Have you been trying to grow your business? With the world moving more and more online, there’s no denying that social media is a great way to gain traction for your business. However, business owners face a unique problem when deciding whether to promote their business through social media or through various marketing venues.
For many business owners, social media can be a powerful way to increase online presence, connect with new audiences, and stay up-to-date on local trends. Depending on your business niche, the way you connect with others is one of the key pieces of the job itself. Social media can have loads of positive effects on your small business. It’s very likely that your ideal client uses social media and it is important to learn which platform they are likely to navigate towards.
Regardless of your personal experience using social media has various advantages for your business. Some of these include:
Increase awareness
Majority of your potential clients looking for a service will search online. If you use social media, there’s a much higher chance that your practice will show up during these searches, allowing you to attract a new set of eyes on your small business and potentially lead to a new clientele.
Attract and connect with clients
You can use social media to publish regular updates, with informative and helpful content for those who are still considering the type of services you offer. A good social media presence will attract new clients whilst keeping them informed and updated.
Credibility
An active social media presence can be a way to show the world that you’re professional and engaging. It offers a new touchpoint (or multiple touch points, if you use more than one platform) for potential clients to find you, and it gives them more chances to learn about your style, personality, and expertise.
Optimize for your audience
Once you build your online presence with social media , you will also need to monitor it. Analyzing your data will allow you determine your clients area of interests, their pain points and ways for you to bridge the gap with your service offering. Identifying this information will help you improve your offering and connect with your clients better.
Referrals
Social media does a great job at driving referrals to your website. Posting regular content, including blogs, updates, testimonials, or direct information about your practice (like your billing guides, booking calendar, and payment plans) will lead to a larger number of clients going to your website and potentially booking an appointment.
Which social media platform is right for you?
There are many different social media sites, but not all are equal. They each attract different audiences looking for specific things. So we’ve taken the liberty to breakdown the most effective ones.
Facebook has nearly 3 billion users, proving its enormous impact on social media worldwide. It’s beneficial to at least have a shop front presence on Facebook. Facebook is all about community
Facebook really loves three things:
- Bringing friends and family together
- Getting people with shared interests into groups together
- Keeping people on the platform watching videos, especially with Facebook live
However, Facebook is not interested in promoting a business page for free. It has such a strong revenue stream from paid advertising. It is still a very useful platform, especially for building community but may not be the best place for reaching new people if you don’t have a budget for ads.
Example of a therapist using Facebook brilliantly:
Healing trauma, complex trauma, anxiety, depersonalization, and derealization (Started by Jordan Hardgrave). This works because the group brings people together who share a common goal they wish to achieve, healing from trauma. It allows people to share about their experiences in this way and to help each other with dilemmas. If Jordan wants to promote his services on there he can just comment on posts that have hundreds of comments and will most likely make sales as people are grateful for the space he has created.
Instagram is a photo-based form of social media, and although it isn’t the site that patients will access to find a counseling business, it can be used to build your brand. With Instagram, you should focus on selling your niche, or the aspects of your practice that differentiate you from competitors.
Instagram has five platforms within it: The grid, stories, reels, IGTV, and live. They’ll allow you expand your reach and engage your audience in different ways.
Example of a psychologist/therapist doing well on Instagram:
Check out Dr Julie. Her content, particularly her reels, show you what is possible on social media. You should note that she probably has a lot of help to get her posts looking so polished and consistent but the concept of sharing short, digestible bits of psycho-education that solve immediate problems for people is just done really well. If you want to create polished content like her, check out our social media management services.
LinkedIn was created as a way for professionals to connect, build and network and develop their careers. LinkedIn is a great platform for connecting with professionals that are your ideal clients and building authority within your profession and just meeting interesting people who you might want to collaborate with. Publishing information relevant to your field will grow your credibility and link you to other experts in your location and industry. I really like LinkedIn, it could lead to potential referrals.
Twitter is a fast paced conversation platform. It’s a great place for current affairs and topical debate. It mainly favours short written content. It works well if you are comfortable with a bit of controversy and are willing to post frequently as things do get lost in this fast paced world quite quickly.
So, which platform should you be on?
Where do you feel most comfortable? Where do your ideal clients talk about your specialism? What is the emotional temperature of your subject?
The best way to answer these questions is to try and find other people talking about your specialism (and getting a decent number of people interacting with them) on each platform. If you can’t find anyone there, chances are it is because people don’t want to talk about that subject on that platform.
Looking for other professionals, competitors, with a similar specialism and finding out what is working for them is a great place to start.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to using social media to promote your private practice, it could be a great way for you to grow your business. Social media may make sense for you if you want to:
- Reach a wider audience
- Become a thought leader
- Have a marketing strategy that includes social media
The best and easiest way to grow your practice, is by using social media management. This is especially a good idea for counselling practices when you have to worry about ethical issues.
To get help with your social media management, get in touch.
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