The healthcare business has at all times thrived on efficient communication. For the reason that COVID pandemic, private and non-private suppliers have begun to recognise the elemental manner social media in healthcare practices can increase these communication efforts.
The UK’s healthcare panorama has its personal distinctive strengths and laws, because of the Nationwide Well being Service (NHS) and several other world-leading public well being charities. Every of those establishments, in addition to personal corporations, can profit from utilizing social media as a widespread communications instrument.
We’ve outlined among the main social media healthcare methods right now, with a particular deal with UK well being. Utilized successfully, these methods will help increase public consciousness, realise ROI and enhance the status and attain of healthcare entities nationwide.
What’s the function of social media in healthcare?
Social media performs a pivotal function in healthcare communications. It fosters connections, will get well timed data to sufferers and provides individuals dependable data that encourages preventative behaviours. Social media networks are additionally an accessible manner for sufferers to realize direct help from charities or professionals for his or her bodily or psychological well being wants.
A latest and lasting instance of how social media can be utilized to speak at scale was the COVID pandemic, the place over 90% of the UK inhabitants was vaccinated, thanks partially to data shared through social networks.
What are the laws round social media use in UK healthcare?
Earlier than utilizing social media in healthcare practices, you need to perceive how any such advertising and marketing is regulated within the UK.
Adhering to GDPR and affected person confidentiality guidelines
All healthcare social media communication should observe GDPR pointers. These are the UK’s information safety legal guidelines and so they’re designed to maintain individuals’s private information protected.
Since healthcare may be such a private and delicate matter for most individuals, there are extra information safety guidelines you’ll have to observe when you’re posting on socials. You should observe the UK’s affected person confidentiality pointers. That is important when you’re posting sure varieties of content material, like affected person success tales.
Rules in UK healthcare advertising and marketing
Healthcare advertising and marketing is topic to additional laws within the UK. In March 2025, the NHS printed its up to date steerage doc for social media use. This doc outlines how NHS practices needs to be utilizing social media, in addition to pitfalls that social media managers ought to keep away from. Different organisations just like the Well being Analysis Authority even have their very own pointers.
The UK additionally has strict guidelines about how drugs may be marketed. If you happen to’re posting about particular medicines, it’s essential observe the PMCPA’s Social Media Steerage. These pointers be certain that your content material is clear and accountable, and contains particular recommendation on actions like working with healthcare influencers.
What are the challenges of healthcare communication within the UK?
Although social media in healthcare can have a number of important advantages, it may be detrimental if the method is mismanaged. Challenges to profitable social media communications embrace:
- Requests for private recommendation: UK healthcare professionals can’t present personalised well being recommendation via social media. Recommendation should as a substitute be given via official channels, the place it’s correctly documented.
- Misinformation: Healthcare content material will also be topic to destructive reactions or, within the worst instances, conspiracy theories which unfold misinformation. A key a part of managing a profitable healthcare social account is studying the way to handle these destructive engagements and handle misinformation.
Now that you just’re conscious of those laws, we’ll define among the prime methods and platforms accessible right now.
7 methods for healthcare social media advertising and marketing within the UK
The next methods will assist you enhance your social media healthcare communications within the UK. Every revolves round completely different content material approaches or group administration ways that may increase your account’s enchantment.
Academic and informative content material
A technique of approaching healthcare social content material is to see it as a type of edutainment. You have to be creating content material with the first purpose of informing your followers or elevating consciousness round a particular matter. This contains content material to fight misinformation particularly; Sprout’s 2025 Social Index discovered that 93% of customers now count on manufacturers to be doing extra to fight misinformation than they’re already. That is significantly vital in healthcare, the place you’ve gotten a extra important obligation to offer correct data. Alongside schooling, your secondary purpose needs to be to make this schooling as partaking as doable.
Focus every replace round one message, like explaining warning indicators for a situation or debunking misinformation. Then, take into consideration how one can current it in a manner that grabs consideration, while not taking away from this core message. Right here’s an instance from the charity Diabetes UK, which has used Instagram to tell followers about well being checks.
Utilizing information and infographics to simplify complicated healthcare subjects
Advertising infographics could be a easy manner of including visible aptitude to your healthcare social content material. They will help visible learners digest your data, and get your total message throughout extra successfully.
Right here’s a latest instance from the NHS’s Instagram web page about hayfever prevention.
Storytelling via affected person experiences and success tales, encouraging user-generated content material and testimonials
So long as they observe affected person confidentiality legal guidelines, particular person affected person testimonies or success tales may be an effective way of showcasing how your observe or charity helps individuals. Right here’s a latest instance from the Royal Papworth Hospital.
By encouraging user-generated content material (UGC), you’ll be able to construct a extra widespread marketing campaign that raises consciousness about successes in sure medical fields; one viral instance of that is the ALS Ice Bucket Problem.
If you happen to’re planning a wide-reaching marketing campaign like this, Sprout’s social listening instruments will help. Use social listening to uncover tendencies in your followers’ messages, after which apply these tendencies to a UGC marketing campaign.
Collaborations with healthcare influencers and affected person advocates
UK healthcare influencers are a rising subcategory of influencers. They’re often healthcare professionals, and share health-conscious content material and preventative medical recommendation to their followers. One of many greatest present examples is former Love Island contestant Dr Alex.
Partnerships with influencers like this may prolong consciousness on your campaigns and get vital healthcare messages out to extra individuals.
One other method is to associate with influencers who share their tales about dwelling with sure well being circumstances; these influencers may have an analogous viewers to your individual, and may turn into affected person advocates. One instance is Sophie Morgan, a UK influencer and journey author who writes a month-to-month “Past Obstacles” column on accessibility for wheelchair customers.
Due to the laws concerned, any UK healthcare influencer marketing campaign must be managed successfully. An important stage is discovering the correct influencer on your content material.
AI-based instruments like Sprout Social Influencer Advertising assist ease this problem. You’re capable of finding an genuine influencer via its AI-powered discovery and information evaluation. Plus, you should use over 50 search filters to determine influencers who’re the closest match to your model values and goal audiences. And as soon as your influencer advertising and marketing campaigns are off the bottom, you may also use the platform to handle relationships, observe efficiency and measure ROI.
Highlighting campaigns and initiatives
If you happen to’re struggling for healthcare content material concepts, one dependable technique is to make use of your content material to spotlight ongoing campaigns. These can embrace vaccination drives, or countrywide consciousness occasions like Psychological Well being Consciousness Week.
Pairing your content material with an initiative or occasion provides it a transparent message and goal. It additionally encourages you to create a content material calendar round these occasions, which makes managing your socials simpler over time. Use a social media calendar instrument like Sprout Social to optimise this course of even additional by visualising your whole accounts and deliberate content material updates on a single calendar.
Stay Q&A classes with healthcare professionals
Although healthcare professionals can’t give personalised recommendation on socials, they’ll supply generalised steerage. This contains data like signs, preventative measures or recommendation on the way to lead a more healthy life.
By organising a Q&A with one among your professionals, you’ll be able to encourage extra direct engagement out of your followers. You’ll additionally increase the status of your employees, which might positively affect your observe over time.
Group administration together with digital teams for affected person help
Responding to followers and managing your social group is vital no matter the kind of social account you handle, however it’s significantly essential in healthcare. Create digital teams to help sufferers with common recommendation and steerage.
These teams are significantly vital for any suppliers or charities specialising in psychological well being. For instance, the UK charity Samaritans has began to trial a dwell chat model of its phoneline service to help individuals on-line.
High social media networks for UK healthcare social media advertising and marketing
Deciding which social community to make use of is usually step one for social media entrepreneurs. These networks all supply completely different advantages for anybody managing a UK healthcare account.
X (Twitter): For real-time updates and public well being information
X may be helpful for healthcare suppliers who typically share breaking information with sufferers and the general public. This makes it significantly vital for the NHS and authorities establishments, however it provides comparable advantages for regional charities and bigger public well being corporations.
Due to its deal with speedy information, X can also be helpful for accounts targeted on time-sensitive well being campaigns, or pairing content material with countrywide occasions. NHS England lately posted on X to commemorate Windrush Day within the UK.
Fb: For group teams and affected person engagement
Fb is the most well-liked platform choice within the business for the time being; Sprout’s 2025 Social Media Healthcare Benchmarks discovered that 92% of suppliers have a Fb account.
With its deal with teams and communities, Fb is a helpful platform for healthcare suppliers seeking to talk and interact their sufferers. That is significantly vital for regional accounts or charities that depend on public donations.
The Sheffield Kids’s Hospital meets each these standards, and makes use of its Fb account to advertise the hospital, share fundraising occasions and showcase affected person successes. Right here’s a latest publish the place they included a survey, which promotes direct engagement from their followers.
A part of managing a Fb group includes responding to messages and feedback. To get forward of this course of, put together a proactive technique. Sprout’s Social Buyer Care characteristic helps you prioritise responses, so your social group can construct sooner and extra genuine connections along with your Fb followers.
Instagram: Visible storytelling and wellness suggestions
With its deal with pictures and reels, Instagram is designed for healthcare accounts that use visuals to speak their message. It’s well-suited to infographic content material for data like preventative measures and wellness suggestions.
Switchboard is a UK charity that helps LGBTQ+ individuals with their psychological well being. They lately created a collaborative publish with one other charity, Simply Like Us UK, to advertise their help service utilizing information and an infographic.
If you happen to’re having bother writing captions on your Instagram content material, Sprout’s AI Help instrument shortly generates a draft you’ll be able to edit to match your necessities and fact-check earlier than publishing. Sprout additionally lets you observe your particular person content material efficiency and engagement fee throughout Instagram, so that you study what’s working and adapt your technique.
YouTube: Academic movies and affected person testimonials
YouTube permits UK healthcare suppliers to share long-form movies, which may be helpful as both instructional instruments or as a manner of sharing extra in-depth affected person tales. Many bigger charities additionally use YouTube to publish their tv adverts, to extend their circulation and attain.
There are many alternatives to get artistic with healthcare YouTube content material. Sprout’s 2025 Social Media Healthcare Benchmarks Report discovered that originality was customers’ second favorite a part of social media content material, so it’s vital for account managers to get artistic and embrace authentic concepts.
Psychological well being charity Thoughts created a “Behind the Tune” sequence of YouTube content material, the place they interview musicians and ask them what ideas had been behind a few of their hit songs. These movies assist destigmatise psychological well being, and permit Thoughts to succeed in youthful demographics with their YouTube account.
TikTok: Supportive recommendation from professionals
Healthcare content material is an more and more vital a part of UK TikTok. There’s even a particular group, #HealthTok, that’s make up of a number of niches the place creators, professionals and types talk about well being and wellness. Healthcare charities may contribute by offering correct, skilled recommendation.
To help public well being on the community, TikTok UK lately launched a Clinician Creator Community {of professional} accounts sharing correct recommendation of their content material. You possibly can collaborate with one among these verified influencers to additional your attain on TikTok.
If you happen to’re creating TikTok content material your self, be certain that every part is data-driven and factual. Don’t give private recommendation, as a substitute, share common data that may assist everybody on the platform.
Examples of healthcare and social media advertising and marketing campaigns within the UK
We’ve shared a number of examples of profitable social posts above, however listed below are a number of extra organisations that usually use social media to their benefit.
NHS Cheshire and Merseyside Public Well being Campaigns
Alongside its fundamental account, particular person NHS hospitals and regional authorities are inspired to handle accounts of their very own. This helps the organisation present region-specific recommendation and information to individuals within the UK, via occasion bulletins, native authority data and different updates.
Additionally they host a listing of campaigns on their web site. This regionality exhibits a transparent understanding of the account’s audience. By focusing content material on location and grouping with wider NHS initiatives, the account can present data particularly catered to individuals dwelling within the space.
Most cancers Analysis UK
Most cancers Analysis UK is among the nation’s largest charities, and so they handle a number of of their very own social accounts. However their method to UGC is especially profitable.
The charity hosts a web page on their web site titled “Unfold the phrase on social media”, the place they host badges and pictures. Every of those may be customised after which shared to advertise fundraising actions on social networks.
This evergreen UGC marketing campaign helps individuals increase cash for the charity, and encourages additional attain for them. It additionally helps people increase consciousness for most cancers analysis and the important work researchers proceed to do to discover a treatment.
Psychological Well being Basis UK
The UK’s Psychological Well being Basis (MHF) could be very lively on socials, with over 220k Instagram followers and 340k on Fb, amongst different platforms. A key a part of its social technique is selling the organisation’s Psychological Well being Consciousness Week.
The charity has been organising the nationwide consciousness week for over 25 years. It’s a core a part of their annual content material technique and is now additionally a key a part of the UK’s consciousness occasions calendar. By persevering with to advertise the occasion, MHF can additional the attain of their message, while additionally rising consciousness in regards to the charity itself.
Kinvara Personal Hospital
Although the UK has the NHS and state-subsidised healthcare for all, it additionally hosts many personal practices. To face out from different personal suppliers, personal hospitals, dental clinics and therapy corporations can leverage the attain and engagement provided by social media.
Kinvara Personal Hospital is one instance of this method. They’re a personal hospital in Rotherham and usually publish on Fb and Instagram. Right here’s an instance of a latest affected person testimonial publish on their Instagram.
The way forward for social media in UK healthcare
Social media could be a transformative pressure for UK healthcare suppliers. Its potential to offer a channel for time-sensitive communications and regional help means it will probably proceed to offer substantial advantages as these networks proceed to develop.
If you happen to’re simply beginning your social media in healthcare journey, otherwise you’re seeking to refine your technique, instruments like social listening and content material efficiency stories could make your job a lot simpler. Discover these and plenty of extra of Sprout’s options at no cost by scheduling a demo.
