We all know social media is essential to build your brand and to drive traffic to your blog. But do you know how to use it well? If you get it right, you can grow your following, and get more blog hits than ever before. But it can be hard to navigate the world of social media and make it work for your business, knowing where to spend your money and when and what to post. Well, here are three top tips for using all of your social media to expand your PT blog.
When you think about using social media, you need to think big. Yes of course you want to reach an audience that is local to where your clinics are, but you also want to make a name for your brand. For this you need to look further afield than your own town. When you are sharing your content think about your target audience, who you are trying to reach. Your demographic will reside in countries all over the world and you need to remember this with the language that you use (is it easily translated) and the content you are promoting. Of course, you want to ensure it is reaching local people who are likely to visit your clinic. But when it comes to growing brand awareness and visits to your website, it doesn’t matter so much where your readers are located.
Consider the times of the day you are posting and scheduling posts on social media. Monitor when this is most effective and change the times of your posts to suit. You may even find different types of posts do better at different times of the day. Perhaps first thing in the morning there are people who are interested in sports injuries and then mid afternoon maybe more issues that affect the older generation. Scheduling the types of blog posts and photographs you are sharing on social media will give you the maximum benefit. Depending on where your readers are and what they are interested in, posting at the right time will help you to improve your brand recognition on a global level. Then when you encourage sharing of this information, you reach a wider audience across the world still.
Don’t be afraid to utilise promotion and advertising on different social media accounts. Advertising is a great way to get your physical therapy brand out there and reach the right people who would benefit from your content. Advertising on a range of social media accounts gets you seen by the right people at the right time and it is organised in a way that is tailored for your business. In order for advertising to be effective you need to narrow down your demographic and decide who you want to target and those who will most likely engage. You may want to conduct surveys will your clients or even on your social media pages to find out more about who your clients are and what they are looking for in a physical therapist. Then you will be in a better position to begin your advertising.
With Facebook and Instagram, you can choose your target audience your adverts will be shown to. This can include many different factors. Think about age, gender, location and interests you would like your advert to be publicised to. You can also advertise to gain results different ways such as driving traffic directly to your website, to a particular blog post or increasing page likes of following on social media platforms. Decide what you want to achieve from the social media advertising and develop an advertising strategy and budget to expand your PT blog. Direct links to your blog will increase your blog traffic, but more people following your accounts will mean more people see your blog posts in the future. It is important to plan ahead and stick to a budget to prevent the advertising costs spiralling out of control.
Although business accounts are popular for information on social media, many users follow influencers and put trust in their opinions and the products are services they use. Social media influencers are people who have achieved a certain level of credibility in their particular field. They can have immense power and the ability to reach thousands of potential customers and clients across social media. With just one Instagram post or story the right influencers can reach many people who may be interested in your product or service. You just need to decide who to approach and exactly what type of promotion you are looking for. For example, this could be a review of the treatments you offer at the clinic or merely a shout out to check out your website for more information about your brand.
There are a few ways you can use influencers to promote your physical therapy brand. Firstly, you could message of contact your chosen influencers directly and ask them to look at your business to see if it is something they are interested working together on. Or you can use an agency to find the right influencers at the right price for you. Depending on the number of followers and the niche they attract, influencers charge different rates per post. Some may be happy to use your services in exchange for honest reviews on their account, whereas others may charge per post of for a contract including a number of posts. Plan how you want to use influencers and your budget in your marketing strategy in order to make social media influencers work for your physical therapy brand.
As long as you have the time to create and post regular content on the social media platform, then the more social media presence you have the better. Problems arise when you do not engage with your followers or fail to post for a while. When this happens, your growth loses traction and your followers have less interest in your brand. It may even involve unfollowing your pages which leads to a reduction in the number of people who will see your posts.
Facebook and Instagram are both popular and well used social media platforms with millions of daily users all over the world. Sharing quality photographs and interesting pictures on these platforms improves your brand recognition and can make readers want to learn more about your services, driving traffic to your website.
Snapchat is also becoming more popular with businesses. On your account you can share stories about your clinic and successful treatments. Twitter is also a great way to share information and stories about your physical therapy business. If you want to get up to date information to your followers quickly and easily then this is a great platform choice.
When you set up your social media accounts you will be asked to input a minimum amount of information. This will set you off to a good start but there are some essentials that will make sure your account is more successful. Firstly, you need to make sure you have a clear and easy to see call to action. Make it easy for your followers to contact you by listing a telephone number and email address, these can be clicked on instantly for ease of use. You should also include your website so they can find out more about you and create a link to be able to book an appointment or consultation.
Then you need specific information about what you offer and what your brand is all about. Be personable and provide enough information for potential new clients to want to book in with you or make enquiries about your service. Sharing regular blog content and keeping your followers engaged is then the most important aspect once the page is fully set up.
As you can see, social media can make a big impact on your blog traffic and overall brand recognition and following. To summarise the three tips, to make the most of your social media, look to go global, use social media influencers and advertising to expand your PT blog. It can be hard to keep on top of all of your social media accounts but with the right planning and preparation you can grow your business with the use of all different social media platforms. There is also help out there if you simply don’t have time to make the most of social media. Patient sites offers services that will keep on top of social media for you and produce relevant content to be shared across your accounts. Contact us to find out more about what we can do to use social media to grow your physical therapy brand.
Do you need some help with your physical therapy website and marketing? Download our Free Evergreen Marketing Blueprint for Physical Therapists and start creating long-term assets that generate new patient bookings for years to come.