By Shawn Theesfeld for our 99 Ways to Make a Positive Difference in Your Pharmacy blog series
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat – how does your pharmacy fit into the social media landscape?
First, the good news: you don’t have to be on every social media platform. The bad news: you do have to be on some, and you have to use them well. But which platforms make the most sense for you and how can you leverage them to your advantage?
Let’s step back and consider why any business would use social media. Social media is a tremendous opportunity to:
1. Connect with current customers and engage new customers
2. Monitor competitor activity
3. Boost your SEO (search engine optimization) rankings and move your website up in search results
4. Network with industry partners and colleagues
5. Promote their business and services for little to no cost (except for the overhead costs needed to implement and monitor social media activity)
Social media can do a lot of that, provided it’s done well. Doing social media well means not stretching yourself too thin: identify the platforms you think your customers/patients are using most, and focus on those platforms. A simple customer survey might help you narrow down these options, and plenty of research has been done on the demographics using certain types of social media. Pick one or two platforms to start to develop a strategy around.
When you’ve determined which social media platforms will work best for you, create an account for your business. Review the platform’s privacy settings and adjust them to your preferences (you might wish to set profanity blockers, for example). Once you’ve created your account, update regularly, and update wisely. Social media isn’t about just selling your products and services. Establish the human side of your business by sharing pictures of your team, health-related articles, daily health tips, and more. Think about your core demographic and target audience – what would be interesting to them? Post those things consistently to engage, retain, and grow your followers.
As visitors to your social media sites like, follow, or comment, respond quickly. Thank them for their like or follow, or reply publically to their comment to show you’re listening and their engagement matters.
Focus, frequent posts, and follow-up: those three practices are the key to your social media success.
As part of the PC development team, Shawn helps to develop, maintain and support all in-house, PC-based applications. This development includes Microsoft SQL development, .NET development, and Web development.