In our evolving digital world, social media for business has never been so important, and can be a key tool to use for growing your healthcare practice. Your social profiles are one of the first things that potential customers look at, so it pays to make a good first impression.
How can you harness the power of social media to grow your business? Use these handy tips.
Sharing is caring
Social media is designed for sharing, and the most successful accounts keep this in mind with every post. Potential (and existing) customers love to see relatable content. Ideas include:
- Share staff member profiles and happy snaps from team lunches or meetings.
- Give users a sneak peek behind the scenes – are you launching a new product soon? Perhaps some renovations are underway? Build excitement by providing a snippet to your followers.
- Provide your followers with tips and advice. You could film a short how-to video about a new product or show what treatments are best for what issues.
A balance of self-promotion, interesting content and genuinely helpful advice is key when growing successful social media accounts for your practice.
Location, Location, Location
If your business is at a physical location, it’s important to include this information in your main profile and attach it to each post. If potential customers see your post and discover that you’re located nearby, they are much more likely to follow you than if this information is missing.
Gotta be in it, to win it
A great way to grow your social following is by running competitions which require users to follow you to enter.
- You can offer your products and services as prizes or partner up with a complementary organisation.
- Partnering with another brand (like a gym, pharmacy, health food store etc.) is helpful as they can promote the competition on your behalf. In return, you can provide a product or service for them to give away. You get to network within your niche and take advantage of each other’s audiences.
- Depending on your business, you may be able to partner with a social media influencer who can promote the competition on your behalf (often in exchange for services or monetary compensation).
Make sure to check the laws in your specific state to ensure your competition is above board.
Increase your social reach
The Facebook and Instagram algorithm is created so that unfortunately not everyone who follows you will see every post.
Here’s what works best:
- Using hashtags is important if you want your content to be found by people outside of your existing audience. Research hashtags relevant to your niche and use a mixture of popular and not so popular ones for the best results. You can use up to 30, so make the most of it!
- Update your Instagram story regularly to reach your audience via a different medium. Stories are becoming more popular than the Instagram feed and are a great way to capture your audience’s attention.
- Social advertising is another way to reach relevant audiences. For a low weekly spend, you can target people by demographics such as age, interests, online behaviour and more, to reach the most relevant potential customers.
Harness your customers (for good!)
Your customer base is one of your most important assets, and one you can easily engage to grow your online following and your practice.
- Offer incentives to customers who ‘check-in’ on Facebook or tag you on Instagram. (10% off a service, complimentary add on, a small gift, for example.)
- Do you have regular customers who are willing to appear on your social channels? Sharing customer stories is a great way to increase engagement on your social profiles. As a bonus, they may even share it with their network.
- Encourage existing customers to follow you on social media by adding your social handles to business cards, brochures, newsletters and posters. You can add a QR code to in-practice signage. (Facebook provides free printable posters with your personalised code).
Social media as a marketing tool can be incredibly useful for acquiring new customers, nurturing existing ones and creating brand awareness for your growing practice.