Tweeting for Success: How Twitter Can Fuel the Growth of Your Healthcare Practice

Twitter is one of the most active social media platforms out there, alongside Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Quora, etc. A total of 1.3 billion accounts are present on Twitter and the average number of active users per month is 330 million. The activity rate on the platform is just astounding, with approximately 600 million tweets going out each day.

Gaining a large number of followers on Twitter isn’t easy unless you’re a well-known celebrity. It takes a lot of time and effort to build a strong follower base. Most of all, you should regularly post engaging content on the platform, which keeps your followers updated and informed about your practice.

Here are some of the things you can do on Twitter that will help your practice gain the required exposure on social media.

Write a Solid Twitter Bio

In most cases, a professional bio would include just a person’s education, professional experience and contact information. But this is far from being impressive. There are certain things that would make your Twitter bio really stand out.

• Express your dedication to the profession: A few strong words that talk about your interest and dedication to healthcare can encourage patients to consider your practice. They may even recommend it to their close ones.
• Include contact info: Put up your website’s URL in the bio. This way, patients can browse through it and get to know more about your practice. Also, if your website includes any rating and feedback section, it can help patients get a better idea about how good your practice is.
• Put up a profile picture: According to a survey, social media users are five times more likely to consider a user with a profile picture than one without one. A picture adds more weight to your profile as it seems more authentic. It would be better if the picture includes all the doctors in your practice.

Build Your Follower Base

Twitter users are more likely to follow you once you follow them, provided they are interested in the type of tweets you post. A study conducted on over 1000 Twitter accounts shows that the number of Twitter followers you have starts to increase once you start following more people. So, whom should you follow? Who should be your target audience?

• Follow the right communities: There are several accounts on Twitter which represent different communities. Following the ones related to your stream will give you access to a lot of information about them, as well as access to their followers. Also, if they follow you, your tweets may appear at the top of their feed, which extends their reach.
• Follow individuals relevant to your practice: This can include other healthcare providers and practices, individuals such as doctors, dentists, practitioners, etc. This will help you gain the latest updates about what’s happening in the industry and who are involved in it. It will also broaden your professional circle. Following local pharmacists and laboratories keep them informed about your practice.
• Follow people who are interested in your tweets: This could be any random person on Twitter who regularly likes your posts, retweets them, or mentions you in one of their tweets. Following them could popularize the name of your practice in the locality.

Tweet Engaging Content

Once your account gets going, make sure you post engaging content. By engaging content, I mean something that your audience would like to read about or would pull them into an interactive session. Here are some of the things that can help you post better.

• Post relevant content: Make sure you post content related to the healthcare domain. You can also include tips, suggestions, latest updates, and other health and wellness related content.
• Post regularly: At the beginning, you may tweet every alternate day or so. But as your follower base keeps growing, you will have to keep them engaged more often. Some of the celebrities who own/promote big companies tweet up to 10 times a day.
• Respond to comments on your tweets: When someone comments on your tweet, make sure to respond to them. When your followers know that you are very active on Twitter, they naturally feel more interested in your tweets, which in turn increases your popularity.
• Include relevant hashtags and images: Hashtags are very important in Twitter. The search algorithm in Twitter depends mainly on the hashtags, and hence, would make your tweet more discoverable when some searches for a particular keyword. Also, tweets that are complemented by images usually have a higher chance of trending.
• Add links to the sources: Linking to several sources on Twitter can increase your chances of getting more exposure on Twitter. It would allow your followers to access more information from different blogs and websites, which would make you a reliable source.
• Avoid self-praising tweets: Tweeting about any recent achievement or new addition to the practice is alright. But don’t tweet frequently about anything that’s self-praising. It could annoy your followers and they may unfollow you.

Promote Your Twitter Profile

Once you have a decent number of followers on your profile, it is time to promote it. It can be done in the following ways.

• Include your Twitter username in the social media links that you provide on your website.
• Add a link to your Twitter profile in your email signature.
• If you have any business cards or brochures that you hand out to your patients and others within your community, mention your Twitter username in the contact information.
• Promote your Twitter profile on other social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, etc.

The most important things that will ensure the growth of your Twitter profile is posting engaging content and doing it regularly. If anyone hurls a negative comment at one of your tweets, respond to them immediately and in a polite manner. If a general comment is made, reply to it and build a conversation. Using this vast social media platform in the right way can take your practice to great heights.