Social media is a powerful tool. There are 3.8 billion people that use social media and there’s no sign of that slowing down.
But social media can be a tricky one for physiotherapy clinics.
Some clinic owners feel it’s not worth the time and energy, others will create profiles on all the main networks but won’t be active.
But with the right approach, social media truly can be a valuable marketing channel to help grow your business.
Why Should You Care About Social Media?
We’ve already briefly touched on this, but social media is virtually universal today and many people use it as part of their decision in choosing a clinic.
Having an engaged and active following provides social proof – in other words, it shows that other people trust your clinic.
Beyond that, it can also be used to share content and updates that drive users to your site – and ideally, to book an appointment.
RELATED READING: 5 Ways to Get Your Clinic Found Online
How to Create a Social Media Strategy for a Physiotherapy Clinic
Before you jump into building profiles and creating posts, take a step back and consider your strategy and goals for social media.
First of all, what do you want to get out of social media? Is it a tool primarily for engagement, or primarily for driving new patients? Both? These two different goals will require two different approaches to social media, so you need to start by understanding the end game.
Next, you need to nail down who your audience is (or target audience) and how you want to present your clinic.
The point of social media is to – unsurprisingly – be social. That means you need to start with your audience in mind.
- What’s their demographic?
- What topics do they care about?
- How do they speak and what language do they use?
Knowing this will help guide the overall approach as well as the voice and tone of your social media copy.
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5 Tips for Succeeding in Social Media
Now let’s get into the real advice on how to win at social.
1. Create Engaging Content
One of the biggest challenges I hear from clinic owners and social media managers is around creating content. That is, create enough high-quality content.
The solution to this concern is creating a content engine that can provide you with materials to share.
Here are a few examples that you can look to implement at your clinic fairly quickly:
- Start publishing blog articles: write original articles about various topics that your audience cares about and then share them on social.
- Set aside 30-minutes per week to snap some candid photos around the office
- Ask your team to send you photos of them outside of work (biking, cooking, hanging with the family, whatever)
- Welcome new team members by sharing their photo and bio on social
- Turn quotes and stats into original content
2. Publish Regularly and Consistently
It’s not enough to simply create a profile and post once per month or two.
Building a strong social media following requires you to regularly publish new content. That means at least a weekly cadence, but preferably 2 or 3 posts per week.
It’s also important to be consistent. Publishing a bunch of content one day and then nothing for a few weeks isn’t the same as consistently publishing every few days. It also takes time to build up a following, especially if you’re starting from scratch, so find a pace that you can be consistent with long-term.
3. Engage With Your Audience
As we mentioned, social media is meant to be social.
One of the best ways to grow your page is by engaging with your audience and other relevant pages.
If you receive a comment or review, then be sure to respond to it. You can thank them for the comment, answer their question, ask a follow-up question, direct them to a useful resource, and so on. There are a ton of potential ways you can engage with people.
You can also engage on relevant pages in your area. For example, if you’re supporting a local event and they posted about the event – commenting on their post can help expose your page to other people in the area.
4. Optimize Your Profile
There are two sides to optimizing your profile. First, make sure it looks good. Second, include relevant keywords and information.
Many of us have come across a poorly set up Facebook page before – and they never exactly inspire confidence in the company or brand.
When setting up your page:
- Use a high-resolution image of your logo – make sure your logo isn’t pixelated or janky
- Add a high-quality hero image
- Fill out your about section with information about your clinic, hours, locations, and other details
- Include relevant keywords in your profile – if you offer chiropractic care at your clinic, then mention that in the bio
- Add a custom button to your website
Optimizing your profile is the easiest tip on this list, so it’s one that you should definitely get right.
5. Strategically Repurpose Your Content
At the end of the day, content costs money. Either you’re paying someone to create content or you’re spending your own time creating it – but in any case, it isn’t completely free.
So you want to make sure to maximize your investment in any content that does get created.
One way to do this is by strategically repurposing content.
For example:
- First, write a blog post about ankle exercises
- Share than on social media
- Take a quote from an article and use a stock photo to create another social post
- Take 2-3 photos of the exercises and make a series of posts
Here we’ve taken one piece of content and turned it into 4-5.
Check out this example by Parkway Physiotherapy.
Making Social Work for Your Physio Practice
Social media shouldn’t be an afterthought.
Building and maintaining an active and engaged social media presence will help your clinic reach new patients, build trust with potential customers, and keep existing patients coming back.
If you’re interested in social media for your clinic but could use some support? Reach out to us at PatientPartners to see how we can handle your social media.
