Running a veterinarian’s office is a difficult task. The patients can be unruly, the procedures can be difficult, and the business itself can be strenuous to manage. With so much going on, it can be hard to keep up with marketing efforts, even though you know how important they are to the success of your clinic in the long run.
One area of marketing that might not seem important at first glance is social media. Social media might be considered too childish or unprofessional for a veterinary clinic. However, it’s a great tool that helps you connect with customers, grow your business, and increase your brand’s reputation among local circles. In this article, we’ll explain why social media matters and then give you important social media tips for veterinarians. Finally, we’ll explain how Surefire Local can help you take your social media efforts to the next level.
Why is Being on Social Media Important?
To begin, let’s talk about why social media is an important marketing channel for veterinary clinics. While on the surface social media might seem superficial, it’s actually a powerful marketing tool that you need to get on board with if you haven’t already.
Reason #1: People Expect It
In today’s business world, people expect you to be on social media. In fact, it’s more strange when a business isn’t active on social media than when they are. Having an active social media presence makes it clear that you are a real, active business that is part of the local community. It helps people build trust in your brand and believe in your services.
Reason #2: People Rely on Peer Validation
Another important reason to stay on social media is that it provides peer validation of your business. Customers rely on the opinions of others and when you engage with followers on social media, it proves that you care about addressing concerns and answering questions. If a potential customer sees that their network is already following you on social media, it boosts their belief that you are a great veterinary clinic to visit.
Reason #3: People Use Social Media as a Search Platform
Social media isn’t just about being social. It’s also about research and discovery. People use social media as a search platform just like Google or Yahoo. They’ll intentionally search for your business to learn things like your services, hours, and location, and even just to find out general information like the types of animals you treat or the type of care you give.
Reason #4: People Want an Insider View
Social media allows your followers to “peek behind the curtain” and see what they can expect from your business. It shows them what you care about, what you feature, and how you respond to comments and concerns. When you are active on social media, people know what to expect from your business and what the experience of going to you will be like.
Reason #5: People Want to See Results
Social media is also a place where you can see reviews and opinions about a business. When customers search for you on social media, they want to see the options that others have for your business and what successes you have had. Social media helps them learn about the results of your business so they can assess whether they want to become a client at your vet clinic.
Social Media Tips for Veterinarians
It’s clear that having a presence on social media matters. Now we can look at specific social media tips for veterinarians, so you can start improving your social reach today and bring in more business through social networks.
Tip #1: Post Consistently
The first tip is to post consistently. If you just post sporadically and without any consistent times or days of the week, followers don’t know when to expect new content from you. That makes it difficult for them to plan when to come to your channel to find new content. Instead, have a consistent posting schedule. This will pay off for both followers and social media algorithms. Social media algorithms are concerned with consistency and will boost posts from consistent accounts more than random posts here and there.
Tip #2: Share Visually Appealing Images and Videos
As a vet clinic, you have a unique opportunity to share what the internet really wants to see: pet pictures! You can showcase furry friends and highlight vet success stories in order to appeal to audiences and gain more followers. The more visually appealing images and videos you can share with your audiences, the more likely they are to follow you and want to become a part of the fun as well.
Tip #3: Treat Platforms Differently
Not all social media platforms are the same, so you shouldn’t post the same content on every channel you have. Each social media platform, from Facebook to Twitter, has its own algorithm. You should appeal to each algorithm individually, rather than at once. It’s also important to remember that not all platforms should have the same content. You wouldn’t want to post the same content on LinkedIn that you did on TikTok, so take into consideration the purpose of each platform and why people visit it.
Tip #4: Respond to Comments and Questions
Social media gives you a great opportunity to respond to comments and questions and interact with your audiences one-on-one. When someone leaves a comment or question under a post, you can publicly answer so the entire community can see the response. You can also use DMs to reach out to people individually so that you can offer services and deals, or just ask further questions.
Tip #5: Educate Your Community
Another important social media tip is to use your platforms to educate your community. This helps you provide value beyond just cute pet pictures and become a trusted authority source in your local area. For example, you can post a video of a dog getting a tick exam while speaking on the importance of flea and tick prevention. You can also post articles and links to other trustworthy sources so people know to expect quality information from your social media pages.
Tip #6: Be Authentic
The next tip is to be authentic in what you post. People don’t want social media to come across as canned or disengaged. What you post should be an honest reflection on your brand and what your goals are as a vet clinic. You should only post relevant information, and avoid focusing on selling all the time. If your social media platforms just become an ad for your business, they won’t appeal to people the same way. Instead, focus on providing value. The conversions and customers will follow.
Tip #7: Set Goals and Be Strategic
The final tip we have for veterinarians is to be strategic with their social media presence. Don’t just post without an end goal in mind. Instead, take time to plan a strategic content calendar for social media so that you know exactly what to post and when to do it. You can then start to build campaigns, plan new follower pushes, and add requests for reviews and feedback to your social media plan.
You should also have specific goals for your social media efforts. Every time you run a campaign or end a quarter, you should have social media goals in mind. That might mean more followers, more shares and views, or even more customers brought in through your social media efforts. Whatever your goal is, keep it at the front of your mind as you plan your social media strategy.
Attend a Surefire Local Marketing Platform Demo
Managing multiple social media accounts is an important part of marketing for your vet clinic. Even with these social media tips for veterinarians, it can still be hard to juggle multiple platforms, logins, and passwords. That’s where Surefire Local comes in.
Surefire Local is a business intelligence and digital marketing software that helps you control the most important online activities from one single source. From the user-friendly dashboard of Surefire Local, you can post to all your social media platforms, respond to comments, and even schedule upcoming posts with automation to save time and money.
Surefire Local is just a fraction of the cost of other platforms or agencies and allows you to take control of your marketing efforts, including social media. To learn more, get a demo of Surefire Local today to see exactly how it can benefit you and help your vet business grow.