By Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD,
and Carole Burns, OD, FCOVD
Feb. 20, 2019
Social media at its best is about interaction. Here are ways you can use social media to engage with current, and prospective, patients, to help build your practice.
In the last few years, social media has morphed from conversation and content to now being an established channel for patient acquisition, re-marketing, and engaging existing fans to support retention programs. Many practices are beginning to see large increases in patient traffic to their offices’ digital media and physical locations due to effective social media interactions.
Here are three ways to make your social media more effective:
Quizzes/Polls
One key to making social media effective is to make it interactive. Quizzes and polls are a great way to create interactive content. It’s better if the quizzes are fun.
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Barbara Walters once asked Katherine Hepburn in an interview, “What kind of tree are you?” Are you an oak, an evergreen, or a pine? Yes, that is a silly question, but you thought about it for a second, didn’t you? You’re engaged, and that’s the point.
Quizzes and polls can help your audience determine where they stand and, at the same time, give you an opportunity to explain how you can help. “What is your favorite color of tinted sunglasses? Results to be posted tomorrow with an explanation of the pros and cons of each color.”
Quizzes and polls also give you the ability to create double content – once when you post the quiz, and another when you post the results of the quiz.
You do not have to re-create the wheel. There are built-in polls for you to use on Twitter, Facebook Pages, Facebook groups and Instagram Stories.
Multiple-Choice Posts
With a signed HIPAA marketing release form and pictures of the same patient wearing several pairs of different sunglasses, you can create a fun activity. “Which pair of sunglasses should Karen purchase?” The patient will send this out to their friends and fans with the result being that the circle of people you touch widens and widens as it goes viral.
Interactive Videos
Interactive videos have the most reach and engagement of any content type. YouTube allows for simple video interaction cards. These can lead your viewer to subscribe to your channel or watch a related video or playlist. Interactive videos have tools to help you set it up so there are click-throughs to landing pages, quizzes, or you can even set it up so that the videos play certain sections based on the viewer’s choices.
These are just some of the ways in which you can use interactive content. The more that you utilize engagement the better your social media reach will be. The goal of social media is not to market specific products to patients, the goal is to touch their heart strings with interactive content that contains incredible stories or funny experiences.
References
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu9lJMlA2Kw
