How to Do Healthcare Social Media Right

Helping Before Marketing

Even more so than most industries, working in healthcare should be all about helping people. That includes working in healthcare social media.
Most companies would agree that social should be used to help their customers, but they’re usually referring to their customer care department, which provides assistance when problems arise. What James LaCorte and his team at Blue Cross NC have set out to do is help their customers before they have issues. Whether through their content, their ambassador program, or their extensive team of community managers, James and the team have gone far beyond marketing to provide immense value to their customers.
Even if you are not working in healthcare social media, following this example of helping your customers before marketing to them and solving problems proactively helps you build deeper, more lasting connections with your customers. This will also make your customers more likely to continue buying from you and spreading the word about your brand!

In This Episode

• 04:37 – How Blue Cross NC maintains an all-encompassing social media strategy.
• 09:01 – How Blue Cross NC handles customer care on social through community managers.
• 11:56 – How to develop a successful and engaging employee ambassador program.
• 18:23 – How paid social works in a regulated industry.
• 23:17 – How having an institutional history beyond social can help a social media manager be more effective.

Quotes From This Episode

“We would rather spend our effort with a smaller group of ambassadors that is going to have more benefit for us and spread our message further.” — @thegaspar
We can push our own messaging all day long, but as ambassadors start publishing their own content in their own voice, that’s the messaging that people gravitate to. Share on X
“Even though organic has gone down, Facebook continues to be the one that gives us the most clicks, page views, and just the most bang for the buck.” — @thegaspar

Resources

• Get the new State of Marketing report for free from Salesforce here.
• Find out more about the community at SocialMedia.org with a special form for Social Pros listeners here.
• If you live in North Carolina and want to learn more about Blue Cross NC, you can do so here.