So, you’ve posted a creative, engaging blog post to your healthcare practice’s website. Now what? Well, you need to syndicate your content across all your social media platforms for maximum exposure. Really proud of your work? Submit it for publication on a top website or blog. Read on and learn how to do it all.
Tweet with A Little Sass
Twitter, known for its short and feisty “tweets”, demands special attention. First, the facts: Twitter has 310 million monthly active users. Want to catch up to Twitter’s reigning queen? You’ve got some work to do to unseat singer Katy Perry, who boasts almost 100 million followers. Don’t worry if you’re not even close – the average twitter account entertains a more manageable 208 followers.
Twitter inhibits tweets over 140 characters in length. You don’t need to use every character available, though. Medium-length tweets — tweets between 71 and 100 characters — receive the most retweets.
For Twitter, try rewriting your blog post’s title in a more provocative way. Clickbait rules on this social medium, so really try to craft a tweet that grabs attention. Then, use a few carefully considered, popular hashtags (#keyword) to join a searchable conversation. Hashtags help you reach a larger audience than just your group of followers.
Blog Post Title: 10 Things That May Happen if You Give Up Dairy
Twitter Clickbait: How Much Weight Could You Lose Cutting Out Dairy? Find Out Here! #diet #motivationmonday (104 characters)
(Related: 5 Must-Follow Healthcare Twitter Stars)
Make Your Facebook Posts Short and Sweet
Facebook, the Holy Grail of social media, boasts over 1 billion monthly active users. Almost three-quarters of all Americans visit Facebook at least once a month. Still not convinced you should be sharing your unique content on Facebook? Almost one-quarter of the time Americans spend on their smartphones is spent on Facebook! That’s significant, and savvy healthcare practices take advantage of it.
Employ the same clickbait strategy used for Twitter on Facebook, but with even fewer words. Facebook doesn’t limit the number of characters you compose, so writing for brevity may seem counterintuitive, but it’s proven to be more effective. The ideal length of a Facebook post is a concise 40 characters.
Asking a brief question can help increase engagement.
Blog Post Title: 10 Things That May Happen if You Give Up Dairy
Facebook Clickbait: Could You Lose Weight Slashing Dairy? (37 characters)
We revised the Facebook clickbait just a tad. Varying the title also helps create a little diversity between your social media platforms. Asking a question, as exemplified above, helps increase engagement, too.
(Related: Facebook 101 For Healthcare Practices)
Instagram Like the Pros Do
Instagram, which Facebook owns, allows users to curate their own lives with cool, filtered photos and videos. Celebrities and brands play along, too. Instagram draws over 500 million active monthly users, and users share an average 95 million photos on the app daily.
Unlike Facebook and Twitter, you’ll need to really focus on the photo you share on Instagram. Use a great shot from your practice’s professional pictures or feature a stock image. Describe your latest blog post in the text below the featured image. Link to the new blog entry on your Instagram account’s biography section. Instagram does not allow you to link directly from a post, so it’s common practice to update your biography section’s website frequently to showcase your latest content.
Though they prefer to publish blogs in video format, med student duo Jane and Jady do a great job of posting high-quality, relevant images on their Instagram to draw attention to the link in their bio — their vlog channel on YouTube.
Blog Post Title: 10 Things That May Happen if You Give Up Dairy
Instagram Eyebait: [Eye-Catching Image] + Could Slashing Dairy Change Your Life? Check out our latest blog post (link in bio) to learn more.
(Related: What You Can Learn From These 5 Healthcare Provider Instagram Stars)
Post to Google+ — People Do Use It!
Think nobody uses Google+? It hosts over 375 million active members. Sure, it’s no Facebook, but it’s still worth using. Google+ usage affects your SEO ranking, and you can easily repurpose your content for the platform. Condense your blog into a new, shorter blurb for Google+, and provide a backlink to the original post. Assign your post to a relevant collection and include some thoughtful hashtags at the end.
The “Health News” Community has over half a million members, and is a great place to establish yourself as a thought leader.
Blog Post Title: 10 Things That May Happen if You Give Up Dairy
Google+ Post: Could Slashing Dairy Help You Drop Those Last 10 Pounds + [an engaging teaser of the post, 100 – 200 words] + #diet #wellness #health #weightloss
Submit Your Best Work to Popular Sites
Pumped up about your latest listicle or infographic? Get some great exposure by submitting it to a top-performing website. Need some ideas? Consider these three recommendations:
- KevinMD, a popular medical blog, generates 3 million monthly page views and boasts 250,000 subscribers. KevinMD accepts original, physician-penned content between 500 – 1000 words. As always, the blog content must make no mention of your practice. Learn more about submitting to what the New York Times calls “a highly-coveted publishing place for doctors and patients.”
- Huffington Post also publishes original content, and looks for pieces written by medical experts. The Huffington Post is the 69th most-visited website in the country. Unlike KevinMD, HuffPost looks for pitches, not completed articles. Get in touch with the editors through this form, and see if your ideas fit the editors’ needs.
- Check with your local newspapers about submitting guest posts and columns. Some papers welcome additional online content that’s not available in print. This is a great opportunity to work on your local visibility.
Keep Writing, and Keep Sharing
While posting to four – or more! – social media sites may appear excessive, each platform possesses its own features and benefits. Stay vigilant about sharing your blog posts each time you publish a new one. Make sure to think up interesting “clickbait” when you post to each platform to help drive traffic and attention to your blog. And when you really produce a great post, submit it to a renowned website. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain from sharing your blog with as many people – across as many platforms – as possible.
