Looking beyond “likes” and “comments” to see signs of social media success

People of all ages are on some form of social media today. This means your practice needs to be there too. However, how do you know if social media marketing is working? If you look at “likes” alone, you might not think you’re reaching enough people. Going behind the scenes to examine the other signs of social media success can paint a different picture, though.

Social media marketing is an essential part of any marketing plan

The point of marketing your practice is to reach and convert more people into patients. This requires the coordinated use of multiple marketing channels, including social media.

Social media marketing helps practices like yours achieve several goals:

• Improve brand recognition and familiarity
• Build connections by highlighting personalized content
• Reinforce your marketing messaging from other sources

Most importantly, the purpose of social media marketing is to get in front of your current patients and reach new ones.

Based on this information, you might not think your page is achieving these goals if you don’t see a lot of “likes” on a platform like Facebook. However, it’s important to know that “likes” don’t tell the full story on social media. This is especially true when it comes to healthcare.

It’s important to consider signs of social media success on the back end

In general, about 90% of social media users are silent users. This term refers to users who aren’t saying or doing much other than scrolling. Because health is a very personal subject, you can imagine how much higher this number is for people viewing healthcare content.

Since health is such a sensitive topic, people are less likely to engage with medical-related content on social media in a way other people can see.

Consider the following scenario as an example:

Someone facing infertility might not have told their friends and family about their struggles. As such, they might not feel comfortable publicly “liking” an infertility-related post on Facebook. Still, they can learn more about a fertility clinic that can help them before scheduling a visit.

As you can see, this potential patient might not interact with your practice’s social media content on the front end with “likes” and “comments.” However, they are viewing your content to learn more about your practice and how you can help them. This is one of the important signs of social media success we can see on the back end!

How do you know if social media marketing is working?

If front-end metrics such as “likes” can’t tell the whole story, you might wonder how to know if your social media marketing efforts are working. The answer is back-end reporting.

The social media team at Catalyst Healthcare Marketing regularly creates social media marketing reports that highlight both front-end and back-end metrics.

For back-end metrics, we tend to look at these signs of social media success:

• Reach is the total number of unique users who view your content.
• Impressions are the number of times your content is displayed.
• Traffic from your social media page to your website

Just like imaging can help you learn more about your patients’ health, back-end reporting allows us to better understand the success of your social media marketing.

What can you do to improve your social media success?

You’re an expert in medicine and our team members are experts in social media marketing. You can rely on us to develop a customized social media marketing plan and make tailored recommendations to help you achieve your goals.

However, we can be even more successful with a little teamwork. You can send our team photos and videos of everyday and special events at your practice. When we post this personalized content, it’s always a hit on social media in terms of “likes” and “reach.” It’s the best of front-end and back-end success!

If you’d like to learn more about how Catalyst Healthcare Marketing can help you master social media, contact us today. We understand the signs of social media success and can help design a winning strategy for your social media.