As Twitter Numbers Lag, Experts Focus on Conversation Over Clicks

How Healthcare Marketers Are Adjusting Social Strategies to Maintain Success on Twitter

// By Melanie Graham //

It’s no secret that Twitter is a mainstay of the healthcare marketing tool kit. But as the social media landscape evolves, Twitter’s role as a content marketing channel is evolving as well.

Although it comes as no real surprise to marketers, Facebook continues to keep its place at the top of the social media food chain. The social network boasted 2 billion monthly active users in June 2017. YouTube wasn’t too far behind, with 1.5 billion monthly users. Instagram is also maintaining a strong spot among platforms, reporting more than 700 million active users in April 2017.

Twitter, on the other hand, has fallen behind in its user growth. Although it surpassed expectations early in the year, the social channel announced in July it did not gain any new users in the second quarter of 2017, maintaining its 328 million total users reported a few months earlier.

With Twitter lagging behind Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, should it keep its spot as a pillar of social strategy? How can healthcare marketers get the most out of the slow-growing Twitter user base?

Focus on Conversation, Not Clicks

Mariah Obiedzinski, director of content marketing at MedTouch

“It’s sometimes difficult to get the reach we’re looking for on Twitter, but it’s a platform we enjoy and still think is useful,” says Mariah Obiedzinski, director of content marketing at MedTouch.

It’s not all about the traffic Twitter drives to a website, Obiedzinski says. Instead, it’s about being a part of the Twitter conversation, and that means frequently sharing content relevant to your audience.

“We tell our clients: ‘Talk about things your audience cares about, not what you care about,’” Obiedzinski says. For example, Obiedzinski recommends sharing pieces of a blog post—or “factoids”—in a tweet, rather than just linking to the blog post. “Give them a little nugget that can invite a conversation.”

Marketers shouldn’t focus on links and driving traffic away from Twitter, Obiedzinski says. Rather, they should set their sights on information they add to the conversation and being part of that thought leadership. Brands also need to keep their contributions relevant by staying active, knowing what their audience is talking about, and adjusting content as the conversation shifts.

“Twitter is not a ‘set it and forget it’ platform,” Obiedzinski says. “It’s a conversation space, and to be successful in that space, you have to make time to have those conversations.”

Boost Engagement Through Event Coverage

Lily Vautour, senior social media specialist at Boston Children’s

When it comes to conversations, Twitter is still the number-one tool for keeping up with the chatter at any major event. At Boston Children’s Hospital, live tweeting events (like the recent Corporate Cup fundraiser) have helped increase awareness and engagement on the platform.

“While we focus most of our energy on Facebook, we still value Twitter and its ability to reach a large audience for us,” says Lily Vautour, senior social media specialist at Boston Children’s. “Twitter plays an important role in extending reach of hospital events.”

In addition to events, Obiedzinski points out that live Twitter coverage of conferences also continues to be an important part of social strategy for healthcare clients.

Tap into a Targeted User Base

As Twitter’s user base remains smaller than some other social channels, Boston Children’s has worked to maximize its reach by creating additional Twitter handles that can target specific audiences.

In addition to its main account (@BostonChildrens), the hospital has also launched an innovation account to reach industry leaders and researchers (@BCH_Innovation), an account targeting providers (@NotesFromBCH), and an account for its joint cancer center with Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (@ChildCancerCare), which is focused on pediatric-cancer families.

“We find it helpful to divvy up our audiences so the content we serve is as relevant as possible to our target audience,” Vautour says. Three of the four Twitter accounts also have dedicated blogs to help provide content.

Twitter also has helped extend reach through connections with athletes, celebrities, and elected officials who visit patients at the hospital. Boston Children’s can easily tap into the celebrities’ user base simply by tagging them in a tweet with a “thank you” or a photo from the visit, Vautour says.

Obiedzinski also sees Twitter as a tool for reaching specific communities of people. For most of her team’s clients, Twitter is becoming less consumer-focused, and more of a way to converse with professors, specialists, freelancers, agencies, and certain groups of patients. Facebook, on the other hand, remains the go-to platform for consumer-focused content.

Budget Social Spend Elsewhere

Aside from the slow-growing user base, Twitter has been struggling to keep up its ad revenue as other social channels compete for marketers’ dollars. And it doesn’t come as much of a surprise, as marketers are showing little enthusiasm for the platform’s paid campaigns.

At Boston Children’s, Vautour says they haven’t seen a favorable return on investment from paid Twitter campaigns. Instead, they focus nearly 100% of their social campaign budget on Facebook, where their dollars can get them the engagement boost they’re looking for.

The view from Obiedzinski is not much different.

“We’re encouraging clients to do fewer paid campaigns on Twitter, unless it is a very specific group on the platform they are looking to target,” Obiedzinski says. Instead, she recommends using Twitter to amplify paid messages from other platforms, and focus on campaigns for Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

Keep the Posts Coming

Although marketers may not see the website traffic they look for from Twitter, it doesn’t mean they should limit the amount of content they push out on the platform.

Obiedzinski recommends sharing content frequently on Twitter. Posting a tweet two or three times will not saturate your audience; in fact, it’s not likely your audience will see that tweet more than once. She adds that her team recommends managing these recurring tweets through third-party tools like Hootsuite.

“Followers may miss the first rendition of your message, but they’ll see the second or the third,” Obiedzinski says. “Keep the posts relevant to your audience and you’re not going to annoy anyone.”

Melanie Graham is a freelance writer, editor, and digital strategist who specializes in non-profit and healthcare communications. She has a background in journalism with experience in digital content marketing and social media management.