The use of social media for Doctors can be a topic with many opinions. Once a physician has decided to incorporate social media into their marketing strategy, the first step is to determine who will be executing your social media activities- you the physician, will you hire a professional, or designate a current team member? Since social media can be a cumbersome task time-wise, many firms decide either of the later options. The next step is to set goals and objectives for the social strategy that aligns with your overall business goals. Be sure to set goals and objectives that are SMART (Links to an external site.): specific, measurable, attainable, resourced, and timely. At this point, your key performance indicators should also be set; these help you measure the success of your efforts and should also follow the SMART format. Now that the first steps are complete, how do you start? Well, you need to find a benchmark to compare for your future efforts too. A social media audit does just that.
Breaking Down the Audit
A social media audit (Links to an external site.) takes a look at your current social strategy and examines its successes and downfalls. The audit should begin with gathering your existing social accounts across all platforms. This will help you determine which accounts need to be eliminated, updated, or are inactive. After gathering the information, you can also decide which platforms your target audiences prefer and what they use each network for. For instance, if you’re a plastic surgeon, Instagram could be used as a place to showcase your before and after pictures, since many users utilize it as a source for visual content. It’s essential to ensure that your brand image is cohesive across all your accounts, with the same logo, color scheme, tone, and voice used. An analysis of past posts should be conducted to determine which types of content are well received and which perform poorly. During this exercise, you should also research firms similar to yours and see what tools and tactics they are currently using for their social media. After taking a closer look, it’s good practice to determine what strategies you could incorporate into yours. This can also be said for top brands in closely related industries. A social media audit will give you an in-depth look into what you should continue doing, what actives you should stop doing, and what new strategies you could try.
Next Steps
It is important to remember that social media is not a magic tool that will have patients walking through your door but rather a tool that works in conjunction with your other digital marketing efforts. Now that you have an overview of what a social media audit can offer, start to think of some of your colleagues and how they use social networks. Then start gathering your information or have someone do it for you. Either way, an audit of this type can be very beneficial for your practice’s overall online presence. If you haven’t already read my last blog- You’ve Got Mail: How to Grow your Patient Email List (Links to an external site.) check it out.