I’ve started so many blog posts with letting you know that social media marketing is such a great way to grow your practice. . .but it only works if you?re using it correctly. When it comes to my own practice, I?ve built most of my patient base through the power of social media marketing and the referrals that came from that. And when I say social media, I mean mainly my Instagram account. It?s an essential piece of my business and overall marketing strategy to get new patients in the door to work with me. So, if you?re wondering if using social media to grow your practice and your business is worth the time, trust me, it most definitely is worth the time and energy investment that it takes.
But, if you?re reading this blog post right now, you may not be too convinced on that previous statement. Maybe you?ve spent so much time trying to get social media to work for your business but you?re just not seeing the results you want to have. You?ve done tons of research and wasted a lot of energy and maybe even money trying to figure things out. It just may seem like no matter what you do, it?s just not coming together for you.?
So, when you hear people talking about how social media is great and how much it can help grow your practice, you can?t help but think that maybe it won?t work for you. But, you?re here because you?re hopeful of what can happen. You see social media marketing working for other people’s businesses and you want those same results! And you know what, I?m sure that you?ve read a ton of tips on what you should be doing to make social media work. But today, I wanted to take a different approach.
I want to dive into the three reasons why social media marketing isn?t growing your practice and how you can troubleshoot these issues.
1 | You Don?t Really Have A Plan In Place
If your social media marketing means you are posting when you remember, if it?s convenient for you, not having a clear idea of who you?re targeting, and not having a clear direction, then you don?t really have a plan. You might have great intention sometimes behind your posts but that doesn’t mean you have a clear direction for what you?re trying to make happen. In order for social media to work for your in your business, you have to have a clear plan in place. Work backwards. ?What’s your goal? What are you trying to make happen? For example, if your goal is to get new patients into your practice each month, what procedure is it that you want them to sign up for once they get into your office? I’m sure you offer tons of procedures in your office, but what’s the main thing you are trying to promote? Get clear on your goals and set the clear intention for what you want to make happen. Once you have that clear intention, you can then figure out which strategies are going to work best for you. If you want to know my top tips on getting strategic with social media and stop wasting time, check out this post blog post.
2 | You?re Not Using the Right Visuals
A big piece of pretty much every social media marketing platform is going to be visuals. Your visuals are the first thing that people see and it?s what helps them make a decision about whether or not they?re going to stop scrolling and pay attention to your content. You need to make sure that the visuals you?re using are ones that your potential patients want to see. They should be showing what you do, who you are, and what you can offer to those who follow you and ultimately end up booking an appointment with you in your practice. If you need a few ideas that you can use for visuals, check out my post on my five favorite image ideas for social media.
3 | You?re Not Saying The Right Things
Ahh, content. It?s one of those things that people either feel like they?re really good at or that they really feel like they?re just not good at. But, the truth is that no matter how great your visuals are, if you don?t have the content to back it up then you?re not going to see the results that you want to see with your marketing. I?ve talked before about writing social media captions that get attention, the kind of content that you need to be creating to get patients, and even about how to organize your content so that you can keep up with everything you?re creating. This is the one area that you want to focus a lot of your time on. If you get people to pay attention but can?t get them to stick around then your time will be wasted and you won?t get results.
So what do you do now? Well, I recommend that you start with troubleshooting the 3 things that I?ve mentioned in this post. Make sure to read the blogs I’ve linked in this post if you need some extra help with any of the steps! All of these should help you figure out how you can make social media marketing work for you and your practice. It doesn?t have to be complicated but you do have to be intentional about how you use it. Just like any other marketing strategy, you have to put thought into it and have a plan on how you plan to use it.
To further assist you, I’ve created a social media audit that you can download to help you troubleshoot your social media marketing strategy! Make sure to download it and work on it right away!
