How To Utilize Instagram To Engage Your Patients

You heard that Instagram is the cool new social media platform. But, would it be worth the effort for YOUR clinic? If so, what should you post?

In 2019, Instagram had over 1 billion active users, half of whom update their Instagram stories every day to keep up with their followers. We live in a world where the first thing people do when our alarm goes off is to check their social media.

According to Wordstream, out of the 1 billion active users, at least 80% follow a business account. So needless to say, you can reach your audience on Instagram.

So, how do you utilize this huge platform for the best results? We’ll cover these points below:

• Who Is On Instagram?
• What Should Your Goal Be?
• Set Up Your Account
• Create Great Posts
• Track Results & Insights

Who Is On Instagram?

As of March 2020, 64% of Instagram users are between 18-34, 25% are between 35 and 54 years old, 6% are 13-17 and the last 5% of adults are over 65 years old.

What Should Your Instagram Goal Be?

As with any marketing effort, it’s important to write out your goals. Clearly state why you are doing this and what you want to achieve.

Here are some things to keep in mind:

  In addition, any time you make goals they need to be SMART:

1. Specific: Are you looking to increase engagement? New Leads? Or make sales?
2. Measurable: You can measure traffic back to your website. Or you can measure “Likes” on your post.
3. Attainable: Make sure you are setting a goal that you can reach.
4. Relevant. This is what ties your goals back to your objective. If your goal is to “Increase Instagram Followers” make sure you understand how that will benefit the business.
5. Timely: Create a timeline of your goals. You can set up a schedule for posts throughout the week and measure your progress.

Speaking of schedules…

When writing out your schedule, keep in mind the best times to post on Instagram: (from this article by Oberlo)

Set Up Your Instagram Account

Being that Facebook is the parent company, it’ll be super easy to set up your account for your practice.

Create A Short, To-The-Point Bio:

This means to summarize what your business is about in a way that reflects the image you hope to present. Make sure to add your address and website. This will allow patients to know where you are and can drive traffic back to your website.

Create Great Physical Therapy Instagram Posts

Now, let’s talk about what to post. With Instagram being the most visually appealing social media platform, you need to make your post stand out. For more on taking the best photos/videos with your smartphone, check out these DIY photo & video tips.

First, here are the basic post types:

• Photo posts – your standard Instagram post format.
• Video posts – a video that will generally autoplay without sound at first.
• Carousel posts – a slideshow of images, which encourages swiping. Another great feature here is if the viewer has already seen the first one, next time they scroll through their feed Instagram will show them the next image.
• Stories – these are Instagram’s version of Snapchat ads seen at the top of the feed.

Next, feature content that engages people & drives them to your next step.

20%-40% of your content should drive your customers back to your website. Whether that be a blog post, ebook, or workshop sign up. The rest should be about engagement! Ask questions, offer advice, or try themed weeks like “7 days to stronger knees” and invite people to follow along at home. You can also post about at-home workouts, a new technology at your PT practice, or patient success stories (with permission of course). Let’s look at an example of engagement vs call to action posts:

1. Driving content back to your website: APTA does a great job teasing the article and then in their post they use “Link in bio” to get users to go back to their websites and read the rest of the article.

2. Engagement: Here you see APTA is asking their followers to engage in challenges. Simple instructions are posted in their comments and that’s it! Contests are also a huge way to drive engagement. Make sure you comply with Instagram’s guidelines.

Utilize Story Highlights/Live Feature To Boost Engagement.

One thing to keep in mind with Facebook or Instagram… they love to make their newest features work well. Because of this, it’s beneficial for marketers to play along to some extent.

Stories are still Facebook/Instagram’s “teacher’s pet.”

You can create highlight albums that appear right under your bio. This is where you can cover different aspects of your business. You can keep “At home workouts,” “Testimonials,” or even sport-specific albums if that’s part of your goal.

These will be saved until you remove them.

You can also go Live with your followers.

This is great for workshops, live Q&A, or doing a “what to expect at your first appointment” video. Your followers can message comments while you are posting. It’s great for engagement!

Use Instagram’s Tracking Tools To Measure Your Success.

There are a few ways you can track your engagements.

1. Instagram offers insights right within the app. Here is how you can track your success on Instagram.
2. If you are a Practice Promotions Client, use your Practice Promotions Dashboard, you can access it there as well. Check with your account manager beforehand to see how you can access it.

In conclusion, if used correctly, Instagram is the go-to place for image sharing. It has dominated the social media world, and you can too. Keep in mind that you can over post. So Keep to your schedule, try to post 1-2 times a day, engage with your followers and just have fun with it!