Strategic Guide to Repurposing Healthcare Content for Social Media (Minimize Your Workload, Maximize Results)

Think about how many people on your team are responsible for executing your social media strategy. Multiply that by 40 hours a week and 48 weeks a year (you are taking vacations, we hope).

Raise your hand if it never feels like enough people or time to pull off the modern miracle of multichannel healthcare marketing.

We thought so.

Imagine the social media presence you could build with another teammate, hour in the day, or week in the year.

Until you get those extra hands and hours—and we’d love that for you, truly—your best bet is to make the most of your resources.

Your best bet is strategically repurposing your content for your social channels.

5 tips for repurposing content for social media

It takes a lot of content to maintain a healthy social media calendar. We understand the predicament — our healthcare writers create hundreds of social media posts for hospitals each month.

Repurposing lets you maintain an active social presence while reducing the burden on your team. Read our best tips and strategies for repurposing healthcare content.

1. Make the content social-friendly

You’re guaranteed to have social media-worthy nuggets of wisdom in the content you publish on other channels. You just have to mine for them and shine them up a bit.

Rework your healthcare content for social media:

• Keep it brief: People have less desire to dive into dense information on social media. Provide value with a bite-sized tip (but don’t serve up the whole meal). Your articles are packed with information — pull out 1 tidbit that might help a reader today.
• Optimize for engagement: The purpose of social media is to start a conversation. Engage your audience by asking questions and launching contests or UGC campaigns.
• Make it shareable: Social media algorithms use engagement metrics (like shares) when deciding which posts make it onto For You pages. Create share-worthy posts with information that’s relevant, shocking, affirming, or visually appealing.

Check out this TikTok that checks all the boxes: Bite-sized, engaging, and shareable.

@doctormike Learn CPR #fypforyoupage #learnontikok #cpr ♬ original sound – Doctor Mike

Watch more healthcare TikToks for additional inspiration.

2. Use strong visuals

Visual appeal is not a “nice-to-have.” It’s a must. Social channel algorithms rank posts with video, graphics, and photos higher than ones that are text-only.

You don’t need professional photographers or videographers to accomplish this. iPhone-quality photos of your team or facility are enough to make your social posts pop.

Even stock images work in certain situations. Check out Pexels, Unsplash, and Canva for free stock images and graphics. Avoid stock photos with models, but consider using them for images of everyday items, like foods, to make your social posts pop.

Remember that repurposing also applies to multimedia content. Reuse visual content from other channels: Animate static infographics for Instagram, or clip a patient testimonial video into a Short.

Learn more about healthcare video marketing strategies.

3. Customize each post for the channel

A post created for Instagram likely won’t perform as well on LinkedIn. Each platform has different algorithms and unique audiences. (Plus, users who follow you on multiple platforms may notice the repetition and pay less attention to future posts.)

Cross-post your content, but customize it to your audience and strategy on each platform. For example, you might use Facebook for community-building, Instagram for reaching new audiences, and LinkedIn for healthcare thought leadership.

4. Post about trending topics

Relevance is key on social media. Look to the news for content ideas that keep your feeds fresh.

Also known as newsjacking, this approach enables you to take advantage of the topics your audience is already talking about:

• Seeing the spread of medical misinformation in real time? Combat it with stone-cold facts from your content.
• Read that a celebrity got diagnosed with a rare condition? Use the news as an opportunity to help the public learn more about it from a trustworthy source.
• Is a seasonal topic coming up? Reuse information from your yearly “back to school” content about keeping children healthy in the classroom. Or repurpose last year’s allergy blog post into a series of social posts.

Newsjacking puts the right information in front of audiences when they need it. Explore more ways hospitals are staying relevant on Instagram and other social platforms.

5. Build repurposing into your social media workflow

To maximize your content’s impact without adding too much pressure on your team, create content with repurposing in mind.

First, create distribution pieces in tandem with the original piece. For example, you might work on social posts and an email newsletter alongside (or immediately after) writing website content.

Next, build a repurposing plan for each pillar piece of content. After publishing, add tasks to your calendar or project management tool to:

• Post the distribution content on social media.
• Create more social media posts about the topic.
• Return to the original post at an opportune time (like the allergy season example).

One more tip: Make your social content calendar repurpose-friendly. Plan slots for a week-long series of posts about the same topic (repurposed from a single blog post). Or plan a themed day like Wellness Wednesday, where you post a clip of a physician offering health advice from a recent podcast.

Content repurposing ideas for hospitals

What can one piece of healthcare content become? Here’s a list of ideas to get your brain moving.

Cheatsheet for healthcare marketers: Tactical content repurposing tips

Move away from random acts of content to executing a content strategy that fuels itself.

Grab our 3-page cheatsheet with:

• 13 ways to effectively repurpose healthcare content
• Tactical social media marketing tips for your team
• A one to many approach to distribution

Download and share