Most healthcare websites integrate with their respective social media accounts by placing a link on their homepage.
Often you can find them at the bottom of the page, with a colorful row of links. Click on one, and ‘bam” you are directed off the page.
However, there is another way to integrate social media on a home page: A Social Media Widget.
Heres an example of The Washington State Department of Health having a Twitter Widget on it’s home page:
Note the interactive, scrolling nature of the Twitter feed
Although there may be some downside to doing this (such as slightly slower page loading speed slows or very rare website stability issues) there is a significant upside.
Having a social media widget on the home page allows for dynamic content distribution on your most important gateway of your digital platform.
Look, I understand from a marketing or branding perspective it is nice to have a very clean, stable and simple homepage.
However, a healthcare’s organizations mission is not just to have a nice brand; or a clean homepage; it is to improve the health and well being of their patients.
And to do that, it is reasonable to experiment with how social media integrates with the website and if this can actually change patient behavior ( and possibly their health).
So, look at your healthcare’s integration with Social Media on your homepage.
Is there simply a link to an external digital platform, or is there dynamic content being placed to help that high volume of patients visiting your home page every day?