Social media is a useful marketing channel for physicians to build brand awareness, share medical insights, and engage with patients. It’s a saturated place, though, which can make it difficult for your content to stand out among other medical practices. That’s where hashtags come in.
Hashtags are words or phrases preceded by the # symbol, or pound sign, that accompany a social media post. Their primary purpose is to tell the platform’s algorithm and users what your post is about. Since they’re both clickable and searchable, they show how your content fits into the wider context of what is being talked about on the platform.
Keep reading to learn more about how to use hashtags. In this article, we explore the benefits of hashtags and offer best practices for implementing them. We also provide a list of some general healthcare-related hashtags to start adding to your posts.
The Importance of Hashtags on Social Media Platforms
Hashtags are optional for social media posts. However, social media platforms usually recommend using them for the following reasons:
- Content categorization: Hashtags label your social media posts, telling the platform’s algorithm what your content is about. This makes it easier for the algorithm to show your posts to users who may be interested in your content.
- Improved discoverability: Users searching for a particular topic or browsing posts that use a specific hashtag are more likely to come across your content. This expands your audience beyond your followers list.
- Better audience targeting/engagement: Using relevant hashtags ensures your content reaches users who genuinely care about your area of practice. When users care about your content, they’re more likely to like, comment, or otherwise interact with it.
Popular Health Hashtags for Medical Practices
If you’re just getting started with hashtags, it may seem daunting to generate them on your own. Here is a list of 15 general hashtags about the healthcare industry that you can use in your social media content:
- #healthcare
- #healthcareprovider
- #healthcareworkers
- #healthcareservices
- #health
- #doctor
- #physician
- #wellness
- #medical
- #medicalservices
- #medicalcare
- #medicalprofessionals
- #medicalexams
- #medicaloffice
- #medicalpractice
How To Find Other Healthcare Hashtags
Maybe you want hashtags that are more specific to the topic of your social media post. Here are a few ways to conduct research and find popular tags:
- Search bar: If you type the topic of your post into the search bar of the social media platform, it will show you hashtags related to that keyword. You can see how many posts have used each hashtag to determine how popular it is.
- Competitor analysis: Maybe there are other medical practices whose social media content you admire. You can look at what hashtags they’re using in their posts and determine if any of them are relevant for your content.
- Hashtag generator: Hashtag generators, such as All Hashtag or Hootsuite Instagram Hashtag Generator, work similarly to search bars on social media platforms. You type in a keyword, and they give you a list of related hashtags. They typically tell you how popular each hashtag is, showing you how many posts use it on a given social media platform.
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Tips for Using Hashtags on Social Media Networks
Now that you have a list of potential hashtags, you may be wondering how to use them. Here are our best practices for social media hashtags to see the most success in terms of visibility and engagement.
Use Both General and Specific Hashtags
Social media posts see the most success when they have a mix of both generic and specific hashtags. For example, you can use some general healthcare hashtags from our list with a few hashtags that are related to your area of practice. This balance works because trending hashtags boost your post’s visibility, while specific ones ensure that you target interested users.
Place Hashtags in the Caption or First Comment
You can put your hashtags in one of two places—in the caption of your post or in the first comment. There’s a lot of debate about which placement is better. For example, some marketers like to put their hashtags in the first comment because it keeps the caption clean. However, the general consensus seems to be that placement doesn’t affect post performance as long as you use relevant, popular hashtags, so feel free to do what you prefer.
Aim for 3-5 Relevant Hashtags
Each social media platform has a different limit on the maximum number of hashtags you can include in a post. Here are the limits for some of the most common social media networks:
- Instagram: New limit in the last few months of three hashtags per post
- Facebook: No limit
- TikTok: New limit in the last few months of five hashtags per post
- Twitter/X: No limit
- LinkedIn: No limit
Regardless of the platform, we recommend sticking to between three and five hashtags per post. Adding too many can make it confusing for both the algorithm and users to determine what the topic of your post is.
Monitor Hashtag Performance
There isn’t a way to track the performance of specific hashtags, but you can look at general social media metrics. There are a couple metrics that may be indicators of hashtag performance, including:
- Impressions: This metric measures the number of views your posts get. If you’re reaching a wider audience than you have previously, users may be finding you through the hashtags you’re using.
- Follower growth rate: This is a calculation of how many followers you have currently compared to how many followers you had in a previous month, quarter, year, or other time period. If your followers list is growing, this means more users are finding your page, potentially through your hashtags.
While you can’t say definitively that your hashtag usage is responsible for either of these metrics, reevaluating your hashtags is a good place to start if these numbers are low.
Final Thoughts
Hashtags are the perfect enhancement for your medical practice’s social media posts. They categorize your content, making your posts more likely to appear for users who may be interested in your medical advice.
If you are new to social media marketing and need help implementing hashtags, Officite is available. Our Social Media Management service includes regular posting on your social media pages to boost your practice’s visibility and connect with your patients.