Jacob Siner
How Many Pumpkin Spice Posts Have You Seen Already?
It’s about time to embrace a new season! Social media is often an underrated marketing program for PT practices. It can be challenging to track the results and how many patients are generated from platforms like Facebook and Twitter. However, social media marketing is more than just a way to get new patients. It builds awareness and consideration for physical therapy, its benefits, and your practice’s expertise. By posting online, you educate potential patients about PT and how it can help them feel better and be healthy. You also get your clinic’s name and brand out into the public eye. Thus, increasing the number of people who know and recognize your practice.
Therefore, social media like Facebook and Twitter should be a key component of your marketing plan and viewed as a public relations platform, not a direct means of acquiring new patients. Let’s see how you can leverage fun, seasonal themes to create social media content for your PT practice.
1. Connect Seasonal Activities to PT
Social media content needs to be relevant and current to appeal to users as their scroll through their newsfeeds. For example, fall is a big sports season for football, soccer and running. Share preventative tips, home exercises and articles on how PT can improve performance and recovery times. Also, be sure to have visually engaging images that capture the core of your content.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIgb5s9E6Uo
2. View Social Media as a Conversation
Your practice’s social media profiles are a virtual representation of your practice. They should have a personality and interact with the online community. Are you sponsoring a local event like a 5K race or community fair? Be sure to follow that event on Facebook and engage with their posts. Do you treat a lot of patients from the local high school sports team? Wish them “Good Luck” on that night’s game or conference through a short post or status update. Avoid mentioning specific players/patients as that could be considered a HIPAA violation.
3. Create Content for the Holidays
Every season has its big holidays such as Halloween and Thanksgiving in the fall. And, there are also smaller holidays or causes that provide great content to share online. Here are some seasonal holidays that you can post about on social media:
- Labor Day
- Grandparent’s Day
- Oktoberfest
- Physical Therapy Month
- Breast Cancer Awareness Month
- Halloween
- Veteran’s Day
- Thanksgiving
4. Share Seasonal Activities, Ideas or Recipes
Think about what you like to read on social media. It might not always be articles or blog posts. Sometimes, we just want simple ideas or inspiration for something fun to do. Try using one day a week to share something fun and not directly related to physical therapy. You could post about pumpkin painting ideas, local apple picking spots, healthy snacks etc. Think about your patient demographics and tailor your posts to their interests. For example, if you treat mostly seniors think about activities for them to do with grandchildren. Or, if you see a lot of young professionals choose active and local ideas that are a fun option for the weekend.
5. Post Fun Pictures of Your Team or Practice Events
A picture is worth 1000 words (and lots of clicks and engagement on social media). Start by bringing your practice’s personality to life with photos of the team and events. It could be as simple as “Doughnut Friday” in the office or a group photo of everyone dressed up for Halloween. Are you sponsoring a workshop or community event? Take pictures to post to Facebook both during and after the event.
Practice owners often worry about their ability to take fun pics (we are not all Instagram pros). Ask your team if anyone wants to take charge of the lens! Every clinic has at least one social media savvy team member who can capture the fun and excitement of the day. If your staff is comfortable, you can even tag them in the photos to increase visibility within their friend network.
Before You Sign Off…
Creating fun, engaging social media content should be a staple of your physical therapy marketing plan. Building an online presence, sharing your clinic’s upbeat and active personality and increasing community awareness on Facebook is a simple way to promote your clinic. Learn more about online marketing and how you can turn posts into patients by following our Blog and Facebook page.
Additional Resources
How to Target Local Prospects on Facebook – With No Experience
