The power of Twitter, timeliness, and relevancy

How your hospital brand can gain more traction on Twitter than ever before

By now, if you don’t think your hospital brand belongs on Twitter, then you might want to rethink that decision. Brands that actively use Twitter tend to have a large following and can generate a lot of buzz. But, it’s not just the act of using Twitter that can help your hospital spread awareness and attract patients. Investing in paid advertising such as promoted posts and trends can help boost your hospital’s exposure and make a huge impact on social media.

Additionally, Twitter is making some major changes to its corporation, which recently included a 9 percent cut to its workforce. That being said, it may be a good time to take advantage of what it has to offer while it works to boost users and grow revenue.

How to get the most out of Twitter

Twitter is all about real-time communication and relevancy. If you’re going to spend your hospital’s marketing dollars on paid advertising, then it’s imperative to pay attention to what’s trending.  Recently, the pain reliever brand Excedrin turned to Twitter before Wednesday’s Presidential Debate to promote some timely tweets and trends. Using the hashtag #DebateHeadache and some pretty clever creative, Excedrin practically dominated the social sphere ( in terms of brand awareness).

According to AdWeek, Excedrin saw a 3,100 percent increase in Twitter mentions on Wednesday, amassing a total of 46,000 mentions throughout the day. They unleashed their first of six promoted posts early in that morning and by the time the debate started the hashtag #DebateHeadache spiked 602 percent.

Those are some pretty big numbers for an average over-the-counter pain reliever brand.

Better yet, users seemed to react positively to this disruptive campaign. They were retweeting their posts and applauding Excedrin’s sense of humor —Kudos to the brand and their marketing team.

Similarly, hospitals and health systems can leverage National Health Observance months to promote service line campaigns on Twitter. Find out what other large events are trending and see if you can piggyback off the hype it is creating. Events such as Monday Night Football, Dancing With the Stars, or other events that are bound to capture the attention of your target audience. Create a catchy hashtag and challenge followers to use it in their tweets. As cliche as it is, the possibilities are endless on Twitter. Your hospital just needs to use it to find out.