So, you set up a Twitter account for your pharmacy. You selected a username, updated your profile information, and even chose a customized profile page design. Now what?
It’s time to “tweet,” of course. Tweeting, or posting short status updates, is how you share information with your followers on Twitter. If you’re familiar with Facebook, posting a tweet is similar to posting a Facebook status except you have to limit your tweet to 140 characters or less.
This succinct micro blogging style requires some creativity to get your message across and not go over that 140-character limit.
You might be thinking, “I’m a pharmacist, not a blogger. Why would I want to take time from my practice to ‘tweet’?”
Putting in the effort to craft interesting and informative tweets that generate lots of interactions can boost your credibility with your followers (a.k.a. customers.) It can also increase awareness of your business on Twitter, which can carry over to your physical store.
What should my pharmacy tweet?
“So, what exactly does a pharmacy like mine tweet,” do you ask? The following pharmacy-specific ideas can give you some tweet inspiration.
Share health tips
Your patients look to their hometown pharmacy to obtain health advice they can trust. Take that same patient care that you use at the pharmacy counter and bring it to Twitter. Use Twitter to offer nuggets of valuable health information to your patients and followers. For example, you could tweet: “Want pain relief without drugs? Exercise, alternative therapies, sleep and supplements can help. Talk with your pharmacist for more ideas.”
You could also tweet about tips for preventing colds and flu, diabetes warning symptoms, information on teen health issues and more. Doing so can establish your credibility and engage your online audience. Remember to always keep your specific customers in mind. Do you have a good chunk of customers who are new parents? Then share more health tips geared toward babies and toddlers. Have you noticed customers asking questions about a specific issue? Use Twitter to link to an appropriate article on the topic, or even write and link to a blog post on your website that goes into detail on the subject.
Go local
Does your pharmacy have good relationships with the other small businesses in your town? Build on those local relationships by tweeting about events, sales and promotions going on at the businesses in your community. It’s likely they’ll return the tweet-favor for your pharmacy.
Highlight products
Let Twitter bring attention to your pharmacy’s front end products (and potentially boost sales!) Through Twitter you can tell your followers about new products at your store. For example, you could tweet: “Cold and flu season is here. We just received a new product shipment of YummyRx cough drops. Come in and stock up.” Or, ask your followers about products they would like your store to carry. Any feedback will be helpful! You can also make your Twitter followers feel special by offering certain specials and discounts only to them.
Offer contests and promotions
Everyone loves a chance to win a prize! Use a contest or promotion as a way to interact with your followers on Twitter. You could tweet, “How do you like to exercise? Our favorite response wins a $10 gift certificate to our store.” Or, “Mention this tweet when you stop by our pharmacy and receive a $5 gift coupon.”
Holidays and events
Stay current with your followers by tweeting about holidays and events. If you can also include valuable health information in your holiday and event tweets, that’s even better. For example, you could tweet: “February is American Heart Month. Check out our blogs this month for heart health tips: www.madeuppharmacy.com.”
