It is no longer whether you use social media to market your aesthetic services – but how well you use these powerful digital channels to attract new patients and keep patients engaged that really matters. In 2019, if you are not active on social media, you basically are invisible to many patients seeking aesthetic treatments and cosmetic surgery.
And to further complicate things, social media is ever changing which underscores the importance of staying on top of the trends and paying attention to new developments.
Still the basic rules haven’t really changed much.
For starters,
- Find your flock
Follow what platforms your patients are most active on and pay attention to how they are utilizing them, and what types of content they respond to most. For example, YouTube, owned by Google, is a hub for reaching millennials through original video content. - Think quality over quantity
Using less frequent posts with stronger content that is well thought out will have greater impact than a stream of uninspired content. Using beautiful and unique images, GIFs, video snippets, and other bells and whistles can help your content get noticed. Don’t forget selective and relevant hashtags, especially for your Instagram posts. - Don’t be overly self-promotional
No one wants to be blasted with ads and promotions crowding up their feeds. Make sure your content is varied and includes entertaining and educational posts, as well as the occasional special or deal or offer. Include selective days of the week themes, such as #selfiesaturday or #testimonialtuesday to break up your content calendar too. - Give they people what they want
Prospective patients may unfollow you if you don’t give them what they want. If you are targeting millennials, create content that is visually enticing and use language they can relate to. If you are trying to attract more men for neuromodulators, the tone, look and feel of your posts should be quite different than what you may use to capture the mommy makeover segment. You can’t speak to every patient segment in the same way at the same time. Segment your target audiences for a better response. - Invest in your content
Storytelling demands more creativity, video, images and graphics, that can be time-intensive and expensive for busy plastic surgeons. To get your content seen and seen by the right audience, an ad budget has become an essential component of social media marketing. This can be a cost-effective marketing tool and every social platform offers a specific model for promoted posts and ads to help move your content to the top of the feeds of the users who are most likely to respond to it. - Let them in
Putting a real, human face to your brand is a key strategy to make your practice seem more relatable and to build loyalty among patients. Be careful not to reveal more details than you are comfortable with. Remember that once you put it online, it is almost impossible to take down.
Need help with a results-oriented social strategy? Reach out to us Anne@wendylewisco.com
