How to Market Your Healthcare Practice on Twitter

Twitter has evolved into a major player in social media marketing. In 2021, twitter.com saw 2.4 billion sessions, with 620 million of these unique.

• Twitter is the world’s 7th favorite social media platform
• Twitter’s user count is expected to grow upwards of 329 million in 2022
• One-quarter of adults use Twitter
• 42% of Twitter users have a college education

Twitter is a-buzz with activity, so it’s an excellent place for healthcare practices to engage their patients and gain new followers. These tips will help you use Twitter to boost your marketing:

#1 – Set up your Twitter profile: Your profile is your business card on Twitter. Upload a picture of yourself; it’s best to be personable on Twitter. Create a clever bio. “Excellent dentist and karaoke singer” works well on a platform like Twitter. Use keywords related to your specialty, practice and location so your profile is easy to find in search. Include a link to your website.

#2 – Follow strategically: When you join Twitter, you will find that a lot of random people will start to follow you. You don’t have to follow everyone back. Best to keep your Twitter stream full of relevant, interesting, and somewhat coherent content. Follow influential people in your field, and retweet their tweets if your followers will find them interesting, funny or helpful. Influencers appreciate when others retweet their messages.

#3 – Tweet frequently: Twitter is more fast-paced than Facebook or LinkedIn, so you’ll need a constant stream of tweets to hold people’s interest. But don’t tweet more than two to three times per hour. 

Tweet links to your blog posts. Share your practice’s events. Tweet your current promotions. But don’t be all about business. Interact with followers and others who are relevant to your healthcare practice. If you really do love karaoke, tweet about it occasionally; get the conversation going. On Twitter, being personable is just as important as being business-focused.

#4 – Stay helpful and relevant: We all appreciate being helped, so take time to answer questions that appear on your timeline. Give feedback and comments where they are relevant. Try to keep the conversation going, especially when it represents a chance for you to be helpful or insightful.

#5 – Promote your profile: Since you now have a Twitter profile, you can certainly promote your profile wherever you can. List your @ Twitter handle on your healthcare practice website or blog, on your business cards, in your bio, and wherever else it’s appropriate.

#6 – Set up chats: You can generate patient engagement with Twitter chats. To initiate a Twitter chat, you must schedule it around a particular hashtag that anyone can participate in. The hashtag (e.g., #dentalchat) serves as a way to cross-reference tweets, so anyone who searches for this hashtag will see all Tweets that contain it. For example, blogger Mark Collier has built a considerable following by hosting #blogchat every Sunday. Twitter chats are also a great way to network with others who have similar interests.

#7 – Create Hashtag campaigns: Hashtag campaigns are a great way to generate interest around your brand. Here are a just a few ways you can use a hashtag campaign to promote your business:

• Spark a conversation around a conversational hashtag like #orthodontics, #braces, #veneers or #dental implants.
• Run a contest where the entrants must use a certain hashtag to enter.
• Make content on your website shareable
• Post exclusive offers and coupons for your Twitter followers
• Use coupons and promotional codes to thank your followers for supporting your healthcare practice.

Remember:

• Reply to mentions right away
• Stay interactive with the people who mention you. Thank the people who offer positive feedback, and try to resolve negative mentions as quickly as possible.

#8 – Track your links: If you share a link via Twitter, it helps to know how it’s performing. Use bit.ly or tinyurl to shorten your links and also to set up link tracking.

#9 – Ask for feedback: As with other platforms, it’s okay to ask for feedback to see what’s working and what’s not. This is a good way to engage with followers and learn how best to spend your time on Twitter.

#10 – Adapt to mobile: The majority of Twitter users access the site via cell phones. You need to join the trend, and download the Twitter app, set up your account, and tweet via text message. 

These efforts won’t bear fruit overnight. But by being a consistent presence on Twitter will help boost your brand, along with your other social media efforts.