If your current social media strategy is taking you so much time and effort, you’re putting energy into it for no results, then you’ve got to change it up.
You need to tweak, hone, and perfect that strategy! Otherwise what’s the point? We never want to use a strategy if it’s not working just because we hear it’s a “must”.
And this is one of THE most common struggles I hear from practitioners. That their social media is a huge time suck rather than the awesome traffic and bookings generator it can be!
Let’s dive into the four social media strategies so you can work on something that’s going to make it really effective for you. Heads up: these might be a real departure from your current social media strategy, but by making the shift, you will see change. Strategy 1. Get Visible For any marketing strategy to be effective, it needs to get you SEEN by your ideal client (ideally new ones and ideally lots of them). On social media that means going where people are showing up and using it how your clients are consuming it.
What does that look like? Get visible using either stories, video, or Facebook groups. This is the way people are consuming content especially on Instagram and Facebook.
Think about your own ideal client: where they are showing up on social media, and how are they are using it. And in a lot of cases, if your ideal clients are similar to you, think about yourself and how you are currently using these platforms.
Are you engaged in groups? Do you watch stories? Choose ONE of these to start and that’s where you are going to start getting visible.
Stories + Videos
Video content, whether it’s live or prerecorded, is getting consumed more and more on these platforms – whether it’s in posts or in stories. That’s how people are engaging and spending their time now. AND these platforms are prioritizing video content more than regular images or posted content (aka your videos will get shown to more people)
TRY: Reduce the number of posts you are doing every day or every week.
Instead, do 1 video (either live or pre-recorded) on your Facebook or Instagram feed.
OR
Posting a story daily (this doesn’t have to be only video). The more consistently you do stories, the more you’ll show up at the beginning of people’s story feed…and get seen. If you post one story a month or one story a week, it’s going to be harder for you to get in feeds consistently.
I even created 40 Ideas for Instagram Stories for you, to make this easier. If you want a copy, just send me a DM on Instagram.
Facebook Groups
People are also spending more time in Facebook groups and that’s where they are engaging.
TRY: Start to be a helpful resource. Respond to comments. Post your own comments. Promote when allowed.
Usually, there’s a search bar that you can use to search for your profession or modality. See what people are talking about it and comment, connect, and just start becoming known in these groups.
I know that was a lot for strategy one but don’t try to do everything. Choose ONE (either video content, regular stories or Facebook groups) and become visible in the places people are looking.
Strategy 2. Engage more than you post
We need to connect with people. That is the whole point of social media. We need to start building relationships and you can’t do that when you’re just posting. Engage more than you post and way, way, WAY more than you are consuming.
You really only need a solid base of quality posts or content in your feed (maybe 20-30) so people can scroll back through and clearly see what you’re about, how they can work with you THEN you don’t need to post anymore. You can just be engaging.
This engagement is a non-negotiable step as it doubles as a way to connect AND gets you more visible (see strategy 1)
TRY: Engagement Tip
Commit a minimum of 10 to 15 minutes a day to engage with your ideal clients. Take a look at who has watched your stories recently, who consistently likes your posts, or any new followers you have. See who, in those kinds of groups, are your ideal clients.
Connect with them, comment on their posts, comment on their stories.
Get into their DMs because ideally, what we want is to create that conversation. Form initial simple relationships that can lead to deeper connections.
Now, you can also find people who are your ideal clients but are not following you yet through competitors, or similar accounts to your current clients. Start following and engaging with them.
Take 10 to 15 minutes a day and do this tip SO much more than you post. Create those close relationships. And that really is the difference. Remember, social media is meant to be social.
Strategy 3. Have regular calls to action
Whether it is booking an appointment, a free call, consuming some of your content, or just commenting, responding, or messaging, you’ve GOT to get people used to taking action.
We can’t expect people to book with you if you don’t invite them to or if they don’t really know, right? It’s surprising how often people don’t really know how they can book with you.
So we put those calls to action into our both our content and engagement.
TRY: At least a couple of times a week, especially if you are doing daily stories, regular posts, or video content, you can have a call to action of some kind.
Lead people and invite them into your world.
You can see just from the first three strategies that it really is all about connecting with people, engaging with them, and getting them to know more about you. That’s not going to happen if you just repost other people’s content or post links to articles. Do something that engages people and gets them to take action.
And to build a connection, that trust, all these things need to be done CONSISTENTLY.
So if you’ve decided that social media is a way for you to get in front of your ideal clients, then you have to commit to doing this consistently. Whether it’s every day, a couple of times a week, you decide. But stick to it and that’s where you’ll see things start to snowball and build momentum.
Strategy 4. Be Searchable
This is more of a one time strategy than something you need to do ongoing but it’s not to be overlooked because more and more people are actually using social media to find what they need.
TRY: Go and search for yourself, your modality (what type of practitioner you are), or your general niche and notice: Do you show up? If not, look at who’s showing up and what they’re doing. Check on the keywords they are using, the links that they have, their About section, etc.
Make yourself easy to find because people out there are searching. Start putting those keywords in your bio, use those hashtags. Those who are searching for you are the BEST kind of ideal clients.
Recap
First, you’ve got to get visible. Get out in front of your ideal patients and clients in a way that they are using.
Second, engage much more than you post, ideally engaging daily, connecting with people and starting conversations.
Third, have regular calls to action and invite people to take them so they get used to engaging with you and they know how they can work with you.
And finally, make sure you are searchable and can be found by people out there who are looking for you.
I challenge you to go a couple of weeks without doing any posts and instead, do these 4 strategies in this post and see if there’s any kind of change. But remember, you have to do this consistently if you want to see it work.
If you want to learn the 4 steps my clients are using to build fully booked practices (without having the marketing take over their life) check out the free training below. And as always, feel free to comment below or DM me on Instagram if you have any questions.
-Kate
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