Social media strategy example

Social media strategy example for a multi-specialty medical group

A healthcare social media strategy sets which platforms a provider will use, what it will publish on each, and how posts are clinically reviewed and replies handled so that patient privacy is protected. It is owned by the social media manager and agreed with the chief medical officer, the compliance officer, patient experience and recruiting.

This is the Healthcare version of the social media strategy template.

Horizon: 1 year4 priorities · 10 outcomes

Use this template

What this social media strategy template includes

ContextThe situation, the challenges to solve, and what is deliberately left out.
Platforms and rolesWhere the brand will be active and what each platform is for.
Content pillarsThe recurring themes and the share of posts each receives.
Voice and communityHow the brand sounds and how it responds.
Paid socialHow paid budget supports organic activity.
Priorities and measuresThree to five priorities, each with an owner, outcomes with a baseline and target, and the initiatives behind them.

Worked example

A complete social media strategy for a fictional organization: physician-owned medical group with 14 clinics offering primary care, pediatrics and women's health in one metro area.

Worked exampleSocial media strategy

Organization	Physician-owned medical group with 14 clinics offering primary care, pediatrics and women's health in one metro area (500 staff)
Ambition	Make social a dependable way for local families to find a clinician with room for them, and for nurses and medical assistants to find us, without a single privacy lapse.
Horizon	1 year

Context

Where we are and what we are choosing

We are a physician-owned group of 88 clinicians in 14 clinics, with 165,000 active patients. Six pediatricians hired this year have panels 38% full and women's health can see a new patient in 5 days, while adult primary care is closed to new patients at 5 clinics. Social brings 85 of 2,600 new-patient appointments a month. Office managers created 14 clinic Facebook pages, and 9 are dormant. About 310 comments and messages arrive each month, 40% of them containing appointment or health details, and replies take a median of 31 hours. Health posts wait 16 days for physician review. We have 62 open nurse and medical assistant roles.

Challenges

Posts promote the group in general while capacity sits in specific places: six new pediatricians and women's health have room, and five primary care clinics have none.
Patients share health details in comments and messages. Replies are slow, come from 14 pages with no common rules, and twice last year confirmed in public that someone was our patient.
Clinical review takes 16 days, so seasonal content such as flu and back-to-school physicals goes out after the season has started.

We will focus on

New-patient appointments for clinicians with open panels, promoted by neighborhood.
One group-wide presence with a single inbox, privacy-safe replies and a three-day clinical review.
Recruiting nurses and medical assistants, where vacancies limit how many patients we can see.

We will not

A Facebook page for each clinic. Office managers like having their own, but 9 of 14 are dormant and none has trained staff. The 14 pages are merged into one with location tags.
Answering clinical questions in comments or messages, including live sessions with a doctor. They draw an audience, and they invite people to post their symptoms in public.
A physician creator program on TikTok. Two of our doctors have asked for one, but every video would need a clinical review we cannot staff. Their personal accounts get written guidelines instead.

Platforms and roles

Platform	Audience there	Role	Posting cadence
Facebook, one group-wide page	Parents and adults aged 30 to 65 in our metro; 18,400 followers	Seasonal preventive care, clinicians with open panels, clinic news, messages	5 posts a week
Instagram	Parents and women aged 25 to 40; 5,200 followers	Meet-the-clinician reels for pediatrics and women's health, life on the team	4 posts a week, stories 3 days a week
LinkedIn	Nurses, medical assistants, clinicians and local employers; 3,900 followers	Recruiting, clinician news and employer health partnerships	2 posts a week
YouTube	People searching for a clinician's name or what to expect at a visit	Two-minute clinician introductions, embedded on profile pages	2 videos a month
Nextdoor	Households within a short drive of each clinic	New clinicians, flu clinic dates and open panels by neighborhood	2 posts a month per clinic area

Content pillars

Pillar	Share of posts	Example post
Preventive care in season	30%	Flu shots open September 15 at all 14 clinics, with walk-in hours and a booking link
Meet the clinician	20%	A new pediatrician on why she chose pediatrics and how a first well-child visit runs
Getting care	20%	Which clinics are taking new patients this month, and how to book a same-day sick visit
Our team and open roles	20%	A medical assistant describes her first year and the tuition support that came with it
Community	10%	Free sports physical day at the east clinic before the school season

Voice and community

Tone of voice	Plain language at a sixth-grade reading level, calm and practical. We explain what a guideline recommends and why, without fear or blame. We do not diagnose, comment on anyone's care or argue about medicine in the comments.
Response time	Comments and messages get a reply within 4 business hours, 7 am to 7 pm on weekdays. At other times an automatic reply gives the nurse advice line and tells anyone with an emergency to call emergency services.
Escalation	Any comment or message with personal health details gets a standard reply that neither confirms nor denies the person is a patient and offers a phone number or the portal. Public comments with identifying health details are hidden. Clinical questions go to the nurse advice line. Complaints reach patient experience within one business day. Any mention of self-harm gets crisis line details at once and goes to the on-call clinical lead. Suspected privacy lapses go to the compliance officer the same day.

Paid social

Monthly budget	$12,000 a month, up from $3,000 spent on boosted posts. New-patient campaigns for clinicians with open panels take 55%, recruiting takes 25% and seasonal preventive care takes 20%.
Objective	Booked new-patient appointments at $60 or less each, and completed applications for nurse and medical assistant roles at $45 or less. No campaigns are run for followers or page likes.
Targeting	By geography, age and parental status only: ZIP codes within a 20-minute drive of a clinic with an open panel. No audiences are built from patient lists, no advertising trackers run on the portal or scheduling pages, and no targeting uses health conditions or interests. Results are counted through campaign-specific booking links and phone numbers.

Priorities and measures

Priority 1Owner: Marketing Manager

Fill the open panels in pediatrics and women's health

Six new pediatricians are seeing fewer than half the patients they could, and each month a panel sits empty is lost revenue against a fixed salary. Social can reach parents near those clinics for far less than the cost of an empty schedule.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
New-patient appointments booked from social per month	85 appointments	220 appointments	Q4 2027
Average panel fill of the six pediatricians hired this year	38%	80%	Q4 2027
Paid social cost per booked new-patient appointment	$150	$60	Q3 2027

Initiatives

Film a two-minute introduction with each clinician who has an open panel and link it to their booking page
Run neighborhood campaigns for each open panel and pause them when the panel reaches 85%
Publish a monthly post listing which clinics and clinicians are taking new patients
Give every post and ad a campaign-specific booking link or phone number

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 2Owner: Patient Experience Manager

Reply quickly without exposing anyone's health information

Four in ten messages include health or appointment details, and two public replies last year confirmed someone was a patient. Speed and privacy both depend on one inbox, trained staff and standard replies.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Median reply time to comments and messages	31 hours	4 hours	Q2 2027
Privacy incidents from social replies per year	2 incidents	0 incidents	Q4 2027
Appointment questions in messages that end in a booked visit	14%	30%	Q4 2027

Initiatives

Merge the 14 clinic pages into one group page with location tags
Move all comments and messages into one inbox staffed by four trained patient experience coordinators
Write 15 standard replies with the compliance officer, including the neither-confirm-nor-deny reply
Train every employee with page access and remove access from everyone else

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 3Owner: Social Media Manager

Get clinically reviewed content out in season

A flu post approved in November has missed its purpose. Review is slow because every post goes to whichever physician is free, with no deadline and no library of approved wording.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Median time from draft to clinical approval	16 days	3 days	Q2 2027
Seasonal campaigns published by the planned date	40%	95%	Q4 2027

Initiatives

Agree a 12-month seasonal calendar with the chief medical officer and draft each campaign 6 weeks ahead
Name one physician reviewer per specialty with a three-day turnaround and a deputy
Build a library of approved statements on vaccines, screenings and well visits that can be reused without new review
Collect written authorization before any patient appears in a post, and record it with an expiry date

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Priority 4Owner: Talent Acquisition Lead

Bring in nurses and medical assistants

With 62 open clinical support roles, staffing limits how many patients each clinic can see. Social supplies 22 applications a month, and the people we want are on the same platforms as our patients.

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
Applications per month from social for nurse and medical assistant roles	22 applications	90 applications	Q3 2027
Hires per quarter who applied through social	4 hires	14 hires	Q4 2027

Initiatives

Feature one team member a week, with their schedule, their clinic and what they would tell an applicant
Run recruiting ads within a 30-minute commute of the clinics with the most vacancies
Shorten the application linked from social to a five-minute mobile form
Ask staff to share open roles, with a referral bonus tracked by link

Targets are illustrative. Adapt them to your baseline before you start.

Blank social media strategy template

The same structure with a prompt in every field. Copy it, or download it as a Word or Excel file.

Your planSocial media strategy

Organization	[Describe your organization in a few words, with its size]
Ambition	[One sentence on where you want to be at the end of the plan]
Horizon	[How long the plan runs, for example 12 months]

Context

Where we are and what we are choosing

[Where things stand today: the facts that make this strategy necessary]

Challenges

[A problem the strategy has to solve]
[A problem the strategy has to solve]

We will focus on

[Something you are choosing to concentrate on]
[Something you are choosing to concentrate on]

We will not

[Something you are deliberately leaving out]
[Something you are deliberately leaving out]

Platforms and roles

Platform	Audience there	Role	Posting cadence
[Platform]	[Audience there]	[Role]	[Posting cadence]
[Platform]	[Audience there]	[Role]	[Posting cadence]
[Platform]	[Audience there]	[Role]	[Posting cadence]

Content pillars

Pillar	Share of posts	Example post
[Pillar]	[Share of posts]	[Example post]
[Pillar]	[Share of posts]	[Example post]
[Pillar]	[Share of posts]	[Example post]

Voice and community

Tone of voice	[Your tone of voice]
Response time	[Your response time]
Escalation	[Your escalation]

Paid social

Monthly budget	[Your monthly budget]
Objective	[Your objective]
Targeting	[Your targeting]

Priorities and measures

Priority 1Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 2Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 3Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

Priority 4Owner: [Role accountable for this priority]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Why this priority matters now, in one or two sentences]

Outcome	Baseline	Target	Due
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]
[Metric you will track]	[Where it is today]	[Where it should be]	[When]

Initiatives

[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]
[A project or action that moves the outcomes above]

How to adapt it

01
Ask operations which clinicians and services have room for new patients, and promote only those. Recheck monthly, because panels fill and close.
02
Write the reply rules with your compliance or privacy officer before anything else: what staff may say in public, the standard reply when someone shares health details, and when a comment is hidden.
03
Count how many pages and accounts exist in the organization's name and who can post from them. Merge or close any that have no trained owner.
04
Set a deadline for clinical review and name a reviewer for each specialty. Plan seasonal content far enough ahead that review cannot make it late.
05
Decide what data may be used for ad targeting. If the answer is geography and age only, plan the campaigns and the measurement around that.
06
Include recruiting if vacancies limit capacity, and give it a share of posts and budget.

How to run it

A plan only works if it is reviewed on a rhythm. This is the cadence the example assumes.

Check-in	Outcome owners update progress and confidence weekly.
Review	Priority owners review outcomes and unblock initiatives monthly.
Reset	Leadership revisits priorities and targets quarterly.

Tability keeps this cadence for you. Each priority becomes an objective, each outcome a key result with its baseline and target, and each initiative a tracked task. Owners get a check-in reminder and the plan shows what is on track.

Track this plan in Tability

Still comparing tools? See the 10 best strategy software tools.

Common mistakes

Replying to a comment in a way that confirms the person is a patient, even to thank them or apologize.
Promoting the organization in general when only some clinicians can take new patients, which sends people to a booking page with nothing available.
Letting every clinic or department open its own page, with no training and no one watching the inbox.
Treating clinical review as a courtesy with no deadline, so that seasonal health content arrives late.

Questions, answered.

What should a healthcare social media strategy include?

It should include the platforms and their roles, content pillars, a clinical review process, and rules for replying when patients share health information. Add a paid plan that states what data may be used for targeting, and outcomes such as booked new-patient appointments, reply time and applications for clinical roles.

How should a medical practice respond to patient comments on social media?

Respond promptly with a standard reply that neither confirms nor denies the person is a patient, and move the conversation to a phone call or the patient portal. Do not discuss care, appointments or outcomes in public, even when the patient raised them first. Hide comments that contain identifying health details.

Who should review health content before it is posted?

A clinician in the relevant specialty should review anything that makes a health claim or gives advice. Name one reviewer and a deputy per specialty, set a turnaround of a few days, and keep a library of approved wording for recurring topics so routine seasonal posts do not need fresh review each time.

Can healthcare organizations run targeted ads on social media?

Yes, within limits that the organization's privacy or compliance officer should set in writing. The group in this example targets by geography, age and parental status only. It does not build audiences from patient lists, does not target by health condition and keeps advertising trackers off its portal and scheduling pages.

Should each clinic location have its own social media page?

Usually not, unless each location has a trained person with time to post and to watch the inbox. Unattended pages collect unanswered messages, some of them containing health details. This example merges 14 clinic pages into one group page and uses location tags and neighborhood targeting to stay local.

Social media strategy example for a multi-specialty medical group

Get the Word file

What this social media strategy template includes

Worked example

Context

Platforms and roles

Content pillars

Voice and community

Paid social

Fill the open panels in pediatrics and women's health

Reply quickly without exposing anyone's health information

Get clinically reviewed content out in season

Bring in nurses and medical assistants

Blank social media strategy template

Context

Platforms and roles

Content pillars

Voice and community

Paid social

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

Get the Word file

How to adapt it

How to run it

Common mistakes

Questions, answered.

What this social media strategy template includes

Worked example

Fill the open panels in pediatrics and women's health

Reply quickly without exposing anyone's health information

Get clinically reviewed content out in season

Bring in nurses and medical assistants

Blank social media strategy template

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

[Name the priority in a few words]

How to adapt it

How to run it

Common mistakes

Questions, answered.

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