For many in the healthcare social media community, platform growth is a key goal. Doctors and other healthcare leaders want to have more visibility and a broader network, and that requires more followers and fans interacting with their social media accounts. Yet for all of their efforts, some physicians struggle to achieve meaningful growth, while others know how to build a massive social media following.
Social media is especially important for healthcare leaders who want to be active in the digital space, but don’t have a website.
What explains how some doctors can build a huge social media following with thriving community engagement and others remain stagnant? There could be many contributing factors, including low quality content, failure to understand the platform culture and etiquette, or major snafus like damaging response to negative reviews. Those aside, there are at least three extremely common social media mistakes that just about everyone makes (especially when they’re just getting started).
And by the way, it is much less important to grow in number, and far more important to grow a relevant community with tightly-linked interests. Many businesses thrive exactly because they have an intimate circle in a smaller niche.
Whether you’ve been active for years or are just entering the scene, you’ll want to learn about these common social media mistakes, and what to do instead.
As a preview, here are the themes:
Did you know that most of your followers never even see your content? That’s because most doctors are making the first mistake in this video and aren’t getting a decent return on investment for any particular piece – whether that’s a blog post, a video, a podcast, a webinar, an Instagram story, a Facebook post, an awesome tweet, and so on.
What’s the best way to figure out what to post? Most healthcare professionals need a little guidance on this one – what should doctors post on social media? (You probably know that you should keep posts about your own work and your own achievements to no more than about 30% of your activity. Some experts recommend no more than 10%. Syndicated relevant content from other trusted sources should make up the rest.) But what topics? What sources? When? If you’re making the second mistake in this video, you’re going to have a very hard time maximizing your social media growth and knowing exactly what to post.
Are you being penalized by search engines or social media platforms for this infraction? The third mistake in this video is around incorrect use of alliances and cross-promotion with other doctors on social media. It’s a good idea, but a disaster if not executed properly. You might be suffering from algorithm penalties already if you’ve been doing this.
Are you making these three top social media mistakes? If you are, I have easy fixes in this free 8 minute mini-webinar! #SoMeDocs #hcsm help a friend avoid these tooWhile not the focus of this post and webinar, here are four more mistakes doctors make on social media. These are rooted in policy and legal risks, so they are important to know!
Have another major social media mistake or solution that you’d like to share? Please tweet me!
If you’re into healthcare social media, you may also want to learn more about best practices for live video on social media, and equipment options to enhance the quality of your live videos. And if you want to really understand why and how doctors should use social media, get a copy of The Social Prescription.
