Artificial Intelligence Changing the Landscape for Healthcare Social Media Marketing

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The dawn of the era of artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how healthcare marketers engage and interact with their audiences, according to insight presented during Hootsuite’s annual Social Trends 2024: Healthcare webcast on November 30. Findings were presented by Hootsuite employees Sarah Dawley, senior manager of Content; Jordana Rapuch, senior copywriter; Julia Escano, campaign strategist; and Trish Riswick, team lead, Social Marketing.

Some of the information presented was aligned with the common refrains previously shared by leaders in social media marketing, such as regulatory concerns and getting healthcare companies to see the real value of and to invest more in social. In fact, the number one social media ROI concern for healthcare companies is the time and money it takes to maintain a multi-platform presence.

To have an effective presence online, it’s imperative for marketers to stay ahead of new features and updates, while being mindful of the changing demographics and characteristics of their target audiences. This is an area that 57% of survey respondents say they struggle with, while 63% express they’re already completely overwhelmed with tasks and responsibilities.

New information surrounding AI presents additional challenges to navigate. For example, Hootsuite’s trends project that in the coming year, healthcare organizations will increase the use AI for customer support activities by 375%, whereas an expected 356% plan to increase how they use AI for editing images. Meanwhile, 62% of consumers have said that they are less likely to engage with and trust content if they know it was created by an AI application. Even more respondents admitted that it’s difficult to tell what information or images online are real or fake/created using AI. However, the main reason organizations are using AI for social media is to reduce staff workload.

According to Hootsuite trends, healthcare organizations are most confident in ROI deliveries from LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook; but are keeping away from Pinterest, Threads, and Twitter/X. Notably, 64% of healthcare marketers said engagement is the top metric they use to demonstrate ROI. The hurdle to engagement lies within post type and frequency. Though 79% of healthcare organizations are currently active on LinkedIn, about half of them only post once a week or less.

Hootsuite also predicts that LinkedIn will become the new healthcare hub on social media. Nearly 80% of Gen Z expressed that they're interested in following more companies and organizations on LinkedIn and use social media to look up health-related information. With nearly 40% planning for a career in healthcare, LinkedIn will be a gold mine for the newest generation coming up in the working world, according to Hootsuite.

Users of social media want more than just connection; they yearn to be entertained. More than half the consumers who responded expressed that it would benefit organizations to be more relatable on social. Coincidentally, 34% of consumers say it's a major turn off when organizations are too focused on self-promotion.

A final trend centered around the hurdle of privacy, compliance, and regulations. Hootsuite noted that 63% of healthcare social marketers admitted industry regulations do make their job harder. And while more than half of healthcare companies surveyed said compliance rules are their top social media safety concern, 47% of them have corporate policies around what employees are able to post.

More in-depth insights can be found in the full report and on demand webinar.

References

Hootsuite. Social Trends 2024: A Glimpse into the Future. Webinar. November 30, 2023.

https://www.hootsuite.com/webinars/social-trends-2024