When your practice is already busier than all get out, it’s easy for things that seem “optional” to fall way down on your to do list. Posting on social media is one of those things that often seems like a “nice to have” rather than a “must do.” After all, you have more important things like providing patient service, managing your staff, keeping up with accounting, oh, and actually performing procedures!
There may have been a time, say 10 years ago, when choosing to engage on social media was an option for medical practices. For better or for worse, it is now an essential component of any successful business plan. You are leaving money on the table and limiting the growth of your practice if you aren’t aggressively engaged on social media.
Defining the Effort
Given the shortage of time in most aesthetic offices these days, what’s the bare minimum effort needed to “check the box” on social engagement? We think it looks like this:
Facebook, or Meta as it has now decided to call itself, is still the central player in the social media space. It’s where the bulk of your focus needs to go. Pretty much everyone knows about the basics of making posts and responding to comments. But practices that are successful on this platform do so much more.
Some extras you want to keep in mind while engaging on Facebook:
- Set up autoresponses so that anyone who contacts you gets instant communication back with key messages such as hours, how long a personal response will take, etc.
- Post before and after gallery images, but remember to be sensitive to Facebook’s nudity policies and when in doubt, be conservative.
- Set up frequently asked questions (FAQs) so fans can get answers for top questions without having to contact you.
- Invite people who have liked posts to like your page, so they have a greater chance of seeing more of your content.
- Pin offers and specials or other big announcements to the top of your page, so they’re front and center.
- Strongly consider starting Facebook Ads if you aren’t running them already, or upping your ad budget if you have a campaign going.
As a visual medium, Instagram gives you a particularly strong platform to share the story of the dramatic transformations you help patients achieve. One of the most impactful ways to engage on the platform is through Instagram Stories – photos and videos that expire after 24 hours. This is the best way to share fresh, funny and engaging content with the people who follow your practice.
Even after a story “expires,” it is still available in your story archive. From there, you can highlight older stories that got a lot of buzz and engagement. It’s kind of like reheating leftovers, and like lasagna or soup, story highlights can be even better the second time around when you add a new twist.
Everywhere Else
Consider all of these platforms to be the “icing on the cake” once you’ve mastered Facebook and Instagram.
- Twitter: This is not a “must have” platform. If you already like to tweet, don’t let us stop you you! But if you’re not active on Twitter, it doesn’t reflect poorly on your practice at all.
- YouTube: Though it’s not necessarily considered a “social media” channel, building your library of video content can be a powerful way to reach new patients.
- TikTok, Pinterest, etc.: These are other platforms that are not essential for aesthetic practices. But if you’ve nailed it on the other platforms, or you’d really like to focus on a certain demographic, you could consider expanding onto one of these.
Tapping Internal Resources
It’s rare for doctors themselves to spend oodles of time on social media. If you love it and you’re in the habit, great! Keep it up. But if it seems like more of a chore for you, either find someone already on staff who can be the point person for your office’s social media effort, or bring some fresh blood in specifically to tackle this challenge.
100% of the practices we work with who are successful on social media have a point person we work with who is spearheading content creation, calendaring, and monitoring engagement and interaction on social platforms. It’s just that simple.
Not sure how to find the right person? In this challenging hiring landscape, we encourage you first to try to nurture this talent in-house. Ask your staff if they’d be willing to take on some social media posting duties. Even if no one is up for it, they might have a family member or friend who could come into the office a one or two days each week to spot good social media content or coach the rest of the staff about what to look out for.
If you practice near a college or university, you should have a talented pool of young people, many of whom at this point have an innate sense of how social media works. The right person might even grow into the role of marketing liaison or patient coordinator in addition to their social media responsibilities.
Asking for Help
Whether you have an internal social media person or not, we can still help to tackle the social media challenge. If you have someone on the case already, we can assist on things such as:
- Responding to comments and messages during off hours or weekends
- Helping to configure or edit instant replies
- Setting up or updating FAQ content
- Posting additional content each week across all social accounts + stories
- Updating cover photos, offers, events, and other brand opportunities each month
- Brainstorming and helping with execution of custom content tailored to your practice
If you don’t have the time or resources for an internal social media role, our focus shifts to a “keep the lights on” approach that includes a few social media posts a week, along with automatic messaging and FAQ’s set up to maximize communication with minimal effort.
Social media is a collaborative communication method, and in our experience, collaboration both inside and outside your practice can help to make it as effective as possible. We are putting an emphasis on social media effort in 2022, so don’t be surprised when you hear a lot more from us about this throughout the year. We promise to be only slightly annoying about it!