Social Media Marketing

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In this guide, you’ll find over 30 proven tips for developing and executing a social media strategy for your medical practice. Who’s it for? Everyone in your practice, no matter their experience level. Enjoy!

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[fs-toc-omit] PART 1

6 quick & easy steps to create a social media strategy

1. Get buy-in

If you intend on producing valuable social media content consistently, you’ll need to gain buy-in from your staff.

Don’t force your team to contribute. Instead, create a culture where creating content for social and capturing your day-to-day through a lens (or a post) is rewarded.

To do:
   ▢ Evangelize social media in your practice
   ▢ Establish roles and responsibilities
   ▢ Develop a reward system for participation

2. Listen

What’s working? What’s not?

Develop a persona of the ideal patient you’re trying to reach on social media by consulting with your actual patients.

Your patients (and competitors) will offer a roadmap to where and how you should participate on social media.

To do:
   ▢ Survey patients about social media preferences
   ▢ Monitor competitors’ social profiles to see what works
   ▢ List target patients’ social preferences

3. Set goals

Awareness? New patients? Loyalty? 

Before you can decide which channels will help facilitate your goals, first you need to define them. 

Tip: Define narrow goals first. Select one goal, other than leads, to kickstart your social media program. Once you feel confident that you can exceed your set goal, broaden your ambitions. 

Select all that apply:
    ▢ Improve loyalty & retention
    ▢ Increase brand awareness
    ▢ Drive quality website traffic
    ▢ Increase new patients
    ▢ Promote events
    ▢ Other

4. Define your message

How will you stick out in a sea of friends and family in a human way? 

Because talking about your services won’t do. 

Develop a mission statement for your social media strategy that clearly explains what you’re aiming to give back to your followers, and decide how you’ll appeal to the heart of your patients and prospects. 

To do:
   ▢ Identify your voice: inspirational, educational, entertaining, humorous, etc.
    ▢ Define how you’ll compete differently (and stand out)
   ▢ Develop a social media mission statement 

5. Choose success metrics

How will you measure success? 

After setting your overarching goals, your success metrics will let you know if you’re achieving them. 

For example, if your goal is to increase new patients, you’ll want to measure how many leads social media generates. 

Select all that apply:
    ▢ Shares/comments/likes
    ▢ Number of leads
    ▢ Number of followers/fans
    ▢ Referral traffic
    ▢ Behavior metrics (conversions, time on site, pages per visit)
    ▢ Sentiment
    ▢ RSVPs
    ▢ Return on Investment
    ▢ You’re not interested in innovative ideas 

6. Develop a channel plan

Start small. Dream big. 

Despite what everyone says, you don’t need to be everywhere all at once. Use your limited resources wisely. 

Choose a social channel that you can consistently produce great content on, and avoid the rest. Then develop a unique plan for “how” you plan on creating, distributing, and engaging with your audience on that channel.

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[fs-toc-omit] PART 2

17 simple social media tips for marketing your medical practice

1. Focus your efforts 

Choose one content type (text, video, or audio), one platform (Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, RealSelf), and one target patient, then consistently deliver relevant content over the long haul.

2. Post more visual content 

The universal language of the future is not written in text; it’s captured through a lens. It’s time you speak the native tongue. 

Share photos of your practice and staff, before and after photos of your procedures, time-lapse videos of your treatments, or “quick-tip” video tutorials. 

3. Be human 

Sign your posts so your followers know there’s someone on the other side (e.g. “Sincerely, Dr. Smith” or “–Ashley, P.C.C.”) 

4. Pay to play 

If you plan on winning social, you’ll need to spend money. 

Start social paid ads with Facebook and Instagram remarketing. Remarketing allows you to show ads to people who have already visited your website, which increases your chances of getting prospects who already showed interest to convert into patients. 

5. Be a resource 

Before your next post, ask yourself: “Will my patients and prospects find value in this?” Or, “If I delete my account today, will my patients care?” If the answer is no, think deeper. 

Be an immutable resource, always. 

6. Ensure consistent branding 

Social media is an extension of your patient experience, and often the first interaction a prospect will have with your practice. So make sure the quality, value, and expertise you promise on your website is reflected on social media. THat means colors, logos, and your commitment to quality should all align. 

7. Use the right size images 

Use the following dimensions for your social profiles so they don’t get cropped and cut off: 

• Twitter profile photo: 400x400px 
• Twitter header image: 1500x500px 
• LinkedIn profile photo: 400x400px 
• LinkedIn logo: 400x400px 
• Instagram profile photo: 180x180px 
• Facebook profile picture: 180x180px 
• Facebook cover photo: 851x315px 

8. Generate ideas 

Use sites like Quora.com and RealSelf.com to search for topics of discussion regarding your procedures and treatments, and then write a blog post that answers the most popular questions that surface in each thread. 

9. Optimize your bio 

Your profile bio section will garner more attention and clicks thatn anywhere else on social media. 

In your bio, avoid abstract words like “leading” or “premiere.” The human brain craves concrete. 

Instead, focus on the outcomes your patients will achieve–it’s about them, not you. 

10. Engage your audience 

5/6 brands ignore their customers’ comments. 

Social media is a place to be... social. If you’re not creating a two-way discourse, then you’re not creating a two-way discourse, then you’re wasting your time. Stay ahead of the pack. Join the conversation. 

11. Get staff involved 

Arm your staff members with the ammunition they need to spread the word. How? 

You can’t force your employees to share your content and promotions–it will end in contention. But you can educate them on the importance of their role to the success of your practice so they take ownership and share their own. 

12. Curate content from others 

Like a museum curator who curates art pieces from around the world, it’s your job to curate the finest pieces of content related to your industry and community. 

Try one of these proven ratios to get you started: 

• 30/60/10: 30% owned, 60% curated, and 10% promotional 
• 555+: 5 updates about your own ontent, 5 updates about other people’s content, 5 replies and comments, 5 miscellaneous posts that add value (like user-generated content). 
• 5-3-1: 5 pieces of content from others, 3 pieces of your own content, and 2 personal status updates. 
• Rule of thirds: 1/3 of your updates are your own content, 1/3 of your updates are shared posts and ideas, and 1/3 of your updates are personal.

13. Share content more than once 

To maximize reach, create a “repost” schedule for each post ahead of time. 

For example, after you publish an article, share it on Facebook a few hours later, again 8 days later, and then a third time 30 days later. Each time, use different post copy. If you’re using multiple social channels, you can get more creative with your repost schedule. 

14. Experiment with user-generated content 

Go out on a limb. Live a little. Let your patients take over your social media feeds while they’re going through treatment. 

Tip: Buy a used iPod to use strictly for social media in the office. Then give the iPod to your patients so they can take pictures and post real-time updates on a select social channel while they undergo non-invasive treatments. 

15. Create a schedule 

Depending on the social channels you use, follow these best practices and adapt your schedule from there: 

• Instagram: 1-2x per day
• Facebook: 1-2x per day 
• TikTok: 1-2x per day
• Twitter: 2-3x per day
• Pinterest: 1x per day
• LinkedIn: 1x per day
• RealSelf: 1x per day

16. Connect with influencers 

Engage with local businesses in your community that share your same audience and broad mission (e.g. fitness, healthy lifestyle, beauty, confidence, etc). Like their pages. Comment on their updates. Share their posts. And subscribe to their email list. Then co-create content with them. 

Creating valuable content with influencers helps you easily scale your content without paying for more resources, and it gets you in front of a bigger audience for free. 

17. Ask for patient feedback 

Use social media to ask your patients and prospects about their frequently asked questions so you can answer them on the blog. Once you compile enough questions, you can turn them into individual blog posts or Q&A blog posts where you answer multiple questions about the same topic or theme.