As a practitioner, if you're wondering why your social media efforts aren't working the way you had hoped, or if you're not using social media at all, use this article to get your social media marketing strategies (back) on track.
Why Social Media Marketing Is Essential
Social media marketing has become an essential component of any successful practice. But despite this, many practitioners are still struggling to make the most of their social media efforts. Oftentimes, the problem lies in a lack of understanding of how to effectively use social media to reach the people in your community who need your help.
By leveraging social media, you can begin developing relationships with prospects before they become patients in your clinic. This reach can eventually help you and your practice gain more visibility in your community, resulting in practice growth.
Step #1: Clarify Your Social Media Goals
When it comes to social media marketing, it's important to start with a clear goal in mind. Without a goal, your efforts will be unfocused and ineffective. Clarifying your goals is one of the most important steps in crafting a successful social media content strategy.
You need to define exactly what you want to achieve with your social media marketing efforts. Do you want to increase your brand awareness, drive traffic to your website, or generate new prospects and convert them to patients? Once you have a clear goal in mind, you can use this as a guide for all of your content creation and promotional marketing.
Step #2: Establish Your Practice's (Brand) Identity in Your Community
Establishing your brand identity is a crucial part of any successful social media marketing campaign. Your brand identity is the image and message you project to the public. Your brand identity is greater than your logo, business card and website.
In fact, your brand identity defines how your patients and prospects recognize and feel about your practice. It's important to create an identity that resonates with your target audience and communicates your core values as a practitioner.
There are numerous ways to establish your brand identity online by using visuals to communicate what you do and how you want patients to "feel" as they engage with your practice. Once you establish your practice's brand identity, it should be represented across all of your channels, including your website, social media channels and email communications.
Step #3: Define Your Ideal Patient (Target Audience)
Knowing who your ideal patient is and what content resonates with them is essential for creating an effective social media marketing strategy. Consider your best patients – can you identify commonality among them that can help you define your target audience?
Segmenting and understanding the needs of your ideal patient will help you strategize how you reach them. You simply can't market to everyone, so instead, consolidate your efforts in targeting smaller segments of your community if you want to be successful in attracting new prospects.
Consider what you specialize in and define your target market based on those characteristics. Perhaps you treat a certain demographic, specialize in treating a specific condition or use a specific modality that makes you the go-to practitioner in your community. Understanding and segmenting your target audience can help guide you in crafting an effective social media marketing strategy.
Step #4: Craft a Solid Content Strategy
Creating a successful social media content strategy is critical for any practitioner who wants to establish an online presence and engage with more people in their community.
Your content strategy should speak directly to the target audience you've defined, and provide a unique reason for patients and prospects to choose you over your competition. For example, if you specialize in sports injuries, be sure your content strategy speaks to this audience directly, and create content that communicates you are the authority in your community.
The goal is to build trust with your target audience; and to position them to recognize your brand and associate it with a positive experience. Social media is a powerful tool for establishing your brand identity, but it takes a consistent effort and commitment to reap the rewards.
Step #5: Create a Content Calendar & Post Regularly
Now that you've created your content strategy, it's important to plan your content calendar. When it comes to your patient schedule, you always know how the week or month looks on the books. Your content calendar should be treated the same way and will give you a clear roadmap of how your social media marketing strategy is working over time.
For best results, consider posting content regularly: at least three times per week to create positive engagement around your practice. The more often you post quality content, the more likely your community will begin to know, like and trust you.
Step #6: Track and Analyze Your Results
As you begin posting more frequently, tracking and analyzing your results becomes one of the key steps in making sure your social media marketing is working effectively. Without tracking your insights and metrics, you won't be able to make adjustments and optimize your campaigns and social media goals.
Social media platforms provide you with analytic data for your posts so you can see what people are responding to. Knowing which posts yield the most engagement, shares, clicks, and conversions can help you focus your efforts on creating content that is most effective. In short: Do more of what works best and less of what doesn't.
Furthermore, if you're driving traffic to your website, be sure you have Google Analytics installed, as this will help you monitor and measure the traffic you are driving to your website from the content you share on your social channels. Google Analytics bridges the gap between your social media posts, your website and prospects who schedule appointments to become new patients.
Step #7: Update Your Strategies and Tactics
To keep up with the ever-evolving social media landscape, it's essential to regularly update your strategies and tactics to stay ahead of the game. In today's online environment, the competition is fierce and staying ahead requires consistent effort.
Over time, you will recognize that what worked yesterday might not work today, so as the online environment evolves, so should your strategies and tactics. This is the only way to ensure you remain relevant and successful in your practice.
Understanding your limitations is important, too; after all, you became a practitioner, not a social media expert, for a reason. Consider outsourcing your social media efforts to a social media marketing agency or service to stay on top of your game. Knowing your limitations can maximize your time and marketing success.
Practical Takeaway
Finally, it's important to be consistent with your marketing efforts. If you post infrequently or without a plan, your audience will quickly lose interest and you'll attract fewer prospects to your practice. Make sure to post content regularly, engage with your followers, and consistently monitor the results to ensure your social media marketing is working.
With effort and dedication, you can ensure the success of your campaigns and make the most of your social media marketing by utilizing this powerful tool in your practice. Your next patient is on social media looking for your help, right now.
Do you receive text messages from companies letting you know about offers or giveaways, or simply sharing news? If your answer is yes, then you have opted in for SMS (short message service) text-message marketing. SMS text-message marketing uses various platforms and software to send personalized, timely and sometimes interactive messages.
The Oregon College of Oriental Medicine (OCOM) has announced it is closing after 41 years. Pending accreditor approval, OCOM will cease offering classes after September (fourth-year OCOM students graduate Aug. 26). All current / incoming OCOM students have the option of continuing their education at the National University of Natural Medicine or Five Branches University, or transferring to another school altogether.
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