Nearly half of the world is on social media, whether it’s Instagram, Tiktok, Whatsapp, or Youtube.
Cognitive SEO’s research found that websites ranked at the top of Google search have the highest social signals—comments, shares, and likes—compared to lower-ranked websites.
How can a combination of SEO and social media boost your clinic brand’s visibility?
In this episode of OMD TV and Podcast show, “Double Your Online Presence: The SEO-Social Media Cocktails For Medical Clinics”, we reveal six actionable strategies to supercharge your online presence.
Welcome to OMD TV and Podcast Show, the place to grow and scale your practice. I’m Huyen Truong – Search Marketing Director at OMD and a strategic medical marketing consultant.
Today, we’re delving into a transformative topic for medical practices: How to integrate SEO and social media to double your digital impact.
We will walk you through how merging these two powerful strategies can revolutionise your online presence and visibility and draw in more patients than ever before.
But before we dive deep, let’s kick things off with a question for our audience. What do you believe is the most significant challenge in marketing your medical practice online? Is it creating engaging content? Managing your social media? Or maybe it’s boosting your search engine rankings?
Whatever your response might be, chances are it falls under either SEO or social media marketing. And here’s the thing: you don’t have to pick one over the other. In fact, when you merge them together, incredible results can happen.
As we move closer to 2025, the synergy between SEO and social media has never been more pronounced. Let’s dissect why this combination is so incredibly important for healthcare practices.
First off, social media platforms have become indispensable tools for sharing content (engaging with patients), and getting traffic back to your website. And guess what? Search engines absolutely adore this kind of interaction.
When search engines notice that your content is receiving likes, shares, and comments on social media platforms, they interpret it as an indication that your material is both valuable and relevant. This can help enhance your SEO rankings quite effectively.
In addition, your social media accounts often appear in search results, giving your practice even greater visibility online. Now, let’s get down to the details: how can medical providers proficiently integrate their efforts in both social media and SEO?
We’ve got six super important strategies to talk about today. Are you ready to take some notes?
Strategy 1: Focus On the Right Platforms
Strategy number one is all about focusing your efforts on social media platforms where you can actually connect better with your audience.
Not every social media platform is created equal, especially for medical providers. You really need to think about your patient demographics and what they prefer.
For example, if your practice mostly serves younger patients or millennials, then Instagram or TikTok might be more effective.
But if you’re aiming at professionals or business leaders, LinkedIn could very well be the best platform for you.
The main thing is to do a bit of research and pick platforms that fit well with your practice’s brand and where your patients are most active.
Let’s give our listeners some actionable steps here. First, conduct a patient survey to understand which social media platforms they use most frequently. You can do this via email or during their visits.
Next, create profiles on the top two or three platforms your patients use. Don’t try to be everywhere at once – it’s better to excel on a few platforms than to spread yourself too thin.
And remember to optimise your profiles for SEO. Use relevant keywords in your bio, include your location, and link back to your website.
Strategy 2: Align with your audience
Strategy number two is making sure there’s alignment with your audience.
This part is absolutely crucial. You have to understand what your patients want, their preferences, and their pain points too.
Use social media as a tool to gather feedback and insights. Keep an eye on post engagement and tweak your SEO strategy based on this information.
For example, if you see lots of engagement on posts about a particular medical topic, think about creating dedicated landing pages or blog posts around it. Then make sure these pages are optimised for SEO as well.
Here’s what you can do: Set up social listening tools like Hootsuite to monitor mentions of your practice and relevant healthcare topics. This will give you insights into what your audience is talking about.
Also, use polls and questions in your social media posts to directly ask your audience what they want to learn about. This not only increases engagement but also gives you ideas for content that will resonate with your audience.
And don’t forget to analyse your website data. Look at your most visited pages and most searched terms on your site. This can give you ideas for social media content that will drive traffic back to your website.
Strategy 3: Provide Relevant and Engaging Content
Strategy number three involves providing content that’s both relevant and engaging.
This is really where you can stand out. Share health-related content like industry news or patient success stories.
Remember that the goal here is establishing credibility while staying relevant. Keep up-to-date with healthcare trends and use this knowledge in crafting your content.
And don’t forget to optimise this content for SEO purposes too! Use relevant keywords naturally within your posts and descriptions. Of course, you don’t have to force it, pick 3-4 most relevant keywords and naturally use them in your content.
Here’s a practical tip: Create a content calendar that aligns your social media posts with your SEO strategy. For example, if you’re targeting the keyword “hair loss” on your website, create a series of social media posts about hair loss tips, myths, and facts.
Absolutely. And don’t be afraid to repurpose content. If you have a popular blog post, turn the main points into an infographic for social media. This not only saves time but also reinforces your message across platforms.
Another idea is to create “behind-the-scenes” content. Show your team at work, introduce staff members, or give a tour of your facility. This type of content humanises your practice and can generate a lot of engagement on social media.
Strategy 4: Build a strong Brand Presence
The fourth strategy is building a really strong brand presence.
It’s almost crucial to stay consistent here. Your branding, which includes logos and messages, needs to be uniform across all social media sites and your main website.
Use your social media to highlight your values, mission and what makes you special in the market.
Actually using interactive surveys, live videos, and stories can help connect with people on a more personal level. Most of the time, people feel uncomfortable talking about their body discomforts. So, by showing clients’ testimonials or educational videos, they can feel more at ease to talk about what bothers them and feel more comfortable to book a consultation.
And remember that search engines tend to value brand authority along with consistency. So this strategy isn’t only valuable for social media – it’s great for SEO too.
Here’s what you can do: Create a brand style guide that outlines your logo usage, colour scheme, tone of voice, and key messages. Share this with everyone who manages your social media or creates content for your practice.
Also, consider creating a branded hashtag for your practice. Encourage patients to use it when they post about their experiences. This not only increases your visibility but also creates a sense of community.
And don’t forget about your Google My Business profile. Keep it updated with your latest photos, posts, and offers. Consider including keywords both in the listing title then in the description. This helps with both local SEO and brand consistency.
Strategy 5: Integrate SEO Elements into Social Media Campaigns
Strategy number five is all about including SEO elements into your social media efforts.
This is where the real magic happens. Take that keyword research you’ve done and let it guide your social media posts.
But don’t just throw out the keywords in there. They need to be used thoughtfully and flow naturally within your posts.
And let’s not overlook the technical side of things. Optimise those images and videos for quicker loading times, and ensure everything is mobile-friendly.
Here’s a practical tip: When you share links to your website on social media, use descriptive captions that include your target keywords. This helps search engines understand what your content is about.
Also, don’t forget about YouTube. It’s the second largest search engine after Google. Create video content optimised for search, then share snippets on other social platforms to drive traffic to the full video.
Another idea is to create social media posts around commonly searched questions in your field. For example, if you’re a hair transplant surgeon, you might create a post answering “How often should I wash my hair after a hair transplant?” This aligns with what people are searching for and positions you as an authority.
Strategy 6: Collect and Use Feedback
Now, onto our final sixth strategy, gathering and using feedback effectively.
Patient reviews are like gold for both SEO and social media presence. Encourage your patients to leave their thoughts on platforms such as Yelp, Facebook, or Google My Business.
And here’s a very crucial part – make sure you respond to these reviews, whether they’re positive or negative. It shows you genuinely care about your patients. With our OMD clients we have strategies in action to improve the number of reviews they can get from their patients.
Absolutely, for example, our clients, such as Delta Clinics UK (a plastic and cosmetic surgery based in London) has implemented a review card to hand to their patients asking them to leave a review. In addition, they have a follow-up email system in place, sending reminders to their patients to leave reviews. As you can see, there are multiple ways you can increment the number of reviews you get from your patients.
Here’s what you can do: Set up an automated email system that sends a follow-up email to patients a day or two after their appointment, asking for feedback and providing links to your review platforms.
Also, train your staff to ask for reviews at the end of positive interactions. A simple “We’re glad you had a good experience. Would you mind sharing it on Google?” can be very effective.
And don’t forget to showcase your positive reviews on your website and social media. This creates a positive feedback loop – patients see good reviews, feel more confident choosing you, have a good experience, and then leave their own positive review.
Plus, this feedback can help you refine your services and shape your content strategy. It’s really a win-win situation if you think about it.
So there you have it – six impactful strategies to blend SEO with social media for enhancing your healthcare practice’s online presence.
But keep in mind that success doesn’t come overnight. Consistency is key here. Stick to a regular posting schedule, use engaging visual content to boost your reaction, and always keep an eye on how you’re performing.
And consider collaborating with influencers or industry experts; it can seriously amplify both reach and credibility in significant ways.
We’d love to hear from you now! Drop a comment below telling us which of these strategies excites you the most. What’s one action you’ll take this week to start integrating SEO with social media?
If you want to change the future of your clinic, take action now!
Thanks so much for listening! If this episode was helpful, which we hope it was, don’t forget to like it and hit that notification bell so you’re always updated when we post new episodes.
And if implementing these strategies seems daunting, or if you just prefer some expert help, feel free to reach out at Online Marketing for Doctors. We are here to assist in growing your practice!
Until the next video – thank you and as Steve said, if you want to change the future of your clinic take action and take it NOW!
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