Any healthcare marketer worth her salt knows that women are the primary healthcare decision makers in America (although, with the current economy, some suspect the tide might be turning).  So when I saw an article on how to market to women on Facebook, I couldn’t help but be interested.  Because women make up more than 56% of the overall Facebook population, it’s a great place for your hospital or physician practice to connect with its core audience.  But how do you keep these decision makers engaged? 

A couple of my favorite tips from Mashable:

• Quality Counts:  Annoy your female fans with spammy updates and be prepared to face the wrath of the “hide” button.  Remember, they can remove your marketing messages from their news feeds with the simple click of a mouse.  And, of course, out of sight = out of mind.
• Provide Utility:  Give your fans something to look forward to on a daily or weekly basis by regularly posting helpful tips or practical ideas that can improve their health or lifestyle.
• Give Fans a Voice:  Make your fans feel involved by creating a two-way conversation and asking their opinion.  Bonus: You have an instant focus group at your fingertips.
• Keep Your Fans in the Loop:  Update your fans about current goings-on, good and even bad.  With the rise of transparency in healthcare, Facebook can be a great venue to help address negative news before it gets out of hand.

How does your organization use Facebook to engage its female audience? Please post your ideas in a comment below!

Tags: Facebook, healthcare decisions, Social Media, women

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 11:00 am and is filed under Healthcare Marketing Strategy, Healthcare Trends, Social Media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.