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Use of social media to promote your veterinary business aims
Social media platforms are valuable for veterinary businesses because they can be leveraged in myriad ways to support a series of specific business goals and objectives. Let’s explore some of the ways in which social media can be used to drive success and support the evolving needs of your practice.
Social media and education
As social platforms facilitate conversation, they are ideal for communicating important messages and engaging on a deeper level with your key audience.
Veterinary practices can use their social channels to educate their clients and community on a variety of relevant topics. From delivering valuable information on preventative healthcare, to improving client compliance, to creating engaging videos highlighting some of the signs of common illnesses or simple how-to’s, for example, the scope of the information and educational content that can be conveyed via social media is unparalleled.
Using social media in this way has many business benefits, particularly because it will help you to effectively establish your business within the community as an authoritative and trustworthy source of information. This will put your potential clients at ease and reassure them that their confidence in your veterinary team is not misplaced.
Instagram and Twitter are ideal social platforms for sharing short, informative videos and engaging images, whereas Facebook Live and IGTV can be utilised to host longer Q&A sessions, which actively encourage interaction and engagement.
Social media and client retention
Most veterinary practices drive 80% of their revenue from 20% of their clients. As retaining valuable clients is imperative to the long term success of your practice, you need to do everything possible to keep them engaged with your practice.
Sharing frequent updates on social media will keep your practice at the forefront of your clients’ minds and provide them with easy access to important information. Facebook is an excellent platform for creating and nurturing a sense of community around your practice. Here you can share a variety of posts, including behind the scenes glimpses of your practice with familiar faces, events or charitable causes you’re supporting, together with general pet care advice. You can also respond to questions from your audience, which will demonstrate that you are engaged and eager to nurture ongoing relationships with your clients and their pets.
Social media and client gains
When it comes to boosting brand awareness, the true power of social media cannot be overstated. In addition to participating in the conversations your ideal audience is already having, starting your own discussions, delivering personalised advice, and sharing your expertise mean that social platforms are key to connecting with the right audience, at the right times.
Twitter is an ideal platform for engaging potential clients and building relationships with other businesses within your local community. In addition to being an excellent place to broadcast announcements and updates relevant to your practice, you can also use hashtags to highlight relevant issues, and efficiently answer direct questions from your audience. Posting frequently and finding your practice ‘voice’ is an important aspect of a strong Twitter strategy and provided that you are willing to invest the time into responding to questions and queries in a timely manner, Twitter can help you to win new clients, nurture relationships and channel a steady stream of traffic towards your website.
From here, you can funnel this traffic towards whichever feature will help you to achieve your unique business objectives, including increasing appointments by promoting online booking forms and supporting your direct marketing efforts by encouraging signups to your email newsletter.
