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TOP SOCIAL MEDIA TOOLS FOR COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS

By ||Published On: February 14th, 2022||Categories: FQHC, Healthcare Marketing||
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Over 53% of the world’s population is active on social media, so bringing information about the services offered at your Federally Qualified Health Center to the online platforms your patients are using is an effective strategy to meet them on their turf, so to speak. With more and more patients going online to find healthcare services, take advantage of a captive audience by actively posting on social media.

Using real-time content, social media offers one of the most responsive, rapidly changing avenues to engage your patient base. Knowing your audience, what channels they are browsing, and what times they are active help to create a strategy that results in heightened engagement.

We’ve talked in more details about the benefits of Social Media, but here’s a refresher:

Why Use Social Media for Community Health Centers?

  • Connect with your patients, both existing and potential through conversation

  • Promote your FQHC’s brand and image

  • Increase outreach to foster relationships with peers, advocates, state and local representatives, and members of the community

  • Communicate the value of your presence in the community

Unlike traditional media outlets, Social Media allows for users to engage with one another, creating relationships while boosting your brand identity. Properly utilizing social media tools for health marketing and creating a diverse presence allows you to fully capture the different types of patients that you serve at  your Community Health Center.  

It is not necessary for your FQHC to maintain a presence on every social media platform in existence, rather choose a platform that makes sense for your area. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter have among the highest user engagement statistics. Once you have selected your platforms and created your profiles, there are several social media tools that can be used to increase the effectiveness of your posts.

Top Social Media Tools

  • Content curation tools – By creating your own posts as well as sharing posts with viable information, you can curate content that allows you to expand the information you are presenting without having to spend valuable time creating all your posts from scratch. Curation tools allow you to locate and save interesting posts for later use, allowing you to tag-team your own scrolling habits into content that can be repurposed. For the past few years, Firefly has been using a content calendar to help keep us organized!

  • Social Media scheduling apps – Don’t try to sit down every day to create and post content – you’ll feel like you are on a never-ending hamster wheel. Rather, set aside time once or twice a week to sort articles you’ve saved in your curation tool, create new posts, and schedule posts for distribution throughout the week. Of course, when information arises with the need for immediate sharing, you can easily hop onto your platforms and create that post without disrupting your scheduled activity. Popular tools include: HubSpot & SproutSocial.

  • Content creation tools – Visually appealing content is just as important as the message within – after all, you’ve got to first get your scrollers to stop on your post. Various free and paid sites exist that allow you to use high quality, professional images and text generators to create eye-catching graphics to use in your posts. Our fav tool: Canva!

  • Social Media analytics tools – Again, know your audience. Don’t invest the time and effort on sites that are not reaching your potential and current patients. Understanding the reach and effectiveness of your posts allows you to adapt your marketing strategy in real-time. Both social media and Google Analytics offer an in-depth snapshot of your user engagement, making it easy to see which posts have landed with your viewers and which have missed the mark.

Don’t navigate cyberspace alone! At Firefly Marketing, our team works with you to create and maintain a marketing strategy that adapts to your audience. Our team understands the analytics and makes tweaks within your game plan to bring your content to the masses. Focusing on quality over quantity, Social Media allows your Community Health Center to directly engage the community on a more personal, approachable level. Let Firefly Marketing be your social media partner!

Strategy Meeting

Looking for additional help?

For Federally Qualified Health Centers featuring a varied patient base, diversified strategies allow your center to thrive as it provides care to entire communities. You don’t have to do it alone! At Firefly Marketing, we offer a variety of strategies as your social media partner. 

About the Author: Laura Williams

Account Executive – Laura is energized by building relationships. She believes that communication is key & creating meaningful collaborations is what it's all about. She's got the skill to read a room and share her calming energy to help others feel welcome. If you catch her in action, she might be snapping a pic, say cheese!

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