LinkedIn Marketing is a fantastic tool used in healthcare marketing.
And social media offers different platforms for you to reach new and potential patients thus offering you endless ways to connect and share.
Each social media platform is different, and each platform has a diverse target audience, so depending on who you are looking to get in front of, you can explore using some more than others.
Linkedin is one of the few social media platforms that are on the rise and gaining popularity. Linkedin is a social media networking platform designed for business professionals and encourages content sharing and networking connections.\
LinkedIn presents many opportunities to connect with other like-minded medical professionals and potential patients seeking information about health care, while also giving your practice a platform to market its services to the right audiences.
Today LinkedIn has over 200 million users globally, as well as 1.5 million groups within the network. The time is now to tap into this social platform by building credibility for your medical expertise and spreading the word about your practice.
The Benefits of Using LinkedIn Marketing for a Practice:
Attract new patients and drive leads
Target your ideal audience
Share information about you and your practice
Connect with local physicians
Engage with your target audience
Encourage your staff and team to support and share your content
Become a thought leader in your space
So now we know why using LinkedIn can bring value to your practice, the question now is, how?
How can doctors develop a LinkedIn marketing plan to help them grow and attract new patients?
1. Customize Your LinkedIn Profile
LinkedIn offers numerous ways you can customize your profile to your practice and specialty.
A profile that is customized to your brand shows other LinkedIn users that you are an active user, and you can display your practice information.
As a physician, post an updated and professional headshot (whitecoat preferably) and customize your background to the — branding of your hospital or practice.
Be sure to include your logo and tagline and make sure it is to the LinkedIn size standards to avoid your profile picture covering it up.
Without a clean, professional headshot and customized background, other LinkedIn users may be hesitant to connect because your profile looks stagnant. A stagnant profile means that they are unlikely to get any value out of the connection or engagement.
So make sure you’re sending the right message and customize your profile.
You will see that you will receive and have more connections accepted just with those simple customized updates.
Make It Clear What Kind Of Physician You Are & Where You Work
LinkedIn was built to create an online professional networking system, so make it clear in your title description, what type of medical doctor you are, and where you work.
This way, it makes it easy for those searching to find you, and you appear in search-related terms.
Attach your medical practice or hospital profile on LinkedIn to your profile under experience. That way, they can connect you to where you work, and you get connected with your colleagues, which improves visibility.
2. Post Original Content on Social Media and LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a lead generator, so your content needs to be in front of the right audience, providing unique value to what they want to see, and drive them back to your website or practice.
Don’t waste views and impressions re-purposing someone else’s content like WebMD and other health-related articles. Share the content, physician videos, patient journeys, and — blogs from your website.
Not only does that make it unique to you, but you position yourself as a thought leader. Original content drives leads and traffic to your website and increases the likability of them reaching out for an appointment or consultation.
3. Post Valuable & Relative Content on LinkedIn
So, we discussed that original content increases the likelihood of converting new leads in your LinkedIn marketing strategy, now it’s about creating value in your post.
The Linkedin-verse wants to see new, fresh, and valuable content featuring the professionals. That means you want to post content that your audience wants to see and finds value in, so as a medical doctor, you want to feature your thoughts on your medical specialty.
So many times, I run across a physician's LinkedIn post that does not have much of any interaction (likes or comments) . This is because it misses that “human factor.”
It is obvious when a physician or practice has someone else posting for them like an office manager or marketing department.
These posts usually have a similar format; It features the title of the article, often the post is promotional for a service, has so many hashtags, and a link.
Similar to this example
What is wrong with this format is…
A. ) It is not their original content
B.) It is obvious that the physician was not the one who posted, so, likely, they won’t engage or interact with you as well.
C.) It is missing the physician’s medical viewpoint, opinion, or what I like to call the “human factor,” or you can call it the VALUE
D.) The post is 24hrs old with one like
Here is an excellent example of a physician adding that valuable human factor, and you can see the difference in engagement and likes.
The point is that the audience wants to know your viewpoint as the professional, not a generic blog title riddled with a million hashtags.
4. Interact & Engage On LinkedIn
Stagnant social media profiles are worse than not having one at all. LinkedIn is a social networking platform built to take the professional networking model and put it online.
You wouldn’t attend a networking event and stand in the back of the room and not speak to anyone or allow them to talk to you, right?
Well, that is what it is like if you don’t engage and interact with others on LinkedIn. You will not see growth or attract leads by expecting them to seek out and find you.
Don’t be shy! Like, comment, and share content from others that you want to add to, discuss, or find valuable.
The physicians that interact and engage have more views and engagements themselves.
5. Build New LinkedIn Connections
Get social and start connecting and networking on LinkedIn. Use LinkedIn to research colleagues, referring physicians, and connect with other medical or marketing professionals.
The more extensive your network, the bigger the audience, and you increase your chances of driving new leads and post visibility.
6. Be Consistent with LinkedIn Marketing Plan
Consistency is critical, and this goes for any social media profile. To keep an active audience, attract new patients, and increase engagement, you need to create consistency on LinkedIn.
Develop consistency in creating connections, engagement, interactions, and posts.
Wrap Up: LinkedIn Marketing Tips for Doctors
LinkedIn is very similar to its face-to-face counterpart. The more “you” and authenticity you put into LinkedIn networking, the better the results. What you put into it is what you can get out of it.
There is nothing like good old fashioned hard work in order to grow a successful LinkedIn profile that actually drives new patients. Leverage the LinkedIn marketing tools at your disposal to engage with your community or you can hire DigiSWOT and put in the efforts while you can reap the benefits!
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