Do you LOVE social media? Or do you HATE it?
Either way, as a PT and business owner, you need to be posting on social media at least every week: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and possibly LinkedIn or TikTok. Social media helps build a relationship with your current and past patients. Providing helpful tips reminds your patients that you care!
But if you know anything about social media, it’s that the trends change. Constantly. This spring, encourage your patients to spring into action with these 5 social media ideas. We guarantee that if you try them, your patients will notice.
1. Encourage Getting Outside
After a long, cold, COVID-full winter indoors, your patients are looking forward to spring! They want to play with their grandkids, go hiking, or just take a nice walk.
There’s just one problem: what if they’re in too much pain to get outside like they want?
In your social media, encourage people to perform their PT stretches and exercises outside. Consider sharing photos or videos of your team performing the exercises outside, with captions, commentary and/or hashtags focused on the spring setting.
2. Focus on Renewal & Fresh Starts
Ah, spring. The flowers are blooming. The birds are hatching. New life abounds! Your patients may be in the mood for new beginnings and starting fresh, so focus on that in your social media!
Encourage people to…
- Feel optimistic that they can improve their mobility in 2022
- Get back to healthy habits
- Start new healthy habits!
- Feel young again
For extra bonus points, you can tie your messages into imagery of nature coming back to life through new buds, leaves and flowers. Remember, though, that the most effective images are of happy current patients, succeeding with physical therapy!
Related: 5 Social Media Content Ideas for Fall
3. Connect to Spring Occasions
Be topical by posting on key holidays and spring events!
Some holidays you should make sure to cover are…
- The first day of spring
- St. Patrick’s Day
- Easter
- Earth Day
- Cinco De Mayo
- Mother’s Day
- Memorial Day
You may simply want to share a “happy holiday” message with an image. You could show how your team is celebrating and encourage interaction by asking whether your followers plan to celebrate and how. Again, holidays like the first day of spring and Easter can bring up topics of fresh starts that can motivate healthy habits.
Choose holidays that suit your practice. You also have National Women’s History Month in March. To fit your PT practice, you might want to celebrate African American Women’s Fitness Month in April and Older Americans Month in May. You can also be playful on April Fools’ Day.
Other fun spring occasions to post about on social media include…
- World Health Day on April 7th
- No Socks Day on May 8th. You could tie in foot exercises!
- March Madness
- Spring Break. Are your patients ready to travel during Spring Break? Or will their lack of mobility hold them back?
4. Share Videos of Your Clinic
We get it. It can feel overwhelming to start creating videos. But you actually have all the tools you need…right in your pocket! Most smartphones have the camera quality you need to make a GREAT video in just a few minutes. Check out this blog on DIY: Take Awesome Photos & Videos With Your Own Phone.
Plus, Facebook Reels, Instagram stories, and TikTok make it easy to edit your video right in the app.
Some PT social media posts that use videos could focus on:
- Demonstrating proper form for certain exercises
- Introducing people who work in your practice
- Sharing health information
- Taking a walk around the clinic
5. Have Fun With Spring Slogans!
A quick and simple way to grab attention is to use clever wording that fits this time of year. You know… those silly but fun slogans like “Spring into a new exercise routine,” “Encourage your budding passion for sports,” or “Hop into our PT practice.”
Check for trending spring hashtags such as #springtime to connect to your social posts. Here’s a list of 90 Top Spring Hashtags for Instagram in 2022.
Also, go for weekly themes and hashtags that work well for social media and fit your PT practice, such as:
- Motivational Monday
- Testimonial Tuesday
- Wellness Wednesday
- Thursday Thoughts
- Fit Friday
- Saturday Stretch
- Sunday Selfie
Will Social Media Get Me New Patients?
It’s great to have a social media presence and stay active on it. But it’s important to realize that this shouldn’t be your only marketing effort. In reality, many businesses become frustrated with social media marketing, because it often doesn’t give the results you’re looking for.
Be aware that when you post on social media, the only people who will see your post on their newsfeed are people who already know you and possibly their friends, if a patient comments.
Posting on social media is not a “marketing strategy” you can rely on to fill your PTs’ schedules.
That’s not to say to avoid social media altogether. Social media adds legitimacy to your business and connects you with your patients, which can encourage them to give repeat business and to refer you to others.
What we are saying is that social media isn’t likely to grow your business on its own. You don’t want to put all of your marketing efforts into this while ignoring other steps that could yield better results.
Higher-impact marketing includes things like…
- Investing in a website that looks great and converts visitors to paying patients
- Monthly newsletters to get past patients back in the clinic
- Email marketing to past and current patients
- Increasing your Google rank through search engine optimization (SEO) and running pay-per-click (PPC) PT Google Ads
- Running targeted ads on social media. Note: this does not mean boosting posts. To learn more about Facebook and Instagram ads for your practice, visit our blog “How to Create Local Facebook Ads to Grow Physical Therapy.”
The moral of the story: Be active on social media, but make it part of a broader marketing strategy.
Wondering where to start with a “broader marketing strategy”? Visit PracticePromotions.Net/Funnel to learn a simple, 5-step PT marketing strategy. It’s working for 1200+ PT clinics right now.
