Utilizing Social Media in Healthcare Marketing
Background: A substantial ascending trend in social media users has been observed over the last decades. This encouraged hospitals to adopt social media as a key method of marketing. When choosing which platforms to employ for marketing purposes, hospitals need to understand the favorites of their target group. The aims of this study are to explore the preferences of prospective customers in healthcare services, determine which social media platform is the most regularly accessed to search for medical information and what users think about the effectiveness of conveying medical information through social media influencers. Methods: A cross-sectional study design was implemented utilizing a special questionnaire prepared by the researchers and transformed into Google form. Results: 434 respondents, of which 276 (63.3%) were females, most of them 423 (89.7%) were aged between 18 and 54 years. A significant portion of 284 (65.4%) were bachelor’s degree holders. While the majority 265 (61.1%) were full-time employees, 222 (51.0%) had an income of less than 700 USD. The majority of the respondents preferred educational content type. Facebook was the most regularly used platform, and conveying medical information through social media influencers was found to be an effective method. Conclusion: Healthcare marketing utilizing social media has become an important place for attracting patients. In order to achieve the best outcomes, hospitals need to understand the favorites of their target group. In this study, educational content was found to be the most preferred content type among the respondents. Additionally, Facebook was the most regularly used platform, and many of the participants thought that conveying medical information through social media influencers was effective.
Keywords Marketing strategies, social media marketing, health care marketing
