Social Media Strategy week is coming to a end today, and I thought we could focus on the health industry to finish it off. Lately at networking events, I have been noticing a wide number of people pitching health products from water to vitamins to spas to traditional medicine. They are looking to understand the new medium and at the same time plugging away at old school networking. With that in mind, it makes sense to address social media and health, because this is a field where having the right message is not only important it is lifesaving. Make sure that your message is clear and discusses the benefits of your product when discussing health online. At the same time get out all of your necessary federal and state disclosures or do not talk about a topic at all. Aside from the beware statement listed above there are a number of health proponents using social networking and have lots of success from the relationships they are building. Let’s take a look at how social media strategy can help you grow your healthcare business.

1.  Start with LinkedIn. The reason is that the majority of people who will be concerned about their health will be adults. Kids, while aware, think they are immune to health challenges. Additionally, LinkedIn has one of the highest income levels of any social network. That means you are talking to people with disposable income. Combine a better lifestyle with a healthy wallet and you have a winning combination. Social media strategy and marketing strategy in general rely upon people who have the money to pay for your goods. This is an ideal place to start, since there are a number of executives and mid-level managers on this network.

2. Do video demonstrations so your prospects can get a good idea of how it works and what the benefits are of using the product. Keep the videos short, informative, and when possible entertaining. Boring videos get watched less frequently. It does not matter how important it is, people would rather watch a comedian telling them the world has come to an end versus the scientist demonstrating it with a 1 hour chemistry class. You do not always need to be over the top, however, make sure it is not a snoozer. There are millions of videos online now. You must be able to produce video that competes effectively with the rest of the online video world.

3. Host webinars for people to learn more about your product. Videos are great and drive traffic. At the same time, when you start receiving traffic from around the world with Youtube, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites you need to have a way to demonstrate your information with people live. Webinars are an affordable option for you to convey your pitch across long distances.

In the end, social media strategy will come down to how you position your brand and the relationships that you build online. The tools listed here are communication tools to help you, but as I said earlier if you are as fun as staring at the wall all day, people will not engage with you. Make your products interesting and describe their benefits for your clients to understand how you can help them achieve the healthy lifestyle they want.