If there’s one person or group of people everyone should be able to trust, it’s the one(s) who see to their health and wellness. That includes doctors, nurses, dentists, physical therapists, and every practitioner in between. We need to be comfortable talking about uncomfortable subjects, and we need to trust these people enough to take their advice.
In today’s online world, that road to trust often begins with the impression you make with patients and potential new patients through digital channels. There is no more influential medium out there for building trust than social media.
The term “social media” in the context of medicine might seem a bit out of place, given the need for privacy and confidentiality, but it really isn’t. There are plenty of things you can do to reach people personally while keeping HIPPA and other entities at bay. You can reach out to people on a personal level without zeroing in on individual issues. We have a few suggestions as to how you can go about that, which we will get into right now.
Developing Content
Since we’re talking today about trust, I won’t go too deep into the marketing end of this particular equation. We have plenty of blog posts on strategizing and optimizing, and I strongly suggest you take the time to leaf through our backlog if the content marketing game is new to you. Right now, we want to focus on the individual and how you can win and keep his or her trust.
The easiest way to do that is to communicate clearly that you understand people’s needs and that you have the treatments and remedies that will meet them. We’re not talking about making grandiose promises or claims, just realistic offers of help in people’s areas of need. One of the easiest and best ways to communicate those concepts is through information, and the easiest way to convey general information is through your blog.
If your website doesn’t have a blog, it’s time to start one. Begin with broader topics and start zeroing in on more specific issues as you go. Every broad topic literally has hundreds of sub-topics upon which you can base a regular offering of posts. The more often you post and the more informative and relevant your posts are to your audience, the more likely they will be to keep following you and trust your opinions.
Engaging Your Audience
“Now, what does any of this have to do with social media,” you ask? The simple answer is this: everything. It’s one thing to maintain a good blog. It’s quite another to simply expect people to just find it and read it. I’ll let you in on a little secret about that: They won’t. That’s where your social channels come into play.
Your job as both a professional medical practice and a marketing entity is to use the right marketing tools to reach the right people with your message. Develop quality blog content and share it on all your social channels. You can take it a step further (and fortify trust) by being active on those channels as much as possible.
Don’t just post links to your blogs with attention-getting visuals. That might make some people stop scrolling and click through once or twice, but it isn’t a sustainable strategy in and of itself. What will really impress new patients is seeing you interacting and engaging with your audience.
Good blog posts are also good conversation starters, and that is what social media is: a series of conversations. Don’t leave your patients or potential patients to talk amongst themselves. Be part of the conversation. Encourage questions and discussion. Leave your audience with the impression that you not only know what they’re going through, but that you care enough to stick around for support.
Don’t Do These Things
I also want to zero in on a few common trust-breakers, so you don’t alienate your audience or cause them to question your expertise or sincerity. These are easy traps to walk into in your content delivery and engagement, so pay close attention. Avoiding these few pitfalls can prevent you from losing that trust foothold you’re working so hard to establish.
#1: Try Not to Be Too Heady
This is an easy sin to commit, especially if you are writing your own content. Shameless plug time: BeezContent has a number of both employee and freelance writers who know how to convey complex medical concepts in layman’s terms. If you’re struggling in this area, talk to us. We know medical marketing content, and we can help.
In all seriousness, there isa fine balance here. You don’t want to talk over people’s heads, but you don’t want the messaging to be too simplistic either. A good workaround to this problem is to link out to other articles or sources that explain things you think might be foreign or difficult for the average reader to grasp.
If you find another blog or medical website that explains it better, provide a link and include a call to action to click on it. You might even decide once in a while to skip writing a long piece yourself and employ a little responsible content curation strategy to help get the message across when words appropriate for your audience fail you.
#2: Don’t Get Too Personal
Try to steer clear of mentioning specific patient interactions or experiences in your writing. Even if you never name names, if the details seem just a little bit too like a patient’s own situation as they read, you might find yourself in a bit of a fix. Always speak in broad terms and use nonspecific language in conveying details about conditions, treatments, etc.
#3: Don’t Get Complacent
The key to building trust on social media is simply being present. Publish new content regularly and share it all on social media. If you don’t think you have the time to keep your blog populated, enlist the help of an agency like Beez that specializes in quality medical copywriting services to help.
Remember, your reputation can be made or broken on social media. Always put your patients and potential new patients ahead of your own agenda. People want to know that you care about their needs and that you have the know-how to help them through difficult circumstances. Give them a good reason to trust you by delivering content that communicates your understanding of those needs and delivering it consistently.
