“Oh, we’ve never really tapped into the social media market since our patients don’t really use it.”
If this sounds like something you’d say about your practice, then you should change your stance soon. With over 41% of people saying that social media would affect their choice of a medical facility, lacking a social media presence can mean missing out on patients. So, is your practice on Facebook? If so, are you optimizing it correctly?
1) Create a business page, not a profile.
In the age of mobile devices, people want to interact with businesses quickly and easily. If your practice’s Facebook is an actual profile, patients will not be able to engage with you fast, but will rather have to send a friend request and await for your approval. Not only does not having a business page hurt your engagement levels and create more work for you, but it also stops you from using Facebook’s business tools for your growth. Make sure that you’re developing a branded page for your practice that you are able to manage by using Facebook’s creation tools, ad development, and analytics and you’ll find yourself making adjustments each month to grow your audience!
2) Focus on your photos and videos.
Over 74% of social media marketers are using visual assets in their social media. Are you part of that percentage? If not, more focus should be going into your visual branding opportunities. Start high level with your cover photo and profile image and then work your way down the page and into your posts. Remember, your cover photo takes up the most space on your Facebook business page, so it has to be engaging. Use a catchy tagline, an engaging image of your office staff, or something outlining a special product of yours. With your posts, try to compliment everything with a video or photo. These will get shared up to 40X more than your average post, meaning your engagement goes through the roof. Maybe your office could have the next “singing dentist” video!
3) Beef up your about us and description.
We’ve talked about it before regarding your GMB listing, but having your description areas filled with detail can help create an easier user interface that your patients will appreciate. While those visiting your Facebook will not see the description immediately, most people know to click on the “about” section to get more information. Make sure to write information about your practice here–including some interesting things that set you apart. Think about awards, years in business, or new service lines you provide. In fact, you can go as far as placing these services in their own tab to ease a user’s navigation. Don’t forget about your hours of operation (including special holiday hours), your address, and any directions that might help people find you. The viewers want to hear about your business, so give them what they want!
4) Create a schedule and target for posting.
While you don’t have to have a rigid schedule, it’s great to find a consistent timing for your posts so that you keep your audience engaged. Post too often and you’ll have your followers thinking that you’re just trying to spam them with information. Post too little and your followers will start to leave your page due to boredom. So, just like Goldilocks did, you have to find the spot that’s “just right.” There’s a series of trial and error here, but once you’ve found your popular times (all by monitoring your insights), then you’ll have a great schedule moving forward. In addition, make sure to adjust your settings so you’re targeting the right folks. By setting your preferred page audience, you’ll narrow your audience down to those who are really going to be invested in reading your posts, which can, in turn, help your engagement grow substantially.
5) Set up your call to action to make contacting you a breeze.
One of the biggest issues that we see is that practices are not setting up their CTA (call to action) buttons on their Facebook pages. Imagine Googling a business and not being able to easily click a button to call them. That’s exactly the issue that your patients will face if your button isn’t optimized properly. While you can send this to either your phone number or appointment page, it’s certainly a great lead generator. Combine this with a GMB listing that’s perfectly optimized and usable and your audience of users will navigate your sites with ease and call you in no time.
How Can I Optimize My Practice’s Facebook Today?
You can certainly start by running through our tips above, or simply checking out a few competitors’ pages. But the easy route is to let the pros take care of it for you and provide you with the stellar results you need and deserve. Contact Practis today and let us mold your Facebook into the patient engagement and acquisition tool it’s meant to be!
