Benefits of Social Media for Ear, Nose, and Throat Doctors

Should doctors be on social media? If the question conjures up images of idly scrolling a Facebook or Twitter feed, the real answer might surprise you.

Social media is a modern-day town square. Billions of people spend time on social media every day, sharing news and looking for information. Some are even turning to it as a search engine replacement — 40% of Gen Z users prefer to search on TikTok instead of Google. If you’re interested in education and self-promotion, social media is essential.

Keep reading to discover some of the benefits of social media for ear, nose, and throat doctors (ENTs), plus tips for improving your experience.

Benefits of social media for ear, nose, and throat doctors

Establishing a social media presence can help people discover you and make accurate medical information more accessible. Let’s take a closer look at three of the most significant benefits of social media for ENTs.

1. Social media makes it easy to share content

Sharing content is one of the best ways to connect with your patients. Social media gives you an easy way to share everything, from your address and contact information to videos showing the lighthearted side of your ENT practice. 

While it’s certainly worthwhile to have those things on your website, social media centers around sharing content. Once you make something available, your followers can share it in their feeds. Even if your follower count is small, your posts can end up in front of hundreds or even thousands of people. As awareness of your practice grows, your pool of potential new patients grows with it.

2. You can increase your reach and growth

Social media represents an incredible growth opportunity, with 4.62 billion active users across the major platforms. Developing a social media presence lets you reach a significantly wider audience than you could reach with traditional marketing tactics. 

Sharing content through your social media accounts builds your online presence and reputation and increases traffic to your website. These signals help search engines establish you and your practice as a relevant, authoritative source of information. The more search engines like Google trust your content, the higher you’ll rank in search results.

3. You can combat medical misinformation

People spend a lot of time online and they’re turning to the internet more often for everything, including medical answers. Studies show that 67.5%-81.5% of U.S. adults look for medical information online, with 11% turning to social media specifically.

With so much information available, it can be challenging to filter the good from the bad. You can help combat misinformation like this through your social media accounts. Your professional authority as an ear, nose, and throat doctor allows you to educate and explain with genuine medical knowledge.

How to find the best social media platforms for ear, nose, and throat doctors

The first part of building a social media strategy is choosing platforms that appeal to the people you want to reach. In other words, you need to identify your target audience. Using your current patients as a starting point, consider who you most want to appeal to, using characteristics like age, gender, location, and income. 

Once you know your target audience, you’ll want to look at their preferred platforms. You can choose the best platforms for your practice by identifying the most consistent demographics of your clients.

Each major social media platform has its own benefits, depending on the type of content you want to share and what demographics you’re trying to reach:

• Facebook: With consistently high use across various ages, incomes, and education levels, Facebook provides access to a broad audience. Its structure is also very community-centered, making it a popular platform for medical advice and support groups.
• TikTok: If you want to share short videos — for education, entertainment, or a combination of both — TikTok lets you create posts between 15 seconds to 10 minutes long. This platform is also a great way to reach younger users, with 37.3 million Gen Z users. 
• Instagram: Both ad-friendly and image-focused, Instagram lets you post photos and videos to encourage engagement and interaction. Instagram covers a good range of ages — over half of U.S. users are 18-34.
• Twitter: While it provides opportunities for sharing visual content, Twitter’s primary focus is commentary and conversation. It can provide an excellent opportunity to discuss current health breakthroughs and concerns. Twitter skews slightly younger than Instagram, with people 18-29 accounting for 42% of U.S. Twitter users.
• YouTube: For longer or more in-depth videos, including demonstrations and education, YouTube is the best platform around. It has more users across demographics than any other major platform — 81% of the population says they use YouTube, with Facebook ranking second at 69%. 

5 social media tips for ear, nose, and throat doctors

Of course, there’s more to social media success than simply picking your platform. Consider these social media tips for ENTs as you build your platform and following:

1. Limit your channels: Developing a consistent following requires consistent posting. While trying to cover all your bases with an account on every platform may be tempting, it’s best to limit yourself to the number you can update regularly.
2. Avoid giving out specific medical advice: Social media will make you more accessible to current and potential patients, giving you the opportunity to share medical advice and information. While this lets you combat medical misinformation, you’ll want to avoid offering a diagnosis or suggesting a specific treatment online. 
3. Separate the personal and professional: Showing your practice’s lighthearted, humorous side can humanize your accounts and help build a following. However, it’s vital to remember that anything you post on your social media will become part of your professional brand.
4. Manage your online reputation: Adding this new aspect to your professional brand requires robust management. Ensure that all your online information stays up to date to avoid inconsistencies. You’ll also want to manage your online reviews regularly to help attract new patients. 
5. Consider a social media manager: If you’re wondering how you’ll carve out the time and effort it takes to establish a successful social media presence, you may want to look into social media management services. A social media manager or management agency can take care of everything from posting to competitor analysis to building your marketing strategy.

Growing your social presence with WebFX is a walk in the park.

“WebFX allows growing your social media platforms to be stress-free! They are knowledgeable and adapt to your company needs!”

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Partner with WebFX for your social media strategy

Social media is an invaluable tool in today’s medical landscape. Establishing a social media account for you and your practice can help expand your reach, letting you attract new patients and build your online reputation. 

WebFX’s social media services can handle your social media efforts, letting you enjoy the benefits while focusing on your practice’s day-to-day demands. You can contact us online to learn more or call us at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist today!

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