Six Ways to Make Your Practice More Engaging on Social Media

Dr. Seuss said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” People are always looking for new places to go—and what better way to help them discover your practice than through the tools they already use every day: Social media? But where do you start? We have scoured Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and others to discover what users find most engaging, and in this article, we give you six top tips.

1. Show your practice in photos

You could spend a lot of time explaining how modern and clean your office is and how friendly patients find your staff. Or you could show them more quickly and more effectively with photos. Capture photos of your office and staff, and post them to your website and one by one on social media sites. Make sure your photos are clear and cropped for pleasing composition. Consider hiring a professional or assign someone on your staff who you know has photography skills. Include captions to ensure readers get the message you want to convey.

2. Focus on your audience

Who is your practice’s target audience? When you create a post, consider how the audience thinks and feels about the topic. This will help you write what they want to read rather than what you want to say. When you or your staff have some free time, peruse the social media sites your followers are members of and see what types of topics attract the most comments, likes and shares. The content you post can vary greatly from educational information to changes in your office hours or procedures to fun activities you and your staff participate in. Whatever you post, consider how your patients will receive it. They might perceive you as helpful and knowledgeable, considerate, and warm and friendly, depending on what and how you post.

3. Monitor reactions to your posts

Keep an eye on how your social media posts perform. If you notice that people are liking and sharing particular content, chances are they enjoyed it and want to see more. Adjust your posting plans accordingly. Also pay attention to the day of the week and time of the day that you post to determine what is most effective for your audience. Start with posting between 9 and 10 a.m. on Tuesday through Thursday. Studies show that these are typically the most effective times. Don’t post on Sunday. ^[1]

4. Use hashtags

Hashtags are essential in social media. A hashtag is the hash mark (#) with a keyword. For example, you might add #myfavoritedoctor at the end of your post. This tells the social media site to index the post using this hashtag, and anyone who clicks the hashtag on your post or any other post that uses the hashtag will be directed to posts with the same hashtag. Hashtags make your posts more discoverable to more patients, and they summarize the content of your post. You can include as many hashtags as you want with each post. According to a recent study, posts with no hashtags garnered 18 percent of followers to interact. Posts with five hashtags drew 43 percent. And posts with 11 hashtags attracted almost 80 percent. ^[2]

5. Try live videos

The idea of creating a video may sound scary — but it is actually not hard. If you have a smart phone, you already have a studio camera. Sit down and speak the content that you were considering writing in a social media post. People respond very well to videos when you post them on Instagram Reels, Facebook Stories and even TikTok. The unpolished videos you make will come across as more authentic than anything you could spend a lot of money on producing professionally. Experiment with different environments such as your office or an outdoors setting and try different social media sites until you find what works for you.

6. Be consistent

Let’s be honest. Social media is very important to your marketing, but it can also be a lot of work. The most important point to remember is that you need to be consistent. Post regularly, whether that’s once a week or once a month. Involve your staff to take responsibility. Determine what your practice can consistently deliver and stick to it. Too often, practices start enthusiastically, when they launch their social media presence, but schedules get in the way, and they don’t update their sites. Treat your social media activities with the same importance and attention as your website, direct mail and other marketing.

Brevium Can Help You Engage with Your Patients

Brevium is an expert in patient retention and the pioneer in patient reactivation. Brevium’s software mines its clients’ patient databases using customized algorithms to improve the patient appointment lifecycle™. Hundreds of practices have found Brevium to be a trusted partner, with personalized training and unlimited support. Through original research and software development, Brevium helps ensure that patients return for the care they need, and practices derive the greatest financial benefit from the patient appointment lifecycle™.

I want to find out how Brevium can help me stay engaged with my patients.

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