Anyone that spends even a fraction of their day on social media will see that many people use visuals to engage with their followers. People share photos or videos that are funny, educational, or cute. As a physiotherapist, or a staff member in a physical therapist’s office, you may wonder how you can use visual content on social media effectively to promote your practice when you do not sell material items.
Although it might seem impossible, there are ways that medical professionals, including physical therapists, can use visual content on social media. The following are some tips that can be used to promote your PT practice through visual content effectively.
If your physiotherapy practice is on Facebook and Twitter, you are already ahead of the game. There is still more that you can do and that is to get an account on both Instagram and Pinterest. Both of these sites are visual content heavy.
It is quite possible people have already mentioned you on Instagram if they took a selfie of themselves while at your practice. To see if this has occured do the following. Take a picture at your practice, select your location when posting the picture, select the name of your practice, post the photo, and click your practice’s name.
When using Pinterest, as a physical therapy clinic, you do not want to pin just anything. You want to post things relevant to physical therapy. Consider posting things about health or wellness. Consider motivation quotes. If you do not have a blog for your clinic or office, or need to post something with a link, then repin posts from other people that fall into the aforementioned categories. Search out things other physical therapy clinics, health officials, or members of the health and wellness industry have posted. This serves multiple purposes, it helps you build up your boards, and it helps find out what is popular, in addition, it helps you gain followers. Just remember, do not repin more things than share original content. Anyone can spend their time on Pinterest only repining things; make sure you contribute while you are there.
When you make the decision to start posting visual content, regardless of the social media site, you want to ensure that you are posting content that is relevant to your physical therapy practice or the industry. Here are some dos and don’ts:
DO use relevant visual content.
DO keep text messages with meaning that are clear and to the point.
DO use text only visuals
DO use your URL or a hashtag
DO create your own content
DON’T use corny or cliché phrases
DON’T use overused stock pictures
DON’T add words unless needed
DON’T post photos or videos simply for clicks, likes, and shares
The numbers of ways that you can use visual content to your advantage, even as a physical therapy clinic are innumerable. If you know how to post content, know what kind of content to post, and do not allow yourself to being pulled into the world of sharing, posting, or pinning just anything you can help get more attention focused on you and your clinic. Always remember that the most important thing about sharing visual content is having it actually serve a purpose. You want to educate or convey a message with every post. Do not always use photos, or videos. Incorporate infographics and slideshows into your postings as well.
If you follow some of the above tips, you will be able to promote and draw interest to your physical therapy practice using photos and videos. No longer do you have to depend on blocks of text on social media to get the word out about your practice and what it has to offer. At PatientSites, we understand how important visual content is which is why we offer you a library of 300 high quality images for use in slideshows and other marketing content.