Hashtags have become a necessary part of social media. No matter what your business is, hashtags can help you reach out to your prospective audience. It is especially true when using physician hashtags. These can show your customers your specific knowledge and skillset long before they enter your practice. 

The Best List of Physician Hashtags

Businesses are starting to take over the social media world. So if you’re under the impression that you don’t need a social media account because you’re a medical practice, you’d be wrong.

There are many benefits to your business that are only accessible through social media, and these benefits will need the appropriate hashtags to take off.

So what’s the first step?

Define Your Own Identity As a Physician

Nailing down exactly what your brand or business is will help you to figure out what hashtags will best represent yourself. Using the right hashtags will help you to distinguish yourself from the competition and help your followers know exactly who you are.

SEE ALSO: Brainstorming Tactics for Content Creation

One way to distinguish yourself from the wide realm of physicians is to use practice specific hashtags. You can define your digital identity as a physician with these specific hashtags. You can also use them to provide valuable tips for potential clients.

Using more targeted hashtags can help your business to find viewers looking for a specific niche. These hashtags reach out to the customers that are most relevant to you and allows them to see your expertise in your field.

When considering what specific hashtags to use, consider these questions:

• What are the hot button issues in your field?
• How are those issues related to the services you offer?
• Which of those discussions has created an interest in social media?

Developing these questions will give you an idea of where to start with your hashtagging. Answering these questions will give you an idea of what is important to the people looking for your business and will help you develop your hashtag strategy.

When working on your strategy, consider:

• Location-based search features associated with your hashtags can make you easier to find for people who are most likely to use your services.
• Using active Twitter chats to share your knowledge on a monthly or weekly basis.
• Creating a list of every seminar, webinar, meetup or other events related to your specific area of expertise.

It is important to remember to provide consistency and repetition. When possible, you can revisit previously explored information on a weekly or monthly basis. Every time you use a hashtag that is specific to your area of expertise, you will increase your exposure and solidify your position as an expert in your field.

Increase Your Visibility with Physician Hashtags

The typical reason why people use hashtags, both personally and for business, is to gain exposure to your target audience. If you don’t use the right hashtags though, this opportunity will fall flat without gaining you any new followers. You have to recognize a hashtag’s popularity before using it, this will make sure that you get the most attention you can off a single post.

One way you can maximize your posts is by combining hashtags that are popular with your own physician hashtags.

This post features the hashtags healthcare and throwbackthursday. One is obviously tailored more towards her career as a physician, while the other is a fun and popular hashtag that many different individuals use.

Adding a location is also a way to get more attention for your post. Plus, it’s more likely that the attention you get is from people interested in your services.

Build Your Credibility

It is important to consider the implications of using specific hashtags on your business. Before you use any hashtag, map out exactly what you would like the end goal of your hashtag usage to be.

Additionally, it is best to do a little research on the hashtag you would like to use before implementing it in your posts. Often times, a hashtag that looks safe and similar to the idea you are looking for could actually mean something different in the social media world. Doing a little research will help your business to avoid any embarrassing or unintentionally mean accidents.

Credibility in your field is something that will come with time. Put yourself out there by joining relevant conversations and groups. Be active in your involvement. Show your knowledge and usefulness in the groups you are in while remembering to participate regularly and your credibility will go up.

Using popular hashtags will also connect you with relevant discussions and demonstrate your commitment and professionalism.

What Not to do with Hashtags

There is a few faux pas when it comes to using hashtags that it is important to be aware of to avoid messy conflicts later.

The most obnoxious misuse of hashtags is to hashtag-jack hashtags that have nothing to do with your post. This is usually done to connect to a larger audience or participate in specific conversations. However, this is always in bad taste.

Additionally, whether the brand is similar to yours or not, you should never use someone else’s hashtags just to get views. Promoting your business this way will make you appear desperate and tacky. It will get you the opposite kind of attention than what you are looking for.

When using hashtags, it is always best to provide meaningful commentary that relates to your post and your brand instead of riding the coattails of someone else’s success.

If you want to use a business’s  hashtag, make comments on their posts for a while. Model your posts in such a way that the business would find you relatable and interesting. Add relevant and informative contributions to make you an asset to the hashtag you want to use instead of a questionable fan.

Identify the Best Hashtags to Use

There are several online options to help you find the most relevant and useful tags for your posts.

Twitonomy

This site is great for finding out what other influencers are using. After logging in, you can see what the top ten hashtags are for any twitter user.

You can simply type in the name of the top influencer in your industry, and Twitonomy will give you a list of the top ten hashtags they are using and are finding effective with their audience.

This can be a great tool for finding hashtags that are available to use so that you don’t have to hashtag-jack.

Hashtagify.me

This website will tell you what hashtags are trending in your industry. Like Twitonomy, Hashtagify.me will show you the top ten hashtags related to a specific keyword.

If you wanted to find out the top hashtags being used for physicians, you would simply type out physicians as your keyword. Then a list of the top ten hashtags being used by physicians would appear.

Tagboard

This site is a great option if you are looking to use hashtags on different social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, or Google+.

Tagboard rounds up conversations happening around the internet and organizes them by hashtags. Using this site, you can even create a new board with a hashtag you’ve created yourself.

The only downside of this site is that you have to plug in the hashtags you’re looking for yourself. It will not find new related hashtags for you. So you’ll have to continue staying on top of your market in social media.

Tweet Binder

Using Tweet Binder, you can narrow down your hashtags and make them more specific to your brand. Just type in the general hashtag you were thinking about using and get a list of related and specific hashtags that will better bring in your target audience. Plus, you can click on the suggested hashtags and Tweet Binder will show you how those hashtags are being used.

This is great for finding hashtags that your target audience is already using. You can also use this for hashtag research to make sure that the hashtags you want to use are appropriate.

General Physicians Hashtags

Whether you are a tv personality or own a small town practice, every physician needs to have a strong digital branding strategy in order to build their audience and attract new clients. Here are hashtags physician’s digital brands use to inspire marketing:

Twitter and Instagram

#Healthcare

#MHealth

#HCSM

#Patient

#Health

#doctor

#Doctors

#Medicine

#Patients

#Hospitals

#Hospital

#Care

#FOAMed (Free Open Access Medical Education)

#digitalhealth

Instagram Only

#healthcareprodiver

#healthcareforall

#healthier

#healthyyou

#healthykids

#patientcare

#patientsfirst

#doctorlife

#doctorslife

#doctorsappointment

#doctorsoffice

Final Thoughts

Finding the right hashtag for your business can make all the difference in your visibility. Researching the hashtags you want to use will make sure that you get the right attention. Making sure to use hashtags that are not already related to another business is also important for positive brand recognition. Follow these tips to make sure that your brand gets the positive attention you’re looking for.

What hashtags have you seen used inappropriately?