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Instagram Outreach

Instagram Marketing for Doctors – A Guide to Patient Outreach

Share video and stories that connect with patients while keeping their privacy safe

Video sits at the center of Instagram, and it gives healthcare businesses a way to diversify content and grow patient engagement. Learn how to create a business account, follow HIPAA regulations for posts such as before-and-after content, build a hashtag strategy, balance consistency against frequency and create a style guide. See when to bring in a healthcare advertising company to build brand awareness and reach patients on the platform.

Instagram Marketing for Doctors – A Guide to Patient Engagement

Instagram has put video content on the front burner. Whether it is IGTV, Reels, or Instastories, video is easy to consume and share. This is ideal for healthcare businesses looking to diversify their content and grow patient engagement. Healthcare advertising companies use video marketing to boost leads by 66% per year.

Internet users spend, on average, 7 hours a week watching videos. With 1 Billion users worldwide, Instagram claims a significant chunk of this watch time that you can tap into to grow your business.

Read on to learn how you can use Instagram to build brand awareness and patient engagement.

Create a Business Account

Your first and most crucial step is to create an Instagram business account. This is different from a personal account for the following reasons:
  • You can add a phone number and email contact button
  • At the 100 follower mark, you can get detailed analytics on who is engaging with your content
  • 10,000 followers and above allows an Instagram business account to add direct swipe-up links
Business accounts have these specific tools and more to help with engagement.

Follow HIPAA Regulations

Some of the most popular medical content online such as patient transformation posts (before & after) can present ethical issues.

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) has clear directives on protecting the privacy and security of patients.
  • Always request explicit permission to share patient experiences
  • Blurr out our hide personal identifiers such as patient name, location, age, etc.

Hashtag Strategy

Hashtags are basically a searchable directory on Instagram that will enable your patients to find you.

Healthcare hashtags on Instagram will grow your account since posts with hashtags receive 12.6% more engagement than those that don’t. Additionally, hashtags can also improve your brand’s medical SEO since they are indexed by search engines.

Here’s what you should know about hashtags.
  • You can use up to 30 hashtags in a feed post and up to 10 in your Instastories
  • No special characters or spaces are allowed in your hashtag but numbers can be used
  • You should use a variety of hashtags whether they fall under community, branded, or campaign categories
If you want to know how to grow a medical practice on Instagram, create a flexible and relevant hashtag strategy. Here are some ideas.
  1. Identify the best medicine Instagram accounts or those in your specialty and note their hashtags
  2. Create several groups of hashtags that can be rotated post by post
  3. Engage in the comment section of other related posts that rank in the hashtags you choose for your business

Consistency vs Frequency

These two words are often used interchangeably in the content marketing world. They are different and consistency is superior.

The frequency of posts does not positively or negatively affect your engagement. Clearly, the more sustainable option is to create a content plan and schedule and stick to it.

Consistency builds trust and reliance on the part of your audience.

Automation with tools like Later and Buffer can also help you nail the consistency problem

Create a Style Guide

“Don’t forget that you are using your Instagram account to promote and attract customers to your healthcare business.

“Having a cohesive content style, tone, font, and aesthetic makes your posts highly recognizable and shareable.

“Use branded images tastefully to get more eyeballs on your brand.

A style guide also means you can easily outsource the social media part of your digital marketing strategy

Get Help From Healthcare Advertising Companies

Speaking of outsourcing, consistent posting on your business Instagram account can be a full-time job.

That’s why healthcare advertising companies have honed these digital and social media marketing skills so you don’t have to.

Contact Guideway Care today for a free evaluation and a digital marketing program that will elevate your patient engagement.

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