Facebook Marketing Tips for Promoting Your Eye Care Clinic and Centers
Involving patients and your community on social media plays an important branding role. While even the most successful Facebook posts won’t generate hordes of new patients immediately, it serves an important purpose in making your practice and expertise unique, as well as putting your practice in the back of people’s minds. Therefore, we have put together five actionable tips that you can use to improve your social media presence on Facebook.
Tip #1: Be spontaneous, in the moment, and have fun
Do your eyes sparkle and leave a polished and sales-y marketing post? Of course, they do! And your community of possible patients is no different. Keep your content fun and organic.
Post funny pictures or videos of doctors or staff back to their profiles so you can reach their circle of friends too.
Tip #2: Networking online. Tagging is your friend.
Everyone is on Facebook, so use that to your advantage and join your community to help promote your office through tagging. Posting that photo of a patient with the great new frame we just mentioned? Tag them. Celebrating a staff member milestone or achievement? Snap a picture and tag them! By sharing your post with other people’s timelines, your post suddenly breaks the boundaries of your own practice page. By tagging, your post can be seen by all friends of the people tagged and even friends of friends!
Tip #3: Video to Win!
We have a lot to say on the power of video! After all, who doesn’t like a video? Take it and play with it on Facebook to increase your practice. With the right themes, and of course with the right tagging habits (see above), you’ll be able to reach a wider audience with your brand using the themes you want to focus on. Video topics may include:
- Medical Specialty or Subject
- Patient Testimonials
- Patient Success Stories
- Addressing Popular Questions or Myths
- Staff or Patients Reviewing or Trying on Glasses or Contacts
One of the most powerful tools is Facebook Live video streaming. It creates alerts on other pages that a live video is taking place, and has the best ability to create visuals.
Tip #4: Delegate and Mix-it-Up
Of course, you’re busy! It’s hard to consistently come up with content that works on Facebook… so make it a collective effort. We recommend that someone in turn be designated to be responsible for regular postings. Be sure to include as many staff as possible so you get lots of different ideas and perspectives: doctors, opticians, receptionists, you name it! The goal is to make 2-3 posts/week with local flavor. The person posting or accompanying the content will be responsible for taking good pictures, videos and coming up with the text which can be the basis of each post.
When creating a post, be sure to mix it up between exercise photos, eyewear, eye health, and anything locally relevant.
Tip #5: Engage, Engage, Engage
Now it’s time to conquer Facebook and make followers. And you do this by making it as easy as possible for people who have interacted with your posts to learn more about you and follow your Page.
Don’t assume that people will take the time to visit your practice Facebook page and get your contact details. Provide contact information directly on your posts, especially within videos and anything else you’re promoting.
At a minimum, this means your phone number, and/or a link to your website.
Pro Tip: Use bit.ly to create trackable shortened URL links. That way, you can see how many times the post has visited your website.
Conclusion
To stay ahead in the game, you need to follow the above-mentioned Facebook marketing strategies and convert strangers into patients. Who will unknowingly act as your service promoter?
