5 Social Media Tips for Outpatient Rehab Therapists

Social media is a cornerstone of any outpatient rehab therapy clinic’s content marketing strategy. Yet, even after well over a decade of social media influencing personal decisions, many physical, occupational and speech therapy clinicians struggle to achieve an effective social media campaign.

We get it. As a form of digital marketing, social media continues to change and adapt, oftentimes making it difficult for a business private practice owner to keep up with trends. The implementation and execution of a consistent marketing strategy, however, can do wonders in allowing you to better adapt to such changes and trends.

Below are the five best practices for social media marketing that can help you remain relatively immune to such changes:

1. Optimize Your Business Page/Account

Always update as much information as possible for your business page profiles. (Nothing should be set on default!) This page represents your business and your brand. Just like a website, it should look professional and properly display who you are and what you do.

Header. The header image is typically the best place to offer a positive sense and portrayal of your physical, occupational and/or speech therapy clinic’s brand. On most social networks (i.e., Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter, etc.), this is typically done through the posting of a large image. Therefore, it is important that you use a professional image with appropriate dimensions. (See “Your Bookmarkable Guide to Social Media Image Sizes in 2021” by Hubspot for current dimensions.)

• Profile Image. This is typically a smaller image, so using a logo is a common and appropriate practice here.
• Description. Clearly describe your outpatient rehab therapy clinic and your primary services. (For example, sports rehab, neck and back pain, occupational therapy, speech and language pathology, etc.)
• Contact information. This should be a no-brainer. Include a phone number(s), email, location, link to online scheduling and forms … whatever could help potential patients find and engage with you.
• Links. Don’t forget to have a link to your website!

2. Have a Goal

Surprisingly, this is where most rehab therapy clinics fail.

In my experience, most business owners understand that they need social media but fail to recognize why they need it. Just like any marketing strategy, starting with a goal will help you stay consistent and help you determine if your efforts are successful.

Choosing a single goal for your efforts will make your strategy consistent and achievable. Below are some strategies and common social media goals:

• Increase Followers. Grow your channel with more followers, subscribers, friends, connections, and so on.
• Brand Awareness. Get as many eyeballs as possible on your pages (i.e., impressions, reach, views, etc.).
• Engagement. Encourage followers to engage in activities such as commenting, sharing a post, retweeting, leaving a positive review, etc.
• Conversions. Encourage your audience to schedule an appointment or get additional information through sign-ups, lead generation, purchases, and so on.

3. Be Consistent

It’s difficult to achieve a goal without consistent actions. Here’s how to stay consistent:

• Post consistently. Creating content on a regular basis is usually the biggest challenge for any content marketing campaign. I strongly recommend creating a deadline-driven content calendar. That way you can keep yourself accountable through planned posts and topics.
• Use consistent content. It’s OK to experiment here; however, it’s best to be consistent with your content after you gather a strong following.
• Channels. Typically, the right social media channel is the one where your audience is already hanging out. Yet, the right channel for you might only be what you’re best at. Facebook is a safe bet because it takes all types of content (text, image, video, etc.). However, it’s the most competitive channel. If you’re good at image/video content, then Instagram could be a better option for you.
• Voice. Do you have a certain writing style? Does your content have a sense of humor? A consistent voice can lead to more engagement.
• Content. Do you hate writing but enjoy creating videos? The right type of content for you and your business is the content you like doing. Examples of content other than text include vlogging (video blogging), memes, infographics, interviews, sharing current news/events, etc.

4. Be Social

Just posting content is not enough. Engaging with your audience is important for any social media goal.

• Respond. Always reply when someone messages you. Also, replying to comments is a great way to build a conversation.
• Share. Sharing relevant content from other sources is great for engagement. A trending topic in the news that is related to physical, occupational or speech therapy is a great sharing and educational opportunity for any clinic.
• Build Relationships. Social media is a great way to build relationships with other rehab therapists. Joining or creating a Facebook or LinkedIn group is an excellent way to do this.

5. Buy Advertising

On some channels – Facebook is a great example of this – content will have limited impressions without some money behind your posts. Fortunately, the targeting abilities with social media apps like Facebook are second to none, allowing you to basically choose the audience you want to see your content and ads.

Other social networks like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and TikTok all have a paid advertising platform which is great for promotional content.

Are your social media efforts getting you results? Are you continually looking for ways to better engage your patients through social media and other digital and clinical opportunities? Learn about our Net Health^© Patient Engagement Marketing solution by scheduling a demo today!