Facebook has become a part of over 750 million user’s daily lives. There is a pretty high chance that you have a personal account to stay in touch with your family and friends, but have you ever thought of having a Facebook page for your practice? Studies in healthcare marketing have shown that Facebook can increase revenue and loyalty. Plus, it’s a great way to connect with your current patients, referring physicians and community partners. If you’ve wanted to set up a business page but have not been sure how to do it we have some tried and true techniques to help you set-up a successful page and begin engaging your audience.
The Beginning of Your Business Page
- The first and most important aspect of creating your page is determining the email address that will be associated with the account. The email that you use to create the page will be used for the administrator of the account. Make sure this email is one that will be with the company for the long haul. We’ve heard horror stories of practice manager’s assigning an employee to set up the account and the employee ends up doing so with their own personal email. Unfortunately, if the employee leaves the practice, they can take access to your Facebook account with them. Use your administrator email to set up a personal page first on the Facebook Homepage. You need a personal page in order to set up a company page.
- Once you have your personal page setup with your administrator email and login, go to this page to create an “Official Page.” This is where you will need to determine if you want to appear as a local business, a brand product, or organization.
- Now it is time to name your page. It’s usually best to use your company brand name. After you have the main components of your page, fill out the information tab, your profile picture and a short summary about your company. Here’s your chance to really share who you are and what you have to offer as a practice. Your company summary should include links to your actual website and provide useful information to people who may come across your page. Your profile picture is a simple, yet important part of your page. Make sure that it is creative and speaks for your clinic or brand. A logo works but you can also use a picture that shows what you offer at your practice.
How to Get People to “Like” You and Your Brand
The more people that you get to “Like” your brand will increase the amount of people that you can reach through Facebook and increase awareness about your practice. The first step to getting your current customers to “Like” your page is letting them know that you have set up a page in Facebook. Most companies send an email to their customer base announcing that they have set up their Facebook page and request that their customers “Like” their page. Place the Facebook logo on your advertising, marketing materials and website to let everyone know they can connect with you. With your website, make sure the logo links directly to your Facebook page.
A great way to get others within the Physical Therapy community or your local community to know about your practice is to find pages on Facebook that are relevant to the topic you are trying to target and participate in their discussion. Others may view your comments and be interested in what your practice has to offer. If you do contribute, make sure that you contribute something relevant to their conversation so that you don’t look like a spammer. You want to avoid being “that guy (or gal)” at all costs.
The number one way to keep your page relevant and increase your “Likes” is to keep it engaging. You can offer an incentive for people to “Like” your page by offering a drawing for a prize that would only include the fans of the page. If people want to win the prize, they will have to “Like” your page. Provide offers, new information and relevant updates about your practice. Not everything that you share needs to be about your practice, it can include articles related to physical therapy, fitness or health. The best way to gain a following within your community is to share with them, and frequently. People love photos! Upload photos of your staff, your day to day activities within the office and events that you participate in. It is important to remember not to include patients in your photos without their signed consent to make sure that you are HIPAA compliant. In order to engage your followers you can ask them questions, post thought provoking quotes, request their opinion on “this or that” type questions or even use an app. to set up polls for them (Poll Application).
Creating your Facebook page is just the first step to an evolving process. As you continually update your page and engage with both your current and prospective customers, you will see your follower base grow. Contributing to your Facebook page can be a positive experience and through trial and error you will see what works best for your practice. Hopefully you are able to use a trick or two from above to help you get started. If there is one thing that I can leave you with about managing your Facebook page, it is to just have fun with it and keep it real. Got any more questions. Post it on the WebPT facebook page.
