The top 10 reasons why you should invest in social media
One of the top questions we get asked is why veterinary practices should invest in social media and what benefits they will receive from using it. You may already be using Facebook or Twitter for your practice but unsure of what the advantages are, or it may be a completely new venture for you and your veterinary practice.
So, we’re going to highlight the top 10 benefits that you could gain from using social media (predominantly Facebook) on a regular basis to promote your practice.
1. Gain engagement from your clients
Probably the biggest benefit from using social media is gaining engagement from your clients. Posting interesting and engaging content regularly will help you to appear on your client’s and their friends’ newsfeeds and will enhance the number of people seeing your content. Although sales messages are an important part of your social strategy, posts that are designed to purely drive engagement are key to widen your reach.
2. Deliver great customer service
Think of your Facebook page as an extension of our reception desk, as it’s a great place to deliver great customer service, answer queries and respond to questions that your clients (and potential new clients) may have. Managing your practice’s reputation is essential, and using social media is the perfect place to do this by encouraging positive reviews and correctly handling any negative comments.
3. Drive traffic to your website
It’s no doubt that getting people to your website is one of your key objectives and social media will certainly help with this. Facebook is a traffic-driving channel that enables you to direct people straight through to your website to fulfil a desired action: Read your news story, sign up to your email newsletters, find your contact details or register their pet with you.
4. Boost your SEO
A key benefit that may be a surprise is the benefits that using social media can have on your search engine optimisation. Social media and SEO have a strong relationship and when they work together it can benefit you greatly. Social media platforms basically act as a signal to search engines like Google that you are legitimate and trustworthy and because of their high authority, it’s essential to include links back to your website here.
5. Build loyalty from your clients
Clients that follow you on Facebook or other social media channels are likely to trust you more and in turn be more loyal to your practice. By sharing knowledgeable and interesting content and engaging with your clients, they will know you’re a trustworthy source and you will be seen as more credible than your competitors. Building trust and loyalty won’t happen overnight, but it’s a huge benefit if you put in the investment.
6. Raise awareness of your practice
Raising awareness of your practice is another huge benefit from using social media and is likely to be one of your top objectives in order to gain new clients. Having a social media presence will make it much easier for new potential clients to find you as your content starts reaching more people.
7. Advertise your practice
Facebook itself presents a host of advertising options available to you that are cost-effective and easy to set up. You can choose from a variety of objectives like awareness, clicks to website and page likes. The best thing about advertising on Facebook is the targeting options, allowing you to show your content to those people in your local area who are most likely to be interested and take action.
8. Learn about your clients
You may think you know your clients – but do you really? Facebook holds a huge amount of data on its users, meaning you can get to know your clients even better. Are they predominantly male or female? How old are they? What are their interests? Finding this out will really help you identify how best to communicate with them so you can ensure you’re serving them content they’re likely to engage with.
9. Learn about your competitors
Not only can you learn about your own clients, but also social media is a great way to keep an eye on your competitors. They may already be on Facebook and driving your potential new clients to their website and practice. Identify who your competitors are in the local area and look at how you can differentiate your practice from theirs.
10. Share your website content
It’s not enough anymore to hope that people will organically find the content that is uploaded to your website, but we need to find other channels to drive people to it. Social media is a great place to share the content that’s on your website. If you’re sharing news stories or blog posts then share this with your followers and give them a reason to come and find out more on your website where you can convert them.
Convinced? Get in touch with us to find out more about why we think social media is a crucial investment for your practice.
If you would like more information on 'how to manage your Facebook business page', please contact Charlotte on 07734 741 960 who will be able to help.
If you simply don’t have the time to spend on social media efforts, then let Connected Vet take the stress away from you. We have a variety of affordable social media packages to ensure you have an active Facebook page for your practice.