Where Do I Start When Creating a Social Media Plan?

In a healthcare environment, it is hard to engage your patients with a blog post about eating healthy...why?  Because everyone is writing about eating healthy.  So if your patients are searching the web for healthy eating tips, chances are your blog post will not come up (well unless that is your focus and are a big hospital with a lot of key words etc. put into your blog).  So where do you start?

First you have to answer a few questions:
What are our goals?
What is our message?

      Who is our audience?
How do we reach them? 

How do we establish our digital presence — and how does this change the way we communicate and engage our patients, potential patients, caregivers and colleagues?

After you have answered those questions, you will need to create a social media plan that is aligned with your existing marketing and communication plans, define the roles of social media tools you will use, and most important...BE RELEVANT.

What ever you decide to write about, remember you need to have two way communication with your patients.  Don't talk at them, talk with them.


--The Catalyst