Social Media to engage your clients

08.04.2016 Many practices are missing out on the publicity of social media, either because they are not doing it or because they are doing it badly. Today I just wanted to take some time to introduce the general principles of social media. Now the difference between traditional advertising and social media is that it is an engagement medium. It means that instead of just sending out your message and wanting people to come you need to engage them. You can have a discussion with a client before they even step foot inside your practice. Or better – your current clients can recommend you on local groups for that new person in the area looking for a vet. However this can only happen if you have a social media presence – ok not entirely as they can give your address – however how is this person going find out when you are open? Or that you are currently running a promotion just for new clients finishing in 3 days? The other thing that businesses do is that they get all excited about social media – and then they come to use it for a few weeks. It doesn’t give instant results so is just abandoned and forgotten by the wayside. This is probably worse than not having social media at all! Not being social on social media is bad – I think the worse I ever saw was a business that had moved but not updated their address on their Facebook page. If the Facebook page is there but not updated, and no one is answering posts on the page then it says you do not care. Or are too busy. So to get started on Facebook you should create a Facebook page for your business - https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php - once it is created you make other Facebook accounts admins so can share the responsibility among the practice manager and head nurse or vet etc. Make sure you chose a local place or business as this will let you enter your address, opening hours, phone numbers and more. It will also should you on a map and help you find people in your local area. Make sure your page has Facebook cover images and profile image – I like Fiverr here (https://www.fiverr.com/s2/357856f78a ) and you can easily search for Facebook cover image and get someone to make it for you for $5 So what do you talk to people about now? It depends on what you do – and what permissions you have from your clients. Being vets there are loads of cute things that happen every day that we could share if we had permission – ask owners if there is something really interesting. If you do a dental that has no signs above the gums, but massive bone pathology on xray then take photos and share and explain this with clients to get talking about dental disease. Or if found a interesting foreign body… Or even better is if you rescue some wildlife then you get some really good online karma – photos like this can even go viral getting you massive exposure! My favourite example of vets doing social media amazingly well is Azzore Veterinary Specialists in Arkansas - https://www.facebook.com/azzore.specialists - have a look at this for inspiration!