or brand?
- Do you want to get phone calls for appointments directly from your posts?
- Are you looking to boost your online reputation?
- Need to keep up with your competition?
- Looking for talented people to hire?
- Want to increase the perception of your expertise?
These are all great goals that can lead to more appointments, some quicker than others. But appointments may not be what your primary goal is. We have numerous clients who use social media for recruiting. We have clients that want to turn their less than stellar reputation around. Each platform have different pros and cons in the ways they can or can’t accomplish those goals. It’s not enough just to start a social media account or two, put a few posts out and think it will change your business. You really need a strategy and plan.
The 3 golden rules for social media
Once you narrow down the platforms you think will work best to reach your patients and potential patients, you need to create content that actually connects with them and causes action.
It’s important to create the right kind of post. We believe there’s a factor that determines the success of both of those variables – determining the right emotional connection.
People may think with their right brain, but they most often act with their left. Simply posting a fact without an emotional tug will leave a social media user with bit of new knowledge but no reason to do anything with it. That’s not what you want. Or, at least, that’s not what we want for our clients.
There is a bit of a science to creating content for social media posts. And a lot of creativity. In fact, that topic is a whole article unto itself.
Read our article on the three golden rules for social media here.
Hashtags for urologists
Finding and choosing the most effective hashtags can have a lot to do with how you show up when people search for you or your practice online. Many urology based keywords are overused and you won’t really even get much benefit from including them in your posts. However, they are free and done wisely, it can really broaden who finds and reads your posts. You don’t want to load every post up with so many it becomes self-defeating. It’s more important that you use ones that are meaningful to your post’s content and cause the actions you actually want. It’s an art or science unto itself. And definitely an entire page of content unto itself.
How many posts should urologists do?
As you would guess, the frequency of how often you post on social media is determined by a lot of factors. Posting five times a week may be perfect or it may be way too much? There is no set rule or data to really determine this. You have to create a plan that is right for you, the types of services you provide and the quality of posts you can create to cause action.
The number of posts can also be determined by how large of a group or practice you are. We have often broken out campaigns by locations and urologists in big practices that spread out over many zip codes. Each location can have it’s own identity or following. Posting for a brand new location would be different than one long-established.
Ask yourself:
- How many other urologists on these platforms are there to compete against?
- What is your subject matter? (With some topics, a little can go a long way.)
- What have you established with and on social media already? (good or bad)
- What goals are you trying to accomplish? Awareness? Phone calls? More followers?
Finally, you should consider re-posting other content. This can add the the frequency of your communications. That can be good if you know the desirable action you want to gain from it, hurtful if you are directing patients away from your brand.
Let us show you some of those tools that don’t need to be updated every day, week or even month. We can help you get the most out of whatever social media campaign you’re doing right now.
Just remember…
Other forms of advertising and marketing are extremely effective in working with your social media plan to give it an extra boost. If your website isn’t ready or optimized to convert people clicking from your social media posts to your appointments, it really doesn’t matter how many clicks you get.
Social media links are an even bigger part of the Google’s SEO algorithm than ever before. These can include social media platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and others. And they all work even harder when you tie them into online banner advertising and your website, practice and urologist listings and directories. There’s a right mix for every urologist or urology practice and everyone’s mix will be different based on their needs, budgets and goals.
Want to Get Started?
If you would like to learn more about how to create the most effective social media for Urologists, your particular urology practice, or any other type of hospital or healthcare group, fill out the contact form below. We’d be happy to discuss it with you for free.
Some of the Urology groups we’ve worked with started with a simple SWOT analysis to find out where their best first steps (and affordable budgets) would be. Other urologists we’ve worked with had campaigns that merely needed stronger, more effective creative executions. Either way, we are happy to provide whatever help we can, in whatever budget fits for you.
Pete Griffith
President / Founder
Pete started Mentum after two decades of working as a Creative Director at some of the world's largest advertising agencies. His need to create exceptional work is driven 60% by the college tuitions of his three kids, 9% so he can go scuba diving somewhere he hasn’t been before and 1% to be able to afford a good bowl of ramen. The rest equally divided by both the desire to make people laugh and the fear of being laughed at. If you’re interested, his official resume can be gawked at here.