Social media has emerged as a crucial engine for hospice marketing, allowing them to reach consumers directly rather than through a referral source.

Unsurprisingly, the use of social media is skyrocketing worldwide. As of 2023, nearly 94% of people in the United States have internet access, according to data from Statista. By 2029, more than 342 million of those users are expected to belong to at least one social media platform.

“Clearly, people are exposing themselves to more and more digital and social media. This is for many purposes, including in their roles as consumers as they search for information about products, purchase and consume them, and communicate with others about their experiences,” a 2016 study indicated. “Marketers have responded to this fundamental shift by increasing their use of digital marketing channels.”

Hospices can post on social media with a few clicks of a mouse, but marketing effectively via those channels requires a bit more thought.

The Wisconsin-based hospice provider Agrace takes a three-pronged approach to social media marketing, according to Lindsay Huebner, the nonprofit’s digital marketing manager. These include localized content focused on Agrace’s southern Wisconsin service region, two-way engagement and touting accolades for staff.

In two-way engagement, families and Agrace can each share each other’s posts and stories as online testimonials, spreading further awareness of the quality of the company’s services.

By recognizing staff on line, Agrace can send a positive message not only to consumers but to prospective employees as well, Huebner said.

“Social media is an incredibly important part of our marketing mix. It allows us to connect directly with our community of followers, oftentimes that’s patients, family members, employees and volunteers on so many different levels,” Huebner told Hospice News. “It’s an opportunity for us to share those stories. It really helps to raise awareness about our services and the care that we’re providing, but it also gives everybody else a platform to really interact with one another, share questions, share testimonials and things like that.”

Agrace has also leveraged social media to unveil new services to the community, such as a recently established dementia program.

Key to social media marketing is the ability to grab the audience’s attention quickly. The digital marketing world has a “two-second” rule, according to Jordan Dockery, manager of digital strategy and client services at Transcend Strategy Group. This means that if a marketer doesn’t capture the reader within two seconds, they will likely scroll on by.

Hospices also should avoid overloading their social media messaging by posting multiple times per day, five days a week.

“Social media is not really dependent on these archaic ideas of frequent posting is going to equal growth. Strategic and purposeful posting is going to help with that growth,” Dockery told Hospice News. “You want to track your performance; you want to make adjustments, and you also want to grab their attention quickly with a compelling message and storytelling.”

Access to data is another benefit of social media marketing. Many social media platforms offer marketers analytics that indicate the performance and reach of a post or an ad, Dockery said.

One important distinction is between organic social media posts and paid advertising. Hospices can leverage both methodologies to reach patients and families who may be in need of their services, now or in the future.

“By trying to look at how to effectively narrow that audience and reach those individuals within your key market areas, you need to have targeted social media ads. You can use a lot of social media marketing to narrow down your audience by geographical areas, interests, behaviors, age and assign campaign goals, so awareness conversions or lead generation,” Dockery said. “That’s just the baseline for paid social media for hospice providers. This is really key, because you can custom tailor your messages to different audiences, whether that’s caregivers, referral sources, potential staff, if you’re doing a recruitment campaign, and this is going to help protect your marketing spend by removing any of that guesswork.”