We all know how vital a social media presence is for your healthcare business, and we know that you need to stay active, but it can be time-consuming, and on busy days, you may find it hard to create content.
One of the best ways to stay ahead of your social media is to create a healthcare social media calendar.
A few benefits of creating (and keeping to) a healthcare social media calendar include ensuring your messaging stays on track. If you create posts daily without any plan of action, you may find your messaging slips, you start to use the wrong voice and spread the wrong message for your healthcare company.
A healthcare social media calendar will also help you keep your messaging consistent across your channels and stop the unnecessary repetition. You’ll also find that your content now has no gaps, and you’ll be able to see what you’ve recently shared across each channel quickly.
But how do you create a healthcare social media calendar?
It’s all well and good that we tell you that you need to create a social media calendar for your healthcare business, but you need to know how, so we have a quick three-step formula to help you.
#1: Plan ahead
The goal of a social media calendar is to ensure that you and your healthcare business are a step ahead of social media. You’re prepared before the day you have to post. It will help you keep track of what works and what doesn’t. So, if you post something on Thursday that falls flat, then make sure you don’t post similar content that week.
Find your voice
Yes, there are several aspects of planning. Firstly, you need to decide on your brand’s social voice.
- Are you cheeky and fun?
- Or serious and factual?
Having the same brand voice across all your social platforms increases brand recognition and creates consistent messaging across the various channels. Yes, you’ll find different audiences on different platforms, and you’ll have to change your content to meet their needs, but keeping your voice consistent will help keep your branding intact.
Identify your target audience
A lot of work needs to go into identifying your target audience. They are the foundation of your business; knowing who your target audience is, their demographics and online behaviour will help you target them effectively.
Identify which social platforms you will use
Similarly, you will want to identify the social media channels you want to target. Do some audience research and find out where your target audience is spending their time online. There’s no point in investing time and money into a platform which won’t help you reach your objectives.
Determine your objectives
Make sure your objectives are S.M.A.R.T. They need to be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely (i.e. have an end-date, so you can measure how successful your healthcare social media calendar has been). Your social media objectives should reflect the company’s overall goals and will help you write an effective social media calendar for your healthcare company.
Choose what you want to post
Are you going to post-normal posts/tweets, blogs, videos or a combination of all of the above? It’s important to decide beforehand.
Some tips to remember before you start
Remember not to over-sell. People are on social media to have fun. They’re not interested in what you want but rather what you can give them. So make sure you give them good content and sneak in a selling posting.
#2: Now we build our healthcare social media calendar
It’s no surprise that the planning step is, by far, the longest and most arduous step, but it’s also likely the most important. Once you’ve completed Step #1, you’ll find this step incredibly simple.
Your social media calendar is a comprehensive document that will outline exactly what you will post on what social channel so that you can quickly identify any gaps, repetitive content or posts that tend not to be very successful.
What calendar tool will you use?
You can use many social media calendar tools, from HootSuite to HubSpot, but you can go old-school and use Google Sheets if you prefer. We suggest you stay online rather than offline, so you can ensure everyone has access to the calendar at any given time.
Make sure your monthly view is visible
Whichever tool you choose, ensure you can easily see your monthly content in one go so that you can view weekly posts and topics at a glance.
Create your content
Once you have your social media calendar foundation, you get to flesh out all your copy. Add your links, copy, emojis, visual aspects, and whatever else you need to make your posts shine!
Ensure you can see each channel
Depending on your social media calendar tool, you’ll want to sync your social accounts, so you can quickly post and plan content for each platform.
The specifics
You will need to specify the exact time, date, assets (your video or image), links and hashtags within your healthcare social media calendar. You want to make sure that any of your team can see exactly what to post and when.
#3: Measure and Evaluate
So, you’ve planned, built your calendar, and written your content. Not only is it time to start posting, but it’s also time to start tracking, testing, measuring and improving!
There’s no point in having objectives if you don’t check to see if you’ve reached these objectives within the timescale you gave yourself. You need to see if your calendar and content are working. So make sure you check your insights, analytics and any other metrics you need to check to ensure that it’s all working well. And, if it’s not, that’s why you have your calendar planned out well in advance – you have the time and space to change stuff now rather than later.
In conclusion
Our industry can be challenging when it comes to digital marketing, but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible. Using something as simple as a healthcare social media calendar can make your life exponentially easier and give you a much better result in the long term.
Of course, creating a healthcare social media calendar is a lot of work, which is why it’s always best to get the experts to do the hard work for you. If you’re looking for the easy way out, call us today to see how we can help you!
