Are you leveraging video on your Social Media Platforms?

“Social media videos are so engaging that the networks are pushing them way to the top of social streams. Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn all want us to do more in this all-powerful format. It wins in the algorithms and in wins for attention.”

- Andy Crestodina at Techsmith

Social media gives healthcare marketers the opportunity to directly engage with their patient audience, reach target audiences and build trust.  Video plays a big role in the success of your social media strategy – it is mobile friendly, more likely to inspire action and is proven to generate more results. 

Build Your Story.
Social media is the perfect forum for bite-sized video content. This content builds a story of your healthcare system and the physicians and patients who make up your community.  

1. Keep your video content under 1 minute.  Focus on quality and creativity, your goal is to capture your audience in the first 8 seconds.  

2. Create content around your physicians, supportive staff, patients, new technologies and treatments.  Your hospital will become a trusted expert in all these areas and the leader in patient treatment.  

3. Update patients on changes within your healthcare system.  Introduce new doctors, services and highlight any accolades received by patients or the healthcare community. 

Bringing these components together builds trust and in turn, gives you the opportunity to reach out and encourage your audience to book an appointment. 

Wellness Education.
People care about their health and want resources and information around preventative care and lifestyle tips. 

1. A wellness campaign provides a consistent message on important topics such as skin cancer, diabetes, heart health, etc.  As an example, Point Across Media’s Healthcare Awareness Spotlight campaign runs for a full year and addresses a health topic for each month.  The videos blend physicians’ interviews with 3D animations. 

2. A patient’s story told on camera is a powerful way to address health topics and illustrate how you can help your audience.  It makes your content relatable and starts a conversation with those who are going through the same medical journey. 

Patient Engagement.
Did you know?  Visual content is 40x more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content according to research by Buffer. 

1. A big strategy in social media marketing is to develop video content your audience will share with others.  It will increase your reach to communities you did not have access to before. In addition, receiving information from a trusted source only increases your credibility. 

2. Connect with patients in real-time.  Social media can act as a 2-way conversation and provides a place to ask questions around your healthcare organization.  It’s also a great way to see what your audience is talking about and what they are most interested in at that moment.  

3. It also fosters an environment that allows patients to engage with one another over similar experiences and builds a network of people who want to support each other towards a healthy lifestyle. 

Video Guidelines:
It makes sense to optimize your videos specifically for social media with statistics like this - 75% of video content in 2018 was viewed on a mobile device.  People are watching videos on their mobile device more than any other device. 

Vertical Video.
With the increased usage of smartphones vertical video is on the rise. Studies show people hold their phones vertically an almost universal 94% of the time– including watching videos.

1. The 9:16 vertical format fills the entire phone screen reducing distractions to click somewhere else - helping you keep your audience’s attention on your message.  

2. In some cases, there are certain platforms that only support a vertical video format (9:16) – for example, Instagram stories and their IGTV option.  

3. The latest trend - stories are already on track to pass Facebook and Instagram news feeds regarding growth and user engagement.  This format continues to grow, so expect to see marketers implement a vertical video strategy.

Captions.
Captions are valuable when trying to increase your SEO.  Google bots can’t read the audio content of your video.  By including captions and transcripts it gives bots a text version of your video so it can be correctly indexed.  

1. Captions grab the attention of the viewer and let them know what it is about, giving them a reason to tap and turn on the sound and listen. Captions increase viewer engagement.

2. You improve accessibility to viewers who are hearing impaired and as a result, bring your message to a wider audience.  

3.  Facebook found that 80% of users reacted negatively to videos played with the sound on. That’s why videos auto-play without sound.  Captions allow your audience to view videos in loud or quiet environments.  

HIPPA Compliance.
Lastly, complying with HIPPA rules is a key piece to consider when developing your social media strategy.

 HIPPA compliance can be one of the challenges for healthcare marketers and the fear around compromising a patient’s privacy. HIPPA does offer clear guidelines on how to securely post information, comments, photos, or videos online without violating patient privacy laws. There’s information on how to omit specific information around privacy, but the safest route is to obtain consent from a patient to post their video on your social media sites.

What are your next steps to increase your social media presence and connect with your audience?

The original version of this page was published at:  https://www.pointacrossmedia.com/post/are-you-leveraging-video-on-your-social-media-platforms