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Can’t keep track of what your medical practice needs to do on social media during the COVID-19 Pandemic? Follow this social media checklist:
✔︎ Promote Virtual Consultations
Make sure your audience knows you’re able to consult with them virtually. There are a number of reasons why people would want to schedule a virtual consultation and you need to make sure they know you are there for them. Patients who need follow up visits or check-ins should be able to contact you easily and not feel deserted. Patients who want more sophisticated skincare that requires a consultation can get that done virtually. Even people who have questions about what they need to do to prepare for a cosmetic surgery once this is all over – what do they need to know? Tell them virtually! Give your patients the list of services on what they can schedule consultations for – make it known that you are doing this.
✔︎ Add Facebook Shopping and Instagram Shopping
IG shopping had 180 million daily users earlier this spring. That number is highly likely to shoot up as more of us are spending more and more time on our phones. You can link products from a Facebook catalog to your Instagram account and send people directly to your website or ecommerce store where they can place orders. Setting up a catalog does take time, so if you need help, reach out to a digital marketer. The thing is – this is something you need even AFTER all of this. Shopping online needs to be available to your patients for your products and setting up subscription plans (where their products automatically get sent to them each month) is very smart. There is also some industry humming that IG favors posts with product tags in them because you are using their newest innovations and they like that. Posts with IG shopping tags in them often appear in our explore tab more than others. Get moving on this!
✔︎ Update Your IG Highlight Reels to Reflect Your Services
Your reel is super important for your new IG visitors. They get a great understanding of your core abilities and focuses from your reel. Make sure your reel reflects that you are offering virtual consults because it’s a quick way to let people know right when they land on your profile. Make a new reel dedicated to the products you offer too.
✔︎ Update Your IG and Facebook Bios
Again – use the prime real estate on your Instagram and Facebook bio to promote the new offerings of your practice – Virtual consults
Shopping online for skincare products or the fact that you are accepting bookings in advance for the months to come. Let them know you are CURRENT. Your business is a living, breathing thing, make sure you are taking ownership of the situation.
✔︎ Making IG Lives and Coordinating With People in Your Space
Did anyone else notice that the first 5 slots of stories on your Instagram home page is FULL OF IG LIVES? People are at home and bored and for many of us, our phones have replaced our TV time. People are tuning into Instagram LIVES and participating, because hey, why not. There is so much you can offer as a professional in the aesthetic space when you show up on IG. From healthy habits to skincare maintenance to mental health tips – as a medical professional, people want to HEAR FROM YOU. Don’t want to go it alone? There are plenty of beauty influencers out there who would love to do a shared IG LIVE with a professional from the aesthetics space. Just imagine all the things you can talk about – how someone can use the quarantine to prepare for treatments they want in the future, how to maintain your skin during these times, the best things to eat or do to protect your skin and body.
Share medical stories of how you are helping to support your community as a medical professional. It may be as simple as donating masks or equipment or maybe you have stepped up to provide medical care and assistance at a hospital nearby.
✔︎ Educate on Aesthetics and Skin Care
It’s time to share that wealth of knowledge. If you were stranded on a deserted island and could only have 5 skincare products, what would they be? I bet you can think of some right now. Well, replace “deserted island” with your home, because that’s all of us right now. Tell your patients and your fans what they need to be doing to maintain their skincare routine right now. Also, since we are all stuck at home, what are some skin treatments we should start that maybe people are hesitant to do because they make them peel or can cause some initial irritation? Now’s the time to get those products in front of people who could use the downtime to get their skincare game in motion.
What about those of us that recently had cosmetic surgery done? Do we have more to worry about when it comes to contracting COVID-19 than someone else? Does coming out of surgery make you more susceptible? Sure, we could Google the answer, but people want to hear it from you!
What about those of us who are considering surgery at some point in the future when this is all over? That’s called HOPE and we don’t want to lose sight of it. In fact, many of us are sitting at home thinking about all the ways we want to improve and change our lives since COVID-19 has encouraged many of us to self-reflect. For many people, that could mean making the decision to finally book a cosmetic treatment they have always wanted to. And if that’s what they want, that is their right. Give your future patients information on what it would look like to book a procedure in the future.
✔︎ Do Something for Medical Professionals
Have a skincare shop up? Give some TLC to your fellow medical professionals on the front lines by offering them a discount as a token of appreciation. Make it generous and make it meaningful. That generosity could get your content shared and reposted and could gain you good exposure during this time. Plus, it’s the little gestures we can all make to help each other out in times like this.
✔︎ Run a Contest
It’s time to get people engaged and spread some cheers. A package at your doorstep filled with self-care skincare essentials would brighten many moods. Run a contest based on tagging friends in comments with a generous prize. Maybe outside of skincare, you include things like a gift certificate to your medspa for a free facial, laser treatments or injectables when you open back up. Be a beacon of hope and keep letting your audience know that we will get through this and when we do, you will be ready for them with open arms!