By now, you have probably heard about how important social media is to your business and online marketing. This may have motivated you to create social media pages for your practice, and maybe inspired a few posts on those pages. But even if you have created social media pages and are posting to them, do you have a defined social media strategy for your business?
If not, it’s more likely than not that you are missing out on a great opportunity to connect with your patients, increase brand awareness and perception, demonstrate your outstanding customer service, and continue growing your customer base. While formulating a social media strategy may seem like a complicated endeavor, it can be broken down into just a few simple steps. Here’s how you can get started:
- Do some research and evaluate your competitors’ social media content.
Look at the social media pages run by your competitors. What kind of content do they share? What tone of voice do they use? How well are they engaging their audience?
Pay attention to what seems to be working well for your competitors and what simply falls flat with their audience. This way, you can avoid doing the things that are obviously not working – and you can start doing more of the things that are working well.
- Determine where your target audience is most active.
You need to know where your patients (and potential new patients) are spending their time when it comes to social media. Do they flock to Facebook, or are they more interested in Instagram?
You can also analyze what type of content seems to be most interesting and engaging to your audience. This may also vary by platform. Do they prefer videos or photos? Short jokes and puns or long-form content? Statistics or a shared positive review? Be where your audience is, and give them the content they like.
- Set specific, measurable goals.
You can use the acronym SMART to help you set good goals. SMART stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. Use these guidelines to align your social media goals with your overall business objectives.
For example, “Increase number of followers on Facebook,” is a good goal. A better goal, however, would be, “Increase Facebook followers to 2,000 within three months by using more video- and image-based content.” This gives you something specific, measurable, and time-bound so you can easily assess whether you have met your goal and, if not, where you fell short and stand to improve.
- Personalize your communication and content.
Not all content will work equally well with all audience demographics. For example, what appeals to a 15-year-old is probably not the same as what engages a 60-year-old. Content and communication styles also vary based on the social media channel. If you want to post long-form content, consider LinkedIn or Facebook. If you have a video to share, Instagram or Facebook are your best bets.
Make sure you are sharing high-quality content that accurately represents you and your practice. You should focus on creating engaging content that your followers (and your team members) will want to share.
- Monitor your progress.
It’s of no use to create a plan and set goals if you don’t monitor your progress and evaluate your success. Each social media channel offers analytic tools that allow you to see how your content is performing and how well it is reaching and engaging your audience. Use this data to assess your current performance, drive changes, and inform your new goals.
With these five simple steps, you are ready to create your own social media strategy. For more information about the importance of social media and how you can more effectively use social media to build your practice, we invite you to contact us today at AudiologyPlus. We are ready to help your business grow.
