VSMP 9: How Do I Get Clients to Follow My Hospital on Social Media?

Hey, hey, friend! We get down to the nitty-gritty about ways we can encourage clients and local pet owners to follow our social media accounts. I also share why it's important to focus on attracting followers in your local community and how beneficial it is to your veterinary practice. You won't want to miss this one; it's SO good! Catch ya on the pod!

Cheering for you! 

Cheyanne Flerx 🧡

P.S. Below are some helpful resources for you!

Links mentioned in this episode:

• Learn how to run a photo contest on Facebook here: https://www.heycheyanne.com/post/the-2024-guide-to-facebook-pet-photo-contests-for-veterinary-hospitals
• Join the Veterinary Social Media Managers Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/heycheyanne

More Juicy Goods:  

• Want a monthly posting calendar with Canva and caption templates delivered straight to your inbox? Check out the Vet Vibes Hub membership: https://vetvibesmedia.com/membership
• Newer to managing social media for a veterinary clinic? Grab my quick start guide here: https://www.heycheyanne.com/start
• Looking for some fresh creativity for your posts? Grab my 60 free post ideas cheatsheet here: https://www.heycheyanne.com/freestuff
• Want to work with Cheyanne? Learn how here: https://www.heycheyanne.com/work-with-me
• Got a question? Email Cheyanne: https://www.heycheyanne.com/contact
• Connect with Cheyanne on Social: 
  • Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heycheyanne
  • Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hey_cheyanne/
  • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cheyanne-flerx/

Other Episodes You May Enjoy: 

• VSMP 8: 3 Ways to Increase Your Engagement with Pet Owners On Your Social Media Posts: https://www.heycheyanne.com/post/3-ways-to-increase-your-engagement-with-pet-owners-on-your-social-media-posts
• VSMP 1: The Other Forms of Social Media Engagement No One Talks About: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2284496/14075939
• VSMP 4: How to Get Your Veterinary Team Excited About Social Media: https://www.heycheyanne.com/post/how-to-get-your-team-excited-about-social-media

Transcript

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Cheyanne 0:00

Welcome back to the podcast, my friends, we are in episode nine, where we are going to be talking about how we can get our clients to follow our hospital on social media. And this is a particular topic that I love talking about, because our clients who already know and love us and trust us with their pets are some of our best advocates. And I don't know about you, but I personally feel like. Word of mouth marketing is some of the best type of marketing for a hospital because once we have someone who's advocating for us as a hospital and really spread that energy that they love about us to other people, those people have a great impression about us already. So I really love just focusing on attracting people in our local communities to our hospitals because. At the end of the day, we want people following our hospitals on social media to be people who are local to us, who live in the area, because they are going to be doing, they have a more likelihood of doing business with us than someone who lives across the country from us or lives in a different state. So it's really important to me that we are attracting. Those type of clients to our social media pages so that we can stay top of mind with them and really build that long term. relationship that social media can do for us. But how do we do that? I'm going to be diving into that more in this episode, but if you haven't yet, this is the time that I really encourage you to follow or subscribe to our podcast because I've got a lot more episodes like this planned out. And I don't want you to miss it because I want to be your biggest supporter, your hugest fan, whatever you want to call me. And I just want to be alongside you. So if you would just subscribe and follow now, so you don't miss any of that, I would love that. So let us get into the content. Welcome to the Veterinary Social Media Podcast, where you learn how to navigate social media and apply it to the world of veterinary medicine. I'm your host, Cheyenne Flerks, and let's get down to business. Okay. Let's get into our first juicy detail here. So first off, I want you to talk about a little bit more about why it's important for us to attract our existing clients. And I already alluded to it. But for a brick and mortar business, like a veterinary hospital. Typically if you're mobile to this really, really applies to you because you don't want to be traveling across state lines or, you know, miles and miles and miles away, but the local community is your main source of client leads and business, as I said already, but when I hear a lot of people come to me and they say that they, one of their biggest Biggest goals for social media is to get as many followers as possible. And I know that there's this like shiny object syndrome going on of like getting 10, 000 followers for my social media clinic or my social media clinic, veterinary hospital. And. I, my, I, I kind of cringe when I hear that a little bit because like, I love that girl. I used to be that person. I so used to be that person. So no hate or shade here at all. But honestly, when we think about each of those followers as people and where they are at geographically, we need to be sure that we are checking with ourselves to say, okay, each of those people, if they were a valid customer or a client with us, would they be able to do business with you? Because our ultimate goal when we are the social media manager for our veterinary hospital is to get business and whether that's. Your hospital is trying to get active clients right now. If you're trying to sell more services, more products, or even if you are just building more awareness about your hospital and building those connections and getting employees, yes, you heard me right. It's important for us to really be sure that we are. bringing that back into focus and tying that those results to our actions as the social media managers. So it's great that you want to get all those followers, but in the longterm, it's, it's going to hurt you and your following, because if you're getting all the other hospitals across the world to follow you, they're not going to do business with you either. So with that, We really want to focus on connecting with other businesses in your local community or with other people that can get you more followers in that regard. So really just partnering up with other people is going to be a huge key here. And I should say really with your local partnerships is where it's key. And I've done this with my with my former hospital that I used to work for. And I'll, I'll share that here in a little bit, but I just really want to be sure that you're understanding that. You could be attracting the wrong people to your social media following and not realizing that it could be hurting your, your engagement, your ability to show that you're ROI for your social media efforts and really just proving that. Social media is a useful tool because the chances are, if you're listening to this, you have a heart for social media for your hospital and you want to do a good job. At least that's what I I'm speaking from experience. That's what that what's the case for me. So I want to be sure that you are taking action in the right ways and really spending your efforts appropriately. So with that, I want to dive in on some action steps that you can do today to start attracting your local community and get people following your social media pages. So, one side note before I forget, because I have a feeling someone's going to ask this, do you need to go back and unfollow all those people that aren't in your area? No, no, don't worry about spending time and energy on that. Just know that moving forward, you really want to be focusing on the people who are local to you. So, all right. So the first step I want you to start taking is tell your clients that you're on social media and invite them to follow you and literally say, would you follow us when you're mentioning it to them. This can be done when you're taking a photo or a video of a patient or the owner with their pet and you're asking permission or letting them know, Hey, we're going to post this on social media, be sure that you really let them know that, Hey, we're going to be posting this and in the next week or two, would you consider following us? So you don't miss your pet's feature. Something along those lines, just to let them know that you can follow them, or they can follow you, so that they don't miss out on their pet's five minutes of fame. Right? So, just really be clear in your communication with them, because chances are they don't know that you're on social media. Alright, so another way that you can be sure that your clients know that you're on social media and encourage them to follow you is to include your social media handles on a few places, like literally everywhere in your hospital. It's not too much if you put a sit everywhere. I have a few places where you might wanna consider adding them if you don't already. So I'm gonna list them now. So add them in your email signature. Right below your name or your hospital name, you know, link them there business cards If you still have business cards, be sure that you're adding the icons there People can figure out how to find you from there put signs in your lobby with a QR code pro tip canva does have The ability for you to create QR codes that link to your social media profiles or your website and On that note, if your website doesn't have your social media handles on there, please be sure that they're on there now, because oftentimes when people go to your website, they will click to your social media icons and go to your platforms to learn more about you and see, actually see how you are posting, how you're showing up on social media so that they can get a good impression about you. So. be sure that your website has those linked because that is a huge thing and something that I truly believe in. Be sure that you're posting on your other platforms. So this really applies if you are starting a new social media platform. So say you are already on Facebook. But you want to be more active on Instagram, or you just started an Instagram page, be sure you share that on Facebook, because I'm sure there are some people who have Facebook still, that only have it just to keep up with a couple of friends from college, or from a couple of relatives, but really prefer to be on Instagram, they'd be so happy to see that you're on Instagram now and can connect with you in a different way, that really you favors them. So don't be afraid to share that on your social media platforms that aren't tied to that, the other, the alternative posts or platforms. Be sure that you also add your social media handles to the bottom of your invoices that now that could be a digital or print, but sometimes when people are scanning through the invoices, you never know when they'll see like, oh, they're on Instagram, they're on Facebook, they're on Snapchat or wherever you're at, and they'll go and navigate to that platform to follow you.

9:41

And finally add it to your appointment reminders. This is a often a spot that is forgotten about, but I think this is a really great way to sneak in a little bit of a promo for social media

Cheyanne 9:53

so If you can monopolize that in some way, then go for it. And then anywhere else, really, that a client might see your social media handles, definitely add it there. Like one thing that I didn't add to my list, I just thought of now is if you are still doing curbside or if you have a waiting area outside that makes it just easy for your workflow. Now, Why don't you just have like a sign up there saying, Hey, while you're waiting, follow us on, on Instagram, Facebook, wherever. And that might give people something to do while they're waiting. Yeah, just an idea. So that concludes my list for where you can. include your social media handles for people to see and to follow you. But one thing you can do to add an additional boost of engagement and to get some followers is to host a giveaway in the clinic and have people follow you as part of the entry. Now there's some nuances there that we could talk about, and I have a blog post, which I'll add to the description of this episode. But that can be one way that people can follow you and you can also get some engagement and grow your local following as well. I had done this kind of what I was thinking about with my blog article, in that blog article, I talk about ways that you can host a Facebook photo contest So definitely check that out if that's something you're interested in or you've tried them in the past and you're like, no, that didn't work for me. Chances are you haven't seen my way of how I've run a photo contest on Facebook and you can apply this to Instagram too. So definitely give that a look through and see if that's something that you might want to consider doing. But. This is one of my favorite ways that I'm going to be sharing here in just a second of getting a local following is to partner up with a local business. So for example, you sponsor treats at your local coffee shop or espresso stop or at the hardware store or something like that, and then have a little sign next to them. To those treats with your social media handles. So this could be like today's treats are sponsored by. ABC Animal Hospital, follow us on social media, and then you can have those icons for the platforms that you're on. I actually did this, and it was a lot of fun for me. Honestly, this is one of my favorite examples to share. But where my hospital was, I worked for a general practice hospital, if you don't know. Right across the street, like, literally my team would go walk over all the time for coffee, or they would pick up coffee for our staff meetings. We would walk over to this espresso stand and They would often just were, we would often refer our clients to go over, get a coffee if it's going to be a little bit of wait for their, their pet to finish up with whatever procedure we were doing and come back and it was just a nice way for us to provide the, a sweet treat for our clients. But. I, I leveraged that for our benefit as a hospital to get clients. And we sponsored the treats. So we provided them dog treats from our hospital. We had sweet potato treats. I think it was. And every time that someone would one of the baristas would give the dogs treats, which they'd say, Oh, these treats came from Woodside animal hospital. Or if the, the Client was asking of the, the customer was asking the baristas, Oh, my dog loves those streets. Where'd they get them from? And they'd say, Oh, the hospital across the street. And we have that sign. Like I mentioned following us on social media. And I think I had the QR codes up at that time. I can't remember now it's been so long, but yeah, that was a huge hit. And I loved having that partnership and it really generated some business for us. So. See if you could find a similar way that you could partner up with local businesses in your area. So another way that you could do this is partnering up with a dog trainer. If you, offer puppy classes, free puppy classes, or something along those lines. That's a great way to bring people in so that they can get an idea of the hospital or get to get familiar with your team or with the name of your hospital, depending on where you host it. This could also be a way for you to partner up with a local pet shop in some way, or like I said, a hardware store. So lots of possibilities there. I hope that gets your creative juices flowing. But yeah, I really enjoyed that. And I thought it was a great return on investment for our hospital. All right. So I'm going to wrap this up now. That was three ways that you can really get clients to follow you on social media. But if anything, if you take one thing away from this episode, it's really just to focus on ways that you can connect with your local community and get. them to follow you on social media versus just chasing anyone who can follow you, whether that's, you know, your neighbor or someone across the world, you know, I want to be sure that you're focusing on people who are local to your hospital so that you can provide the solutions to problems that pet owners are having with their pets, or really just. fostering a good relationship with pet owners as a whole, right? We, you know, obviously we don't want to just see the pets when they're sick. We want them to come in regularly for wellness exams and prevent anything harmful to come a pet's way. So really just being sure that you're connecting with the humans on the other side of the screen is huge. So with that, be sure that you're tailoring your social media marketing efforts to align with that. If you have any questions about what I've said or want some further action to take on this, I invite you to join my Facebook group, the Veterinary Social Media Managers group, and I'll have a link for you in the description. But that group is a great wealth of knowledge and support because I know for sure for me, the case was that learning social media. Was something that I had to teach myself. I've never marketed a business before, let alone a veterinary hospital. So having this group was a huge help for me. So definitely I invite you to come join us ask questions, help others. We would love to have you. So, if you haven't joined us yet, I highly encourage you to join us now. We have a lot of fun in there. But I want to hear from you after listening to this episode. Either send me a DM on Instagram, Facebook, send me an email or. You know, asking the Facebook group what are some other ways that you're getting clients to follow you? Cause I would love to add to this list. I always love just learning new ways to get more engagement and followers. So I personally would love to hear from you. So definitely. Please reach out and that is our episode today, but if you found value and enjoyed this episode, would you please share this with a friend and even leave me a review your reviews and sharing the episodes with people really does support my podcast. And I want to get this podcast out to as many veterinary social media managers as possible, and I would love your support in that. So. If you could take a moment to do that now, I would just love you forever. But for now, I will be catching you in the next episode. But of course, if you have any questions, please reach out and I would love to support you. All right. Thanks for joining me, friend. Bye.