Many doctors have trouble trying to decide what to post on social media. Should it be informative and serious or silly and fun? We believe that you can achieve a balance when trying to decide. The biggest thing to keep in mind is what content works best for the different types of social platforms you will be utilizing. For example, most of your followers are previous patients who would love to get to know you further or are prospective patients trying to see what you and your practice are all about.
Your content can be both fun and serious so long as it creates engagement throughout your community. Uploading a video may cause a viewer to convert because you provided an answer to a question they had – they didn’t even have to call your office or look around to other practices to find an answer.
Putting yourself out there can be intimidating enough. Coming up with engaging content is the most challenging part of social media. So we hope the following ideas will help inspire you to grab a hold of your audience. As we’ve said before your younger patients are online and 81% of Instagram users research products or services on the platform!
Things to Keep in Mind
You can try any of the following and use what works best for you and your practice. If you find a particular piece of content you enjoy creating, stick with it and continue to evolve the concept. Once you get a few pieces of original content under your belt, it will become easier.
- Have fun with it
- Stay informative
- Let your creativity take control
Setting up your medical practice’s foundation with social media is a core component in your future lead generation efforts.
Content Ideas
1. Celebrate Each Other’s Birthdays!
Your practice is such a tight-knit group of people and you celebrate each other day in and day out. But you can get your patients involved by wishing each doctor a happy birthday on social media when their special day comes around. This also includes your practice’s birthday!
2. Procedures
Patients come to you for your expertise. Sharing these on social media can be just as effective as before and after photos. Have an office assistant take a video as you are working on a patient (with consent from the patient). Narrate as you go to provide a guide to patients. This can build a lot of trust between a prospective patient and you or your practice.
Keep in mind that in order to for this to work – you have to learn how to take great before/after photos.
3. Technology
You pay a lot of money for the tools that you use – so why not show it off? That cool new laser machine you just got in – similar to procedures, record a video discussing how this cutting-edge technology works and why you chose to go with this machine instead of the others.
4. Medicine/Injectables
Explaining to your audience why you prefer to use certain injectables in specific areas vs. others. Let them know why you recommend specific medications during the recovery process or for hair loss. The opportunities are endless with this one.
5. Share your workspace
Bring your prospective patients into your world and remind your regular patients why they choose to go to you!
6. Question & Answer sessions
On Instagram Stories, there is a cool sticker feature where viewers can directly ask you questions. Inquire with your audience about what questions they would like answers to and provide them with answers. You can then recycle these and turn them into posts to spread throughout your feed.
7. Community Events
Do you or your staff have a specific charity they donate to or an organization they volunteer with? Share the work that you do to help the community with your audience. You could even encourage them to join you!
8. HAVE FUN
TikTok challenges are the latest craze! You can join in on the dance trends or just come up with clever ways to tell a story — whether it be through TikTok, like our very own Dr. Kulbersh and his Carolina Facial Plastics team, or another way on Instagram or Facebook.
9. Live Before & After reveals
EVERYONE loves a transformation, that’s why they come to you! But everyone also loves to see the reactions of those being transformed. This can be a great way to reach your audience on an emotional and inspirational level all the while showcasing your expertise in the form of results.
10. Holidays
There are so many fun holidays! Aside from the obvious ones like Christmas, New Years, and Fourth of July – there are a lot of fun social media holidays like National Doctors, Nurses, or PA Day. There are also National Taco and Donut Days! These are the easiest days to come up with content as long as you have these in your calendar.
11. Throwback Thursdays
This one is easy! Find a picture of yourself from medical school and post it with a fun caption of what you were going through during that time. Was it finals week? Was it at a football game? Or maybe you were just too busy studying to attend anything other than classes. Whatever it is, post it and share. Your patients will love it!
**Bonus** – If you miss it on Thursday, you can always do Flashback Fridays!
12. Inspire!
Share things you do to inspire others. Do you work out every day? How many books do you read over the summer? What was the last place you visited and what did you learn from that culture? Share your knowledge with your audience.
13. Share statistics
If you do clinical trials, share your findings with a fun interactive infographic that can be turned into a carousel post. If you are using a new form of injectable or medication because it has a higher success rate, pull that information from the manufacturers’ website and post it!
14. Quiz your patients!
Use photos you currently have to ask your patients what kind of procedure was done. You could showcase tools and ask what they are used for. Keep it simple so it stays fun and interactive.
15. Host a product giveaway or promotion
Giveaways are a great way to increase your followers, overall engagement, potentially drive new patients, and make one lucky winner very happy! For example, if you are running a giveaway, we recommend a gift basket full of skincare products. In order to enter, they must ‘like’ the post, tag 3 friends in the comments, and share it on their own social channels. Make sure to take a photo of the gift basket to generate excitement and ask your skincare vendors to provide the products to giveaway instead of taking out of your own inventory.
Always remember to have fun!
Audiences are keen and will see right through content that has been forcefully put out. Keep in mind that it will take some time to find what is right for you and your practice, but once you have your own formula down, you will be cranking out content like a pro. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us using our online contact form.
