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Health Content for Social Media: 7 Tips for a Cohesive Strategy
At HealthDay, we don't just create award-winning health and medical content—we also endeavor to understand how quality content solutions drive client engagement and increase website traffic. These days, to have a truly comprehensive content approach, such a content solution must include content specifically intended for social media.
Whether engaging a social media audience as a marketing or public relations tool, attempting to drive traffic back to websites, or embarking on a brand enhancement campaign, the social media accounts of health and medical marketing and communications departments simply must include quality, verifiable content.
Every day, we at HealthDay are asked questions about health content for social media. Here are some of the typical questions we field, along with the answers you need to achieve your goals.
What Is the Best Health Content for Social Media?
Whether you buy licensed content for social media or engage a content provider to create custom content for social media, the question remains: what is the best health content for social media?
The content on your social media channels should be aligned directly with the content on your other marketing media outlets (such as on your website, in your electronic newsletters, in your print materials, etc.). The social media content should also be created and shared with your audience in mind.
For example, when sharing to LinkedIn, the content should be slightly more professional-friendly, and selected with client partnerships in mind-possibly leaning a little towards a marketing communications voice. On the other hand, healthcare marketing content for Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, or other consumer media networks should be a little more about lifestyle and well-being, and how your organization is at the forefront of your chosen niche.
Where Can I Find Good Health Content for Social Media?
Partnering and building a relationship with a content provider is definitely the best way to ensure that you have a cost-effective, measurable strategy in place for your social media content. While organizations may be really strong in specialized health or medical fields, communicating that proficiency in the hope of building brand trust or generating new business may not be their forte. Knowing your business and knowing how to market it are two completely different things.
You could possibly employ a freelance content writer for health articles, but as anyone who has ever actually done this will testify, managing freelance writers and then editing the health content they return uses up valuable time and money. A dedicated health content provider gets around this problem by already having a team of editors on staff and knowing exactly which types of content to assign to which writers. Creating health content in-house is notoriously difficult because of time and cost restrictions, and also because health content leaves absolutely no room for error in its research-based verifiability. It not only has to be right, but it has to get to right in the most cost-effective way. This isn't easy, and it is why so many organizations turn to a professional content provider such as HealthDay.
Does Buying Content for Social Media Mean I Need Social Media Management?
In a word, no. In fact, spending money on social media management simply means that you are giving an agency money to go and buy the content you should be buying yourself. Social Media Management simply takes your content and ensures it is posted at the right time and in the right way. That's a very different skill set to creating the content you need.
But Won't I Need to Post the Content to Social Media?
Not necessarily. There are many apps and tools created specifically for automating the process of posting to social media. All you need to do is connect to the right app and then make sure your content funnel is fed at a cadence to suit your needs. A good content provider will ensure you receive a feed to your social media channels, so you don't need to worry about writers, editors, managers, etc. In fact, you don't need to worry about anything. Passing off your social media tasks to a content provider means you never need to do anything other than step in now and again to monitor client engagement and traffic data.
What If I Don't Yet Have a Large Social Media Following?
You will. Enlisting the help of a professional content provider such as HealthDay to take care of your health content for social media fits in line with the "build it and they will come" philosophy. Social media users are a pretty savvy bunch, so regardless of what your level of followers/likers/sharers/connections/friends is, if you are using accurate, research-verifiable, engaging content, your audience will come.
Does a Content Feed for Social Media Include Images and Video?
Yes. Any decent health content feed that goes to your social media channels should include accompanying images and video to spark engagement and drive traffic back to your website. The better content providers use professional image and video licensing services to merge their text feeds with media, which catches the attention of social media users.
Should I Mix Social Media Health Content with Commentary?
An effective marketing communications campaign, especially a social media campaign, should include commentary. Sharing posts from a content feed, such as HealthDay's Consumer News feed, provides research-based articles about the latest studies or findings on a multitude of health topics. If your organization specializes in a field covered by the Consumer News feed, you could share the item as a post and add your own commentary as a way to engage your audience.
Sam Holmes is Sales and Marketing Manager with HealthDay, the worlds' largest syndicator of health and medical news, and a leading creator of custom health content for hospitals, physician's offices, corporate benefits providers, health insurance companies and media outlets. Sam can be contacted through his LinkedIn page.
HealthDay's Interactive Infographics take complex health and medical topics and present them in a way that is appealing, intuitive and engaging. We realize that today's generation typically prefers images to text, and welcomes the ability to swipe and click through information.
What Are HealthDay Social Graphics?
HealthDay's Social Graphics take complex health and medical topics and present them in a way that is appealing, intuitive and engaging. We realize that today's generation typically prefers images to text, and welcomes the ability to get information through graphics. Each social graphic is presented as a stand-alone GIF or MP4 file which can be embedded in an article or blog post, or on your social media.
Why Do Clients Use Our Social Graphics?
HealthDay's media clients are seeking to present information to viewers in a whole new way, and are particularly focused on new formats that work well on mobile and social media. Our Social Graphics allow users to quickly discover information that is of most interest to them. This ability to quickly get to the most meaningful content greatly increases client engagement. Providing users with an intuitive interface as a portal to additional content increases page visit times on websites.
Can Clients Customize Social Graphics?
Yes. We have a stock of generic Social Graphics that are ready for plug and play. If a client requires a solution for a specific subject area, though, we can quickly develop a Social Graphic to meet that need. You give us the topic, and we use our content to create the end product.
How Are They Delivered?
Delivery can be tailored to meet each client's intended use. We can deliver Social Graphics via an XML, JSON, or RSS feed and by download of GIF or MP4 file.
- New Format for Presenting Content
- Intuitive, Graphical, Educational and Entertaining
- All Content Fully Research-Based and Verifiable
- Sources Listed
- Excellent Tool to Increase Client Engagement
- Perfect for Website or Digital Wallboard Use
- Available as a Beta-Version Syndicated Feed
- Available as a Customized Series
HealthDay Now is a magazine-styled video news show, presented by HealthDay broadcast journalist Mabel Jong. In each installment Mabel discusses topical health issues with experts in their field. HealthDay Now offers excellent insight into the critical thinking behind public health administration, and also goes behind the scenes of the latest scientific research. This informative video news product is ideal for driving client engagement.
What is HealthDay Now?
In 2021, HealthDay launched the latest addition to our extensive product line-up, HealthDay Now. Award-winning HealthDay broadcast journalist Mabel Jong - a former news anchor and correspondent with CNBC, NBC News and ABC News - delivers the latest news headlines and discusses topical health issues with experts in that field.
HealthDay Now offers the latest news in video format, provides insight into the critical thinking behind public health administration, and also goes behind the scenes of the latest scientific research.
Why Do Leading Medical Media and Hospitals Use HealthDay Now?
In-house access to the very latest health news stories, the ability to attract top level experts from each health specialty, an accomplished news anchor and over 20 years of expertise in the creation of content to drive client engagement, all means that HealthDay is ideally placed to deliver excellent video news services. Video, of course, is one of the hottest areas in health media today. HealthDay Now enables our clients to provide top quality video news content to their social media or website without having to do any production or technical integration on their own. This provides consistent content to engage users/patients and opens the door for clients to then communicate company information or marketing materials.
How it is Delivered
HealthDay Now is delivered from our broadcast platform directly to your destination. Each video can be delivered as an iFrame, directly to client websites, eliminating or reducing data transfer times and disk/cloud storage issues. We can also provide the raw mp4 if so desired. In certain cases, if our interviews are live streamed, we can broadcast directly to clients' social media channels. This may require minor settings involving RTMP, but for most social media destinations all that is necessary is that you provide access. For more information on live broadcasting directly to your social media, please reach out to HealthDay's sales team.
How HealthDay Now Evolved to Meet Client Needs
The COVID-19 pandemic clearly expedited the need for video content and access to opinions and advice from key thought leaders. From the onset of the pandemic, HealthDay gave clients access to bi-weekly live streamed interviews with public health experts, through our streaming service HD Live! Throughout 2020, HealthDay worked with clients to establish needs and requirements, and eventually broadened the video offering to incorporate the latest news headlines ahead of each interview, as well as an in-depth video review of a topical health news story. As a result of iterative feedback feeding product development, HealthDay Now was launched in the spring of 2021, giving clients exactly what they requested: consistent video news content, including interview segments with key health experts.
Wellness Library articles contain step-by-step guides to diseases and conditions, ranging from how a baby develops and grows, to memory care for Alzheimer's patients. Resources include information on disease and condition management, prevention and self-care, when to consult a physician, what to ask the physician and educational quizzes to test knowledge and track symptom progression.
What is HealthDay’s Wellness Library?
HealthDay's Wellness Library is a collection of more than 1,500 original encyclopedic health and medical articles. The reference-style library features informative articles, special reports, first-person essays, quizzes and much more. Arranged into 42 topic centers ranging from Alzheimer's to Women's Health, the Wellness Library offers "what you need to know" content on a wide variety of topics.
The stories contain step-by-step guides on diseases and conditions, ranging from how a baby develops and grows, to memory care for Alzheimer's patients. Resources include information on disease and condition management, prevention and self-care, when to consult a physician, what to ask the physician and educational quizzes to test knowledge and track symptom progression.
Why Do Leading Medical Media and Hospitals Use the Wellness Library?
While large research hospitals may have ample resources to create their own health and wellness libraries, regional hospitals and health facilities such as Citrus Valley Health Partners, Community Foundation of Northwest Indiana and Northern Hospital of Surry County know they need to provide basic patient education as part of their service. They turn to HealthDay's Wellness Library as a turn-key solution for a fraction of the cost of making it themselves. HealthDay even takes care of reviewing and updating the content annually to ensure it stays up to date.
This deep and focused body of easy-to-understand and informative content is an excellent reference tool for engaging clients. Because of the highly granular nature of the content, clients find exactly what they are interested in reading, thus reducing bounce rates. The Wellness Library is also an excellent range of content from an SEO client acquisition standpoint.
Clients whose business model depends upon client behavioral change, such as wellness platforms, leverage this content to educate and inspire clients.
How is it Delivered?
Because of the encyclopedic nature of the Wellness Library, delivery could not be easier. The content can be delivered as an XML file, via API, or through HealthDay's EZ-Post JavaScript widget, which is simply plugged into your page.
- Encyclopedic Content
- 1,500 Pieces of Original Health/Medical Content
- 42 Topic Centers of Information
- Raises Website/Application IQ
- Excellent Health Content for SEO Strategy Campaigns
- Excellent Health Content for Client Engagement