Social media is an essential tool for business owners to use to connect with and attract potential customers. Physical therapy and massage therapists should make regular use of social media in order to grow their existing client list and establish their private practice as a desirable and effective destination for healing and relaxation. Sound difficult? It’s actually quite easy!
All it takes is about 10 minutes of careful attention on a daily basis.
In marketing terms, the photos and words you use to make up social media posts are referred to as “content” and all of the content you post sends a message to your followers. Messaging is an important part of branding or setting yourself apart and defining your business online. Branding isn’t just for social media. Everything from the logo you use on your business cards to the decorations you use in your clinic sends a message about who you are and the kind of practice you have perfected. On social media, you can use carefully chosen language and words to attract new customers and define your private practice in a way that sets you apart. Promote your hands-on experience in the massage business, the health and well-being your years of training and therapeutic massages provide, and the overall experience you and your practice offers. Also, talk about what makes your brand stand out. Do you offer types of massage that other therapists in the local area don’t? Maybe you offer hot stone massages or include an Indian head massage at the end of your treatments. Anything that makes you unique and stand out needs to be promoted on your social media channels!
Social media really is a great way to connect with people. The “social” part of the name isn’t just a false label. Reaching out to the people who follow you by responding when a client comments on one of your posts helps make your account feel more personal and valid for those who follow it. Include calls to action on your posts, encouraging your followers to ask questions that you’ll then answer in the comments. This shows how engaged and friendly you are and it also allows you to demonstrate value to your audience without taking a whole lot of time.
Questions that are too complicated to answer in 10 minutes or less offer you a great opportunity to showcase how deep your knowledge goes. Give a high-level overview answer and suggest that the person who asked the question come in and see you for an appointment. You can even offer a one-time discount for a short session to address the issue at hand. This is just one example of the ways in which reaching out and connecting with others can be useful. You may not experience this exact scenario, but there’s tons of potential if you use your social media accounts in the right way.
While we often have the best of intentions when it comes to introducing new habits into our personal and professional lives, staying consistent can be hard. You don’t need to update every single day, but if you happen to get sick or just feel a little burned out, chances are that your social media schedule will suffer. This is why it’s a good idea to schedule posts ahead of time using a system such as Hootsuite. Scheduling posts ahead of time rather than improvising on the spot each and every time allows you to target your social media activity to a specific point of view and gives you better control of your brand. Plus, you won’t have to stress out about not posting when you’re feeling under the weather or have a lot of other stuff on your plate.
Everything you post on your social media is a message to current and future clients. For this reason, your professional accounts should remain completely separate from your personal social media. This means that if you already have Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other socials for your personal life, you should set up business or professional accounts separately for your massage therapy practice.
With a separate, dedicated professional account, you won’t send any mixed messages and you won’t risk alienating your clients with information that might be too personal or too sensitive. Keep all of your posts focused on your practice. You could use Instagram to post pictures of your newly redesigned treatment room or link to a new blog post about the benefits of a specific massage technique on your Facebook. But don’t post family holiday photos unless they’re directly relevant to your practice and of genuine interest to your clients. Focus on the professional and therapeutic qualities that set you apart from other massage therapists rather than on your personal life.
Now that you’ve got some strategy ideas, you may be wondering why we’re recommending that you spend 10 minutes a day building your social media presence. While we don’t literally mean 10 minutes every day, this amount of time is a good guideline that you should try to stick to in general. This might mean that some days you spend a half an hour on social media while on others you spend none. The specifics aren’t that important. What is important is that you strike the right balance between active maintenance and overdoing it.
Social media is a tool for a massage therapist. It’s not a hobby or an activity. As we mentioned above in the Staying Professional section, you shouldn’t treat your physical therapy or message therapist professional social media accounts like your personal accounts. You may not have a strict time limit for how often you update your personal Instagram or Facebook, but that personal account isn’t a promotional tool. Your professional account is.
If you spend too much time on your professional social media accounts, you risk veering off course or getting swept up in the moment. Posting too frequently can also cause your followers to become annoyed and unfollow you.
At the same time, not maintaining your accounts can be a mistake. A prospective client who’s thinking about booking you for an appointment may become confused if your last social media posts are from last year - did you stop updating because you stopped practising or taking new clients? Just a moment’s hesitation can cause that potential client to go elsewhere. Apply what you know and be smart about your strategy. Just don’t spend too much (or too little) time on this part of your massage therapy business!
