Your content strategy is at the core of your digital marketing program

The Social Media in Healthcare event sponsored by Racepoint Group in Boston provided several great discussion topics across a wide range of disciplines. The panelists, Kevin Pho, MD, Barry Chaiken, MD and Ashley Serotta along with moderator Larry Weber did a phenomenal job of providing various perspectives in the healthcare social media field.

One of the points made was that a ‘content strategy’ is at the core of any successful social media program.

The more that I thought about this, the more I agreed.

Let’s start with the end in mind.  What goals are you trying to accomplish with Social Media? 

Are you trying to acquire more patients? Are you trying to deliver value to your patients even when they are not in your office? Are you trying to do your part in providing relevant, accurate healthcare information on the world wide web?

Whatever your long term goals are, the foundation to achieving those goals is to provide relevant, accurate information to your intended audience.

Who is your intended audience?

•      What age group?
•      Where are the located?
•      What gender?
•      What ethnicity?

Are these the people that you see in your office today? Or are you trying diversify and attract another demographic? How do you determine what information is valuable to them? 

The easiest way to decipher this is to listen.  Listen to the questions that they ask while in your office.

Some of these questions are obviously specific to their diagnosis, but others are generic and can be applied to a large portion of your patients.

The easiest way to answer the question, “What do I write about?” is to ask yourself: “What is my area of expertise?” “What do I tell people everyday when they are in my office?”

Typically, this will answer your question for you. The fact is, you are an expert in something.

And, the best part, since you are writing about your area of expertise, it is not a labor intensive exercise.  It does NOT generally require research.

Share your expertise – that is what your patients are looking for.

They are looking for a safe, reliable source of useful healthcare information.

In your area of expertise, YOU should be that source.

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More information on Content Marketing...

• "Content Marketing in Healthcare: Content Marketing Defined (part 1)"
• "Content Marketing in Healthcare: Got Content? (part 2)"
• "Content Marketing in Healthcare: Finding Content (part 3)"
• "Content Marketing in Healthcare: Doctors are the Keystone (part 4)
• "Healthcare Content Marketing Review"
• "Your Social Media Content Marketing Program"