Helpful tips to start your clinic’s social media presence

In today’s digital age, social media has become an integral part of everybody’s lives, especially for businesses. It offers a powerful platform to connect with others, share information, and promote our businesses. For health and wellness clinics, establishing a strong social media presence is not only helpful for attracting new clients but it’s also helpful for building trust, fostering engagement, and staying connected with patients. Read on as we explore strategies to optimize your social media content, and share some helpful tips and advice some some of our socially savvy Jane Ambassadors; Meg & Neena of Articulate Design, Dr. Rebecca Hopkins, Marco De Ciantis, and Emma Jack.

⭐️ Make sure to checkout our free templates to jumpstart your socials!

Before You Post: Know Your Audience 🔎

Who are your ideal clients? What are their demographics, interests, and online behaviours? Take a moment to jot down this information on paper or in a new document on your laptop. Understanding your desired audience and their challenges will help you craft engaging content that resonates with them.

TikTok, Instagram, Meta, Oh, My! 🌪️

With the sheer volume of social media platforms available to us now, it’s important to select the ones that align with your clinic’s goals and audience preferences. Are you looking to connect with millennials? A quick Google search identifies Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube as the primary platforms they frequent. Do you serve Gen-Z or even Generation Alpha? Then you might want to start a TikTok account. Making sure you’re aware of where you need to show up will help you tailor your social media content to resonate with your target demographic and attract the right individuals to your clinic.

“We find social media, particularly Instagram an amazing tool in our business. Since Instagram is a visual platform, it is the best way for us to communicate our clinic designs and show the world what we are able to create. Probably 70% of our lead generation comes through social media and we notice a direct correlation with new inquiries and posting frequency.” - Meg & Neena, Articulate Design.

Consistency is 🔑

Consistency is key when it comes to building a strong social media presence. The goal is for client A, or would-be client B to recognize you and your brand when they see your content. When creating your social media brand it’s a good idea to have it align with your clinic’s values, mission, and visual identity so people know who you are and what you can offer them at a glance.

Dr. Rebecca, chiropractor clinic owner and business coach, agrees that consistency is important for using your socials to grow your business, “People often feel like social media is a waste of time, but I changed my mindset to believe that social media was the only thing that could help me grow. I plug windows into my day and weeks where I just do social media. Right before the month hits, I set up all my times where I’m going to be doing social media.”

Marco De Ciantis, chiropractor and clinic owner, said on the topic of consistency. “Fresh content can really help drive traffic to one’s site, especially when optimizing SEO applications, where ‘customer funnels’ can really work”.

If you’re already scheduling your social posts, now is the time to sit down and see if your branding elements such as logo, colours, fonts, and tone of voice match across all your social media accounts. Being consistent in these elements will not only help you build your brand recognition, but reinforce your clinic’s professionalism and credibility.

The Content 🍲

Engaging content should feel like a good conversation with a trusted friend: Fun!. You’ll want to focus on creating engaging, valuable, and enjoyable content. This can be informative articles, health tips, success stories, introductions to you and your team, before and after pictures and videos, as well as educational videos that your audience can connect with. This is really where you can use your creativity and inject your personality into your content. Remember to keep an eye on how your content performs, too. Build on the content you see engaging your audience.

Emma Jack, physiotherapist and business coach, agrees that creating content should be fun, “Keep it fun and easy- pressure doesn’t allow you to be creative. Let go of the ‘shoulds’ and ‘have-tos’ and watch your enjoyment soar. Don’t be afraid to share you! People are interested in people, not businesses. The more you share about the different facets of you (and your team) the more connected people will feel.”

Check out Emma’s video below to see how she is creating fun and light content for her community.

Build Your 24/7 Community 🚧

Social media is a great way to broadcast your message to your audience, create lasting impressions and cultivate meaningful relationships, even during closed practice hours.

A piece of the social media puzzle to keep in mind is that creating and posting content is not all you need to do. Engaging with your audience should rank as important as the consistent content you create.

“Active participation in answering questions creates with patients (or potential patients), rapport that can go a long way in solidifying trust between the two, that surpasses any physical/emotional/mental divide that social media could create.” - Marco De Ciantis, Sports Specialist Rehab Centre.

Interactions with clients online is not only another opportunity for you to build relationships with them outside of your practice but also a crucial way to shape your brand perception outside of your existing client base. A business that quickly and authentically responds to questions and comments from its users has the ability to position itself as knowledgeable, customer-centric, and attentive. These qualities also happen to be the ones potential clients seek in their health and wellness practitioners.

Another thing to keep in mind when replying to comments is that this often leads to increased visibility and reach for your content. Social media platforms take into account a lot of things when deciding what to show a user, and one of those is the various engagement signals such as likes, comments, and shares on posts.

With this in mind, when creating your content see if there are ways for you engage your audience. This can include asking questions, initiating discussions, and creating interactive content like polls.

Optimization is a Process 📈

Optimizing your social media presence is a powerful way to connect with your audience, showcase your expertise, and grow your business. But it doesn’t happen overnight, just like any profession, it is learned and refined over time. Your next steps are to get to know your audience, choose the right platforms to show up on, and develop your consistent brand image to maximize the impact your content creates to achieve tangible results for your clinic.

Check out the Instagram Live we held earlier this year with Dr. Rebecca. During the session, she sat down with our community team to discuss ways that clinics can convert their online followers into patients.

Resources

The Jane Design team has been hard at work to help you get started! Use their editable templates as inspiration for your next posts. You’ll just need a free Canva account to make your edits to the templates: