Add healthcare and medical hashtags to your social media posts to target discrete niches of consumers and doctors. They’re also helpful for finding other people and influencers that share your interests.
Medical and Healthcare Hashtags
#abuse — substance abuse
#add — attention deficit disorder
#adhd — attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder
#asd or #autism — autism spectrum disorders
#aspie — Asperger’s Syndrome
#bipolar — bipolar disorders
#bodyimage
#borderline — borderline personality disorder
#bpd — borderline personality disorder
#bullying — anti-bullying
#chronicpain — chronic pain issues
#cutting — self-injury
#depression — clinical depression
#did — dissociative identity disorder
#eatingdisorder
#endstigma — end mental health stigma campaign
#epatient — e-patient info
#hugsnotdrugs — drug abuse prevention
#madpride
#mentalillness
#ocd
#ppd — post-partum depression
#psychology
#selfinjury (also #cutting) — self-injury
#spoonie — “But You Don’t Look Sick”
#stress — stress
#stayalive — surviving and coping
#suicide — suicide (caution: also used in contexts not for suicide prevention; high volume)
#suicideprevention — suicide prevention info
#tbi — traumatic brain injury
#twloha — suicide prevention, To Write Love On Her Arms
#unsuicide — suicide prevention resources
#vaw — violence against women
Healthcare Hashtags
#4patients
#butyoudontlooksick
#Digitalhealth
#eHealth
#HCR (Health Care Reform)
#health
#Healthcare
#Healthit
#Hitsm (Health Care IT Social Media)
#mHealth
#QualityChat — Patient safety, quality improvement
#hcsmin — Healthcare Communications)
#hospital
#mhealth — mobile health
#emr — Electronic Medical Record
#ehr — Electronic Health Record
#hcsm — healthcare social media
#ACO — Accountable Care Organization
#ahima — American Health Information Management Association) Anything dealing with medical records, medical coding, transcription, etc.)
#HIMSS — Health Information & Management Systems Society
#mdehr — Doctors and EHR
#medicalbilling
#nurses
#HCLDR—Healthcare leaders
Technology Hashtags
#digitalhealth
#ehr — Electronic Health Record
#emr — Electronic Medical Record
#HCIT — Healthcare IT
#HCSM — Healthcare social media
#hcsmin — Healthcare Communications
#healthtech
#HIMSS — Health Information & Management Systems Society
#HITsm — Health IT social media
#mhealth — mobile health
Medical Specialty Hashtags
#doctor
#ophthalmology
#optometry
#pain
#pathology
#Pediatrics
#physician
#physiology
#ppd — post-partum depression
#PrimaryCare
#psychiatry
#psychology
Hashtags for Associations
#AmericanMedicalAssociation
#AAFP — American Academy of Family Physicians
#AHAnewsnow — American Hospital Association
#MGMA — Medical Group Management Association
#HIMSS — Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society
#ACO — Accountable Care Organization)
#ahima — American Health Information Management Association
Healthcare Reform Hashtags
#ACA — Affordable Care Act
#hcr — Healthcare Reform)
#health20 — Next-generation healthcare
#healthcareforall
#Healthcosts
#HealthReform
#HIX — Health insurance exchange
#occupyhealthcare
Disease Hashtags
#arthritis
#autoimmune
#autoimmunedisease
#braincancer
#cancer
#chronicallyill
#chronicfatigue
#chronicfatiguesyndrome
#chronicillness
#chronicpain
#Colitis
#depression
#dysautonomia
#eds
#ehlersdanlos
#ehlersdanlossyndrome
#endometriosis
#fatigue
#fibro
#fibrofighter
#fibromyalgia
#gastroparesis
#hypermobility
#invisibledisease
#invisibleillness
#lupus
#lymedisease
#neuroblastoma
#pain
#ra
#rheumatoidarthritis
Click a hashtag, and it will summon all the posts throughout Twitter that use the same identifier. You can also search social platforms for specific hashtags. For example, search for #lupus to view all the posts on the topic.
Search #mhealth, a very popular hashtag, and see what pops up.
The marketing benefits
- Build your audience outside of your current following. One retweet from the right person may reach thousands of additional accounts.
- Refine messages for your audience. Users who search for a hashtag are engaged and actively looking for a solution or information you can provide. For example, many medical device manufacturers want to target multiple audiences with a single feed.
- Cement your branding. You are your content, and tagging your posts can proclaim your expertise to doctors, patients and their influencers.
- Almost free. Once you develop a list of popular hashtags for your social media posts, tagging them is only a few more keystrokes.
- Geo-targeting is crucial for hospitals, and others providing services to patients. Patients in Bismark won’t benefit from your Tweets from your Brooklyn ASC.
SC. Solve by adding a hashtag that defines the geographic location of a hospital or practice. #Bariatric #Cincinnati. Easy!
Where do I find hashtags?
Get started by selecting from the healthcare hashtags below. The online tools below will help you match the right hashtags to your brand.
Find new hashtags research tools at martech.zone
Hashtag Research Tools for Instagram
Incorporating Hashtags in Your LinkedIn Articles
Common healthcare tags
New hospital hashtags sprout up like weeds. The list below is merely a snapshot. Every disease, condition, and specialty is a potential hashtag.
There are no rules, but a best practice is to tag the specialty or subspecialty your targeting and the product category, for example, “We found a bobblehead doll in the patient’s abdomen #ultrasound #ER”
This example features a product that could be used in a number of different settings, so write multiple tweets and tag them for other specialties.
Target Diseases and Conditions
Illness hashtags abound, too. For targeting purposes, notice the difference between the terms used by patients and doctors. Long, scientific tags are generally not for consumer use, but they’re a strong signal to physicians or other medical professionals. Patients may seek suggestions for car and/or use their symptoms in a hashtag.
The Twitterverse is huge but tagging your posts can shrink it down to a narrower target audience of a manageable size. Sign up for BioNews to learn more about healthcare social media.