Social Media Marketing opportunities in the Health Sector of Uganda

Social Media Marketing in recent years has impacted the health care industry and it has to adapt to a dramatic shift in customer behavior, Social Media Marketing is heavily consumed by today’s patients by increasingly using social media, search engines, and crowd sourced online resources such as Wikipedia to guide their own health care decisions.

They are conducting their own research and talking with their peers about doctors, procedures, medicines, and more. Online demand continues to grow for medical information that is trustworthy, engaging, and accessible to digitally empowered customers.

Medical professionals are dedicated to the public good and feel an ethical responsibility to educate and assist those in need. With social media, they have an unparalleled opportunity to connect with patients and promote good health decisions. The onus is now on health care providers to support practitioners with the security, education, and compliance solutions they need to meet these ethical obligations.

Peer-to-peer health care

• Among online health information seekers, 16% in the past year tried to find others who might share the same health concerns.
• 30% of internet users have consulted online reviews or rankings of health care services or treatments.
• 26% of internet users have read or watched someone else’s experience about health or medical issues in the past year.

This is where we come in to provide you with four key steps and a strategy to prepare your organization for greater patient engagement. We will be able to help you to show you just what you need to do in order to plug into the conversations and increase your customer base subsequently.

Online discovery - attract new patients by educating them as they search for health information online. Patients are also looking to connect with peers who experienced similar health issues, so share patient stories, experiences, and offer online support.

Patient engagement and support - Social Media offers an excellent channel for “pastoral support.” With online forums and communities, patient support and engagement can be offered very efficiently and at scale.

Patient loyalty - Social Media can help organizations improve the quality of their customer service, discover new areas to improve, and gain qualitative feedback on new initiatives. This can drive increased loyalty and increase patient referrals.

Stay top of mind with education - patients are searching online for medical information throughout their patient journey. Doctors and health care professionals have a huge advantage over most sources online (such as consumer forums and Wikipedia) and can build positive brand equity by providing accurate and authoritative answers. From YouTube channels to podcasts to topic-based health communities, information is the new brand currency.
Listening and measurement - monitor social conversations to better understand unmet needs of patients, gather insights about the patient experience, track the impact of social media activity on website traffic and new patient inquiries, and monitor your brand’s share of voice in relation to competitors.