From Facebook to Twitter, discover how your social media presence is important for attracting clients.
As a therapist, your social media presence may not seem important, but it certainly should be. Just having a professional website isn’t enough anymore. After all, as of 2016, about 78% of Americans have a social media profile. If you aren’t taking advantage of all that social media has to offer, then you are missing out when it comes to drawing in new clients.
Social Media Makes Your Practice Discoverable
Research has found that about 72% of people have searched for health-related topics online, which means that it’s important to establish a web presence. By creating an active online practice presence through sites such as Facebook, Google+ and Twitter, you can connect with a much larger pool of potential clients who are looking for what you have to offer. The more sites you’re actively part of, the easier it will be to stand out from the competition and get found in an online search.
Connect with Clients
As a therapist, you want to keep your clients engaged and connected to you. Social media is the best way to foster that connection and can also help with search. Did you read a relevant article that resonated with you? Go ahead and Tweet about it. Are you writing regular weekly blog posts? Make sure that you link to each new blog post on all of your social media accounts. Content that is relevant to your practice will be relevant to your clients and attract new followers.
However, make sure to keep your practice social media accounts separate from your personal accounts and never engage in private conversations as this can lead to a HIPAA violation. Read more about social media and mental health concerns here.
Monitor Your Practice’s Reputation
By monitoring your practice on social media, you can learn both what clients love about your services and what might be improved. To successfully turn your online reputation around, you need to take action. This means quickly responding to both positive and negative comments from clients on social media. In particular, failing to respond to a negative review or comment could further damage your reputation and cost you potential clients.
In fact, 72% of people polled expect a brand to respond to an issue on Twitter within an hour. Ask yourself if you’re prepared right now to handle customer service through social media? If you aren’t, then it’s time to figure out what you can do to up your social media game.
Get Client Referrals
You may not think that your social media presence affects your practice, but social media drives about 31 percent of referral traffic. If you aren’t on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, your practice’s online visibility will be limited which will affect engagement with potential clients. Remember that this is often the first interaction you may have with a client, so make it a good one. Post often about incentives, promotions and deals, a new blog entry or even dazzling client testimonials.
Social media has become an effective tool for engaging with both current and potential clients. Finding out what they need from you will increase their satisfaction and dedication to your practice for the long run. Creating a strong but approachable social media profile will make all the difference for your practice.
Interested in learning how TherapySites can help you bring your digital marketing up to speed? Call 866-205-7918 for more information.
