Reaching customers today is a much different task than it was a few years ago. Today’s customers expect a digital-first journey, and take their own time exploring different business options online before ever reaching out to learn more in person from the business itself.
As a dermatologist, you understand how important it is for your customers to feel confident and happy with the results they get from visiting you and coming into your office. You want to make sure that more people are aware of the services you offer and bring their business to your clinic.
By localizing your online presence for the digital customer journey with the help of proven local social media tactics for dermatologists, you can reach a wider audience and grow your business online.
How Does Using Social Media Platforms Help to Localize Your Online Presence?
Many people begin their search online by looking for businesses “near them”. That means that localizing your dermatology business so that you can get discovered for local searches is more important than ever. After all, you don’t want the competition getting all the attention while you are accidentally getting found in searches for cities or communities far away from your office.
Focusing on local search helps you build trust and connections within your local community. It also helps you become more recognized by name in local circles. And when you combine that way of thinking with social media, you can really start to boost your online presence. More and more people use social media on a daily basis, so if you can get discovered there, it can really play a key role in today’s customer engagement journey.
Choosing the Right Social Media Platforms for Your Business
To begin, it’s important to know what social media platforms are the best fit for your business. There are a wide range of platforms to choose from, but here is a brief overview of some of the most popular platforms where you can start building your online presence.
- Facebook: A platform designed to help you connect with friends and family through text, photos, or video posts.
- Instagram: A photo and video sharing platform that helps you visually connect with followers with posts or short-term stories.
- TikTok: The fastest growing social media platform, focusing on short-form mobile video content and viral sounds.
- Pinterest: A visual search engine that allows users to create idea boards or find photo and video inspirations.
- YouTube: A video sharing platform for longer-form, more traditional video content that can be educational and entertaining.
Not every social media platform is going to be the right choice for your business, but it is important to explore all possible options before immediately assuming one won’t work for your business. For example, many health and wellness businesses are able to create viral videos on TikTok and Instagram, despite it not seeming like the most obvious platform to join. Just make sure that the platforms you select are relevant to your business, industry, and customer base.
It’s also important to make sure that you have a consistent brand presence across all of your social media platforms. Don’t start an account on a platform if you don’t intend on posting regularly or using it in your social media strategy. Instead, focus on a few platforms that will get you the most results.
How to Set Up Your Social Media Profiles for Greater Local Search Visibility
Once you’ve selected your platforms, you can start setting up your profiles. It’s important to make sure that your profiles are optimized for local search visibility, starting with your bio or description. Use the limited character count to create a compelling and locally-focused bio that quickly highlights your business and where you are located.
You can also be sure to incorporate local keywords and hashtags into your bio and social media posts to further boost your local search visibility. That allows you to use your social media like a search engine, in case anyone is searching for dermatologists in your local area on a social media platform.
Another great tip is to utilize location-based features, like adding your address to posts or tagging your location to further emphasize your local presence online. It will also help algorithms understand exactly where you are in the area.
How to Infuse Your Content Strategy with Location Signals
Next, you need to infuse your content with key location signals. Make sure your posts resonate with the local community by including topics or events that are relevant to people in your area. You can also use social media to showcase your company’s community involvement and support. For example, if you are sponsoring a local team or event, use social media to spread the word.
Your social media channels are also a great place to highlight local testimonials and success stories and share community news and updates. This helps you build trust with your local customer base and ingrain your business into local feeds.
Use Social Media as a Way to Engage Your Local Community
Engagement on social media goes beyond just posting about local events. It also involves interacting with local groups and actively participating in community forums. Message people in your area, respond to questions posted in local pages, answer local reviews, and give feedback on social media so the community can see your activity.
You can also use your profiles as a place to run local promotions and playfully engage with other local businesses. Treat your brand like its own identity online and join in on conversations while highlighting the best features of your own business. Just don’t be overly promotional by instead focusing on being fun and educational.
Enhance Your Local Visibility with Social Media Advertising
Social media also provides advertising opportunities that you can build into your local marketing strategy. Target local audiences through Facebook and Instagram advertising using Meta Business Manager and creating ads that target specific demographics in your community.
You can also leverage geotargeting features that narrow down your advertising location to specific zip codes, neighborhoods, or even addresses for specific promotions that you want to target key areas in your community. Social media advertising platforms will have these features built-in for you to use.
Collaborate with Your Customers to Create Local, Authentic Content
User-generated content is content that comes from your followers or people who engage with your platforms rather than your business. For example, if a customer posts a review or a photo of their results after visiting your business, that’s user-generated content.
Encourage your followers to share their experiences with your dermatology office and run local contests and campaigns through social media that boost engagement and get your customers involved. You can then gather that user-generated content and repost or reshare it across the rest of your social media channels for further value.
Analyze Engagement and Reach to Determine the Best Course of Action
The best way to know that your local social media tactics for dermatologists have been successful is to analyze your engagement and track metrics. Set up analytics tools to track local engagement and visibility and analyze the metrics you gather from those tools to understand the effectiveness of your localization strategies.
Once you’ve got your goals set up, you can then make data-driven adjustments to optimize your results and drive more success in the areas that matter most. For example, you can adjust your strategies to increase reach, engagement, leads, revenue, or any other metrics that you want to see improve.
Improve Your Social Media Strategy with Surefire Local
Leveraging social media platforms helps you localize your online presence and boost visibility in your community. The ongoing nature of having an online presence means you can’t just set up and forget your profiles. You need to be active, and social media provides dermatologists with an easy way to maintain your online presence without much effort. After you create your profile, all you need to do is post regularly.
Social media is only becoming more important in today’s digital-first customer journey, and foregoing it is no longer an option for businesses that want to remain relevant in their local community. Optimizing for social media helps you increase visibility in specific zip codes, get better customer engagement, and improve the potential for business growth.
At Surefire Local, we help small businesses with localized online marketing. We’re all about helping small businesses like your dermatology office establish an online presence with local signals across platforms and profiles that make it easy for new customers to find you. That’s why we’ve got the best all-in-one marketing solution available to help you grow. Don’t worry about remembering multiple logins across tools. Instead, use the platform to achieve all your online marketing goals.
To learn more about Surefire Local and how we can help you achieve better results through local social media tactics, attend a Surefire Local demo today and discover the tools and features available to your business.