Utilize Social Media to Drive Patient Awareness of Pharmacy Services

In an interview with Pharmacy Times at the National Association of Community Pharmacists (NCPA) 2024 Annual Convention and Expo, Erin Rexroth, associate director of marketing for NCPA, discussed how pharmacies can utilize marketing strategies to drive awareness and patient engagement.

Q: How would you utilize social media platforms to engage with patients and promote pharmacy services?

Rexroth: So, I would advise pharmacies to use social media to engage with patients on a couple of levels. You want to first educate your audience. Maybe you're kind of talking to a new patient base who hasn't started using you yet, so educating them on why your pharmacy is the better option, why transferring their prescription is worth a little effort. They might think it's too much effort, so a great way to just kind of start off with them is saying, “Hey, did you know how easy it is to switch your prescription over here? Just click this link.” So, that's kind of like a first type of interaction, or just, “Hey, did you know that your community pharmacy offers more than just refills, and we do point of care testing?” So, educating your audience on why you're a great resource for them and worth switching to.

And then as far as your current patient base or followers, just continuing to offer great health advice, letting them know when you're offering services that apply to them, you know, vaccines, point of care testing, that kind of thing. And then just kind of some fun stuff on the side I've seen, one of the most popular, I think, is like the doggy drive through. So, people that are picking up their medications in the drive-thru, [the pharmacy] shares pictures of people's dogs, so just kind of engaging them in a fun way that doesn't ask anything of the patient, but just helps them feel connected to you and like you guys are a business who treats their patients like family and you're connected, and that makes them want to share your services with others.

Q: How can pharmacists use digital tools to enhance patient engagement and education, and why are pharmacists’ voices so important in digital spaces?

Rexroth: So, it's key to stay engaged in things that interest people, where they feel they're benefiting and that you're always trying to help them. Whether it's text post or videos, I mean, it's just great when you are real, and it's, I think, especially not an over-produced type of video, when it's just someone in your staff who's very relatable and is able to pop on and just kind of talk about things that are current. Maybe everyone's getting the flu in your community, or, you know, it's vaccine season and you’re feeling a lot of vaccine hesitancy around the area. These are just great ways to access a large audience and to address those things head on. So that would just be one way that would be fairly easy to use, that you can't do that on your website so much, right? You're not reaching as big of an audience with your website. So this is a great way to put the message out there where it can reach more people, whether it's Instagram or TikTok or Facebook, and, you know, tag your town, or tag local health departments in your town, things like that, and that will give you a wider audience and not only create engagement, but also educate your community and bring awareness to your brand.