Social media is an invaluable marketing tool for your practice, driving traffic to your website and ultimately increasing your caseload. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Pinterest have evolved into ‘recommendation engines’, the digital equivalent of word-of-mouth.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 96% of UK households had internet access in February 2020. This compares to 57% in 2006, a trend that can be seen all over the world. A global digital report by We Are Social found that 45% of the world’s population is on social media, which means that the marketing options for your practice are endless.
The crux of social media marketing lies in the simplicity of resharing of information
In the era of social media, the ease of sharing links and information connects people and businesses together who would not ordinarily find each other. This can have a big impact on your practice, increasing your exposure to clients who may not otherwise have found you.
For this reason, it’s important to have an online presence where potential clients can see you. The art of social media marketing is to know and target your audience with the content you share.
Top tip: It’s important to keep your business social media accounts separate from your personal accounts.
So which platforms are right for my practice?
Ultimately, the right platform will depend on your marketing strategy. It may be helpful to note down some of your key marketing requirements, which will help you find a perfect fit within the platforms on offer. For example, are you looking for a service that will allow clients to book appointments directly? Or is your aim to market your services to fellow practitioners in order to boost your referral sources?
You can successfully market your private practice for free using social media, or you can pay for sponsored adverts, which can attract new clients and boost engagement. All of the platforms discussed below offer this service – you will need to decide if this approach is right for your marketing strategy.
With 2.5 billion users every month, Facebook is the largest social network worldwide. It’s easy to create a business page for your practice, detailing your availability, location and background information. Once you have set up your account, you can post your blog articles and share any relevant content.
Facebook has a series of marketing tools built into their platform to help you. For example, Facebook Messenger allows your audience to communicate with you directly from your Facebook page. You can also add action buttons and manage your appointments from the app.
Follow The Private Practice Hub to see our Facebook page in action.
Twitter allows you the opportunity to boost your practice by networking with potential clients and practitioners. It provides the perfect platform to build your reputation in any way you choose. With over 330 million monthly users, you can network within your local community by engaging with local businesses, or you can interact with social influencers and engage on a larger scale.
With only 280 characters available per tweet, it’s important to tailor your content to your target audience. You can also interact with other Twitter users, retweeting on-topic posts which will appeal to your clients. Don’t forget to utilise hashtags to boost the visibility of your content.
You can get started by following The Private Practice Hub!
LinkedIn is the largest social network for professionals, allowing you to connect with fellow private practitioners and business clients, gaining exposure to potential referral sources. In addition to creating a personal profile, you can create a company page to showcase your practice.
Like other social networks, LinkedIn has a newsfeed to which you can post and reshare relevant content, such as sharing your blog posts. LinkedIn Groups allows you to engage in discussions within your field of interest. With 660 million users on LinkedIn, the networking opportunities are endless.
Connect with us on LinkedIn.
Instagram attracts a younger market, ranging from 17-35 years, with 1 billion monthly users. Instagram comes into its own as a branding tool, with emphasis placed on your own content, rather than on resharing other posts.
You can therefore use Instagram to showcase unique visual content, demonstrating your empathy and understanding of your target market. According to Hootsuite, one-third of the most viewed Instagram stories are from businesses. This means that you can utilise a new way of marketing your practice to engage with your audience.
Pinterest allows its users to collate linked images and articles and save them into personal Pinterest boards. In this way, users can find and save inspiration on any subject, ranging from exercise motivation to self-help articles on mental health. It has become a reference tool, much like Google, to source information and organise it in a personalised way.
You can create visually beautiful images and infographics (with the help of tools such as Canva) to accompany your blog posts and pin them to Pinterest. This will drive traffic to your website as Pinterest users engage with your content.