As we begin a new year, many home healthcare organizations will resolve to either begin or improve their social media plan. If you are new to social media or you don’t have resources dedicated to this communication tool, it can feel like a daunting task. Axxess is here to help.
Here are five key things you can do to ramp up your social media strategy in 2019.
- Make friends. Go “like”, “follow” or “subscribe” to the pages of your counterparts, your vendors, nearby home health agencies, and other nearby businesses. You’ll see what they post in your newsfeed, which will provide a great launchpad for engaging with them and sharing the content they post.
- Create your own content. In addition to covering testimonials from your employees and events your agency hosts, create a blog series that you share on social media or produce several videos on your agency or the value of healthcare in the home. This is valuable for brand awareness and gives other agencies content to share on your behalf. Additionally, determine certain hashtags to use consistently that tie your brand to home healthcare. This is an easy way to track content and helps your audience better understand what you post.
- Plan a calendar. Social media can seem so daunting because there is so much to talk about and no inherent organization. That’s why breaking each day of the week into a specific theme or targeting a certain audience help you get your arms around your content. Once you establish a good routine, you can plan two weeks of content very quickly. Think about how you can message your agency to various audiences, like the general public/prospective clients, your own employees (social media can be beneficial for employee engagement and retention) and your fellow home healthcare providers.
- Find ways to push social media both online and off. Remind people to follow you on social media at your events or have social media contests and event drawings that require participants to follow you on social. You can make signage at your agency to remind people to find you on social media networks. Also, update your email signatures to add links to your social media accounts.
- When you are online, go live! Facebook’s Live tool allows you to broadcast live via your phone or tablet. In addition to broadcast capabilities, you can also engage with your audience via comments at the bottom of the screen. Live videos are excellent for major events, such as attending a state conference, or an interview with an industry leader.
Bonus Tip! Use social media buttons on your website. All major social media sites (Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and LinkedIn) have buttons that will link directly from your website to the social media account you have with that platform. This is another free way to connect people to your accounts.
Social media is a budget-friendly way to enhance your audiences’ awareness of your agency, tell your story and engage clients and prospects. Following these key tips will help you make at least one New Year’s resolution a reality.
