How Do You Humanize Healthcare on Social Media?

Jackie Kollar
August 4, 2017
Categories

“What’s the best part of your job?”

During interviews, a question that regularly comes up in conversation is the classic “What’s the best part of your job?” or “What excites you about coming to work every day?” And while there are quite a few ways to answer this question, my leading response explains that we’re an agency working across all types of industries, from local nonprofits to the “Comcasts” of the world.

Being able to touch a variety of industries allows us as a team to think from different perspectives, embody a range of voices and analyze what markets are emerging and/or changing on social media.

Healthcare marketing: It’s only boring if you want it to be.

Over the last year we’ve had a hand in working with a range of clients within the healthcare and medical space, and had the pleasure of launching digital creative campaigns that touch on the softer side of industry.

People are quick to write-off healthcare as an industry that needs to be safe, sterile (see what I did there), factual and frankly, boring. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Healthcare encompasses every aspect of health, the good, the bad, the ugly – and certainly doesn’t need to focus on just one.  

Working alongside our friends at Einstein Healthcare Network, our team’s developed creative campaigns to showcase the human side of the organization, and content that would resonate with their digital following. Here are a few of our favorites:

#BornAtEinstein

Posting baby photos on social media is certainly not a new idea. People do this constantly. It’s ingrained into our culture to share our dearest memories with our loved ones, acquaintances, and even strangers online.

Using social media as a driving force, the digital campaign #BornAtEinstein, internally referred to as BAE, was created to celebrate Einstein’s 150th anniversary and bring together the Einstein family, requesting users from across the globe to submit their #BornAtEinstein, stories and photos. Submissions could be a photo of entrants’ own baby photo, or a photo of their child, nephew, mother or sibling—anyone who was born at an Einstein location. Entries were submitted through a Facebook tab, or by simply posting a photo with the #BornAtEinstein hashtag.

In total, the campaign surpassed 1,300 entries, and earned 3 million impressions, meeting the objective of reaching Einstein families all over the globe, ranging in birth year from 1928 to 2016.

It’s Gettin’ Hot: Heart Healthy Recipes

After baby photos, the only logical move was to create a campaign that stars everyone’s other favorite topic: food. All jokes aside, Einstein wanted to support their Heart and Vascular team through a creative social media campaign.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BT2Fz8mFHRE

Despite the popularity of food videos online, very little was being produced from a heart-health conscious perspective. Using time-lapse videos, and the library of knowledge from Einstein’s dietitians, we composed five heart-healthy recipe videos featuring popular dishes nodding to Einstein’s surrounding communities.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BUHXVkllicf

Leveraging Facebook, Instagram and a corresponding blog series, the campaign generated 220k online engagements, reached 900k users, and drove about 5,000 visits to the blog.

So what does this say about the healthcare industry on social media?

Your social media presence doesn’t have to be boring, especially if you’re operating within an industry that may have a few more parameters surrounding your messaging. It’s natural for us to want to see the humanized side of industries that often are thought of as stale and regulated. After determining your project’s goals, think about:

Your audience: Who are they? Why do they care? What social channels are they on? How are they absorbing information? What do they want to engage with in their social feeds?

Your content: What do you know that the general public does not? How can you deliver that message creatively? What social channels will support the content you’re creating?

When you marry these two ideas together, this is where creative campaigns that transcend industry standards are born. Regardless of what industry you may be operating in, the keys to successful—and humanizing—social media strategy keep your audience and your creativity front and center.

Plus, any opportunity to talk about food and babies should probably never be ignored, anyway.

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