Highlights
Social media marketing is essential to growing your PT or OT practice in today’s digital-based world. By focusing on social media marketing tactics like building your local reputation and developing a targeted content strategy, you can attract more patients and grow your practice.
According to a 2022 industry report, 4.95 billion people use the internet worldwide, with most users spending an average of 2 hours and 27 minutes on social media platforms.
Nearly 9 out of 10 people use social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok to search for content about or posted by healthcare providers.
These numbers highlight the importance of using social media to broaden your audience and reach new patients. With so many people on social media looking for health-related information, you can develop a marketing strategy that sets your practice apart and shows potential patients why they should visit your PT or OT practice.
By sharing helpful physical therapy tips, behind-the-scenes information, and patient testimonials with a social media audience, you can build trust with your audience and grow your practice.
If you’re just starting your social media marketing journey, start by familiarizing yourself with the basics of using social media to market your practice. You don’t have to do everything at once, but it’s helpful to gain an overview of the top tips to keep in mind as you develop your strategy.
Consider the following actionable tips to help you start using social media marketing to grow your practice:
The most important step for using social media marketing is identifying your audience. Knowing who to create content for helps you narrow down which media channels to use and what type of content to create. It ensures that you reach the right people with your message, making your marketing efforts more effective.
To identify your audience, ask yourself the following questions:
Once you have the answers to these questions for your practice, you can take the next steps to make relevant content.
Building a local reputation is essential for PTs and OTs. You offer a physical, in-person service, so you must attract people from your local market. You have several options for building your local reputation using social media and online platforms.
Part of building an effective social media strategy is to choose social media platforms suitable to your audience. For example, if you want to attract patients in their early 20s, you might choose TikTok or Instagram over Facebook. Alternatively, building a presence on Facebook may be more effective for reaching a slightly older audience.
The Pew Research Center reports that 81% of U.S. adults use YouTube, and 69% use Facebook. YouTube is the most popular platform among all age groups, with Instagram and TikTok the most used by 18 to 29-year-olds and Facebook ranking highly for 30 to 64-year-olds.
When implementing a social media marketing strategy, your posting schedule and engagement can ensure success. Commit to a consistent content schedule to stay engaged with viewers and provide them with new, relevant information each week.
Choose a posting schedule you can maintain, considering your resources and content type. For example, an adequate schedule for long-form blog posts is two per month, while you should likely aim for one post per day if you use shorter TikTok videos.
Whatever content you post, always engage with your viewers. Audience engagement is what drives trust, loyalty, and views and will ultimately be the factor that sets you apart and helps you grow your practice. Engage your audience by:
Implementing a robust social media marketing strategy is essential to growing your practice. Equally important is using the right therapy practice management software to streamline your practice management tasks and support your growth.
ClinicSource is an all-in-one therapy EMR system that can help you with charting, documentation, scheduling, and billing efficiency to improve the patient experience for your practice.
Our solutions allow you to track key performance indicators on your practice dashboard and simplify practice management so you can focus on other activities, like attracting new patients with engaging social media content.
ClinicSource uses a per-user pricing platform with add-on services so you can build your EMR to suit the needs of your growing practice, paying only for what you need — and nothing you don’t.
Book a demo with ClinicSource today to see how we can simplify practice management and help you grow your PT or OT practice.
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