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When it comes to using social media to create results and leads, many practices haven’t fully optimized the platforms to the best of their abilities. Simply creating a social media page and letting it sit doesn’t provide any benefit to your therapy business. To provide true value, you’ll have to remain active on social media and let your audience know that you’re interested in having a conversation with them! In this blog, we’ll discuss the best uses for each of the most popular social media platforms and how they can directly help your practice or center establish a presence in today’s digital market.
If you have yet to utilize social media for your therapy practice, privacy concerns are probably part of what’s holding you back. It is completely possible to have a strong social media presence for your brand while being respectful of boundaries and privacy. If you avoid communicating directly with individual clients or potential clients over social media platforms and private information isn’t disclosed, you are most likely safe to post. It is best practice to never accept a personal connection request from a client, but they may follow a public business page.
Facebook is the flagship of social media platforms due to its continued success over the years. The audience on Facebook has a large range, encompassing both millennials and their parents. With Facebook, it’s important to stay active, share curated content, and videos if you have them. Videos perform the best on Facebook because they’re easy to watch and start to play automatically as users scroll down their timelines.
Even if you don’t have your own videos to share, it can be helpful to share other videos that highlight topics or people in your industry so your users know what your brand is interested in. If they see a video that they like on your page, they’ll be able to tie your brand to that feeling of happiness or excitement in the video.
Facebook introduced the ability to share Reels in 2021, changing the game for sharing video on the platform. Reels can be shared via stories on in-feed.
On Facebook, you should generally be sharing content that encourages conversation, interaction, and sharing among users, especially between friends and family.
Facebook has in-depth analytics for business pages, so you can easily track what content is performing best.
FACT: There are over 80 million small businesses that use Facebook Pages! (Facebook, 2018)
Audience: 25-34 year old make up the largest age group on Facebook. With a slowing growth rate of new users, Gen Z is choosing other platforms over Facebook. (Sprout Social, 2022)
Twitter is famous for its 280-character limit for posts and quick update style of posting. Twitter differs from Facebook in that you are very limited in what you can actually type, so it’s important to make sure that whatever you’re posting should be brief and to the point. According to Entrepreneur.com, posts that feature news, articles, GIFs, and blog posts perform the best because they can either be embedded in the post or included in a link at the end of a post.
Twitter uniquely prioritizes real-time updates and information, so if you are someone who would prefer to schedule posts ahead of time and not weigh in on current conversations, it might not be for you.
When posting links to Twitter, it’s important to use a link shortening tool to help save space for what you actually want to write. A link shortening tool can take a very long URL and compress it down to less than half the length of characters using a redirect link. By shortening the URL of the link you’re sharing, you’ve given yourself the ability to write a post that is 10-15 characters longer than you could before. This allows you to squeeze in longer sentences and inform users about why they should click on the link!
FACT: Tweets with videos get over 6x as many retweets as tweets with photos! (Wochit, 2018)
Audience: 18-29 year olds make up the majority of Twitter users. Twitter’s growth remains steady, with popularity among college-educated users and within academia. (Sprout Social, 2022)
Instagram is useful for marketers that are looking to share high-quality photos and videos. While you can share this type of content on other platforms, it tends to perform the best on Instagram because the platform is known for its visual appeal.
You can also share quotes from employees in your office, anonymous quotes from your past clients, and even famous quotes from leaders in your field. Quotes are easy to read, make a brief point, and allow users to digest them quickly while scrolling through their timeline.
Instagram features a “stories” option that allows users to post a series of short videos back to back, allowing users to click through each video in chronological order. These stories are useful for sharing video content that exceeds the time limit or requires a change of scenery.
In 2020, Instagram launched Reels, which are short vertical video clips up to 90 seconds long that remain on your profile. The platform is becoming centered around these video Reels, which can greatly help your brand garner engagement.
Because Facebook and Instagram are both owned by Meta, you can share and schedule posts on both platforms simultaneously. You can access similar analysis tools for Instagram through your Meta Business Suite to find out how your posts are performing.
FACT: 71% of Instagram users are under the age of 35! (Statista, 2019)
Audience: With 2 billion active users monthly, this platform continues to have a strong grip on both Gen Z and Millennials. (Sprout Social, 2022)
For businesses looking to network and establish themselves in the industry, LinkedIn is a powerful tool. Depending on the type of industry a business is in, LinkedIn can either be used primarily for networking with other professionals and businesses, or it can be used as the main platform for lead generation.
In the world of counseling and therapy, LinkedIn can be useful for more than just establishing brand awareness. Many professionals on LinkedIn could be seeking help for a problem they have and seeing your practice’s profile can push them to come into your office for assistance!
Posting jobs, professional content, and company news on LinkedIn is typically a good strategy for using the platform. People on LinkedIn are working professionals that want to learn about an industry, so sharing that content satisfies that need while also advertising your brand to the world.
FACT: 40% of LinkedIn users visit and use the platform daily! (Omnicore Agency, 2018)
Audience: The majority of LinkedIn users falls into the 25-34 age group. The platform saw growth over the pandemic as many searched for new career opportunities. Only a quarter of LinkedIn users is based in the United States. (Sprout Social, 2022)
TikTok’s growth has been astoundingly fast, becoming Google’s most-visited site in late 2021. You might have the preconceived notion that TikTok is solely for teenagers performing choreographed dances. However, in 2022 there is a lot of successful content surrounding mental health and therapy. If showing up online via video fits your personality and your brand, try creating fun videos that also educate the public about mental health, mental disorders, and therapy. Your TikTok videos can double as Instagram and Facebook Reels because they have similar specifications.
FACT: As of January 2022, TikTok had over a billion active users. (YellowHead 2022)
Audience: 10-19 year olds make up the majority of TikTok users, with the majority being female. Users spend an average of 89 minutes on TikTok daily, more than double the platforms listed above! (Sprout Social, 2022)
Theory About That has extensive experience not only in the marketing industry, but in the counseling and treatment world as well. By creating a team that is knowledgeable in both specialties, our company has become a powerful force in providing results to centers and practices looking to implement social media strategies to boost their marketing efforts. If you’re interested in learning more about social media and how it can benefit your brand, contact us. We would love to help!
