3 simple social media strategies to grow your clinic

Mar 20, 2020 | Tips

Ok, so you have a humming clinic but you only half-heartedly post to a few social media accounts. It’s time to get a bit more organised, don’t you think?

Do you post things that pop into your head without a clear plan? Do you know who your audience really is and who you are to them? Is your branding consistent?

Maybe not.

Time to set out some strategies to maximise the benefits of these wonderful free tools you have at your disposal.

1) Make a content plan

What do you want to achieve through social media? Time to set goals and make a plan.

Essentially you need to plot what your social activity looks like and when and how you will publish it.

After all, ad hoc is no longer good enough. You need a plan and a calendar.

Create a content mix

First, you want to create a content mix.

Having top class content – whether it’s blogs, photography, educational podcasts or infographics – is absolutely vital.

Source, share and, importantly, create your own outstanding content that’s interesting and useful to your potential customers without being an obvious sales pitch. As David Meerman Scott said:

“Think like a publisher, not a marketer”

What do your customers actually want to read?

Having said that, you should also include offers, promotions and case studies where possible. Sometimes you’ll also need timely, reactive content to supplement your calendar.

Think about your mix of:

  • Educational content
  • Links to blogs
  • Links to landing pages and CTA’s (Calls To Action)
  • Sharing exterior content
  • Sales promotions
  • Case studies

Decide what works for you and your audience and create ratios. Maybe 75% original educational blogs with social links? Maybe 10% external video sharing? Perhaps 5% infographics and 15% promotions? This is up to you.

Create a calendar and schedule

Ok, now you want to gather all your ideas for social content and plot them on a calendar. Tools like Trello help here.

Maybe there’s a particular day (like International Women’s Day) you would like to post for – block that in.

Maybe you want to create a series of posts on a single theme? Schedule them in too.

What you want to end up with is at least a month of content plotted in advance so you can execute easily and effectively.

Better yet, have clear goals allocated to each post: do you want them to link through to your ecommerce store for example and make a sale?

Look into tools like Buffer or Hootsuite to go even further and automate your social posts across all channels for even better productivity.

(Check out our blog on the best productivity apps for more ideas)

2) Educate your audience

You’re in a unique position as an allied health professional to educate your audience.

After all, as a qualified and educated health provider your advice forms the cornerstone of your business and your words carry weight.

Use this to your advantage on social media.

A simple social media strategy entails providing sharable and genuinely useful posts centered around giving out free health advice pertinent to your profession.

If you are a physiotherapist or osteopath, for example, making content concentrated around such health expertise and advice can work wonders for your social media marketing.

Think about creating and sharing content such as:

  • Exercise videos
  • Specific stretch routines
  • Health advice articles

A lot of this comes down to what we call ‘thought leadership’ (learn more about how to become a thought leader).

“Thought leaders are the informed opinion leaders and the go-to people in their field of expertise. They are trusted sources who move and inspire people with innovative ideas.” – Denise Brosseau

3) Keep your social media on brand

It’s easy when you start posting to social channels to forget about your brand and image. You start choosing photos that look good at the time, colours that don’t remain consistent and a tone of voice that quavers.

Stop it. You need to maintain brand consistency in order to cultivate trust and brand recognition.

Inconsistent branding indicates disorganisation and untrustworthiness. How do you ensure consistent professional branding and use of logos and assets? With a social media brand guideline.

By creating a set of social media brand guidelines for your health clinic, you’ll have a dependable and stable reference point for how to use your logos, tagline and colours across your social posts.

Set some rules and social guidelines

Make sure you have rules about how your clinic’s social media channels make use of your brand assets. For example:

  • Keep to your palette – Make sure you have a set of rules around your brand colour and imagery
  • Set and stick to your tone of voice when writing copy
  • Create rules around logo size and placement
  • Ensure all social channels and pages have consistent themes, messages and taglines

All of these simple strategies combined will leave you with an excellent base to launch your social media activity and help grow your health clinic.

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