6 social media marketing success tips for aesthetic practices

Are you a physician practicing aesthetic medicine? Interested in learning how content and social media marketing can help grow your aesthetic practice?

Most aesthetic practices are still using costly, outdated channels of advertising to build their brands. The problem with this approach is that patients have tuned out to these channels. According to Aesthetic Medicine News, today’s patients get most of their information about cosmetic procedures from social media.

You’re probably wondering, “What is the relationship between content marketing and social media?”

Social media marketing isn’t just about putting up a Facebook page or a Twitter profile.

It’s about educating people, answering their questions about aesthetics, and sharing interesting news about your practice. This is actually content marketing, and it is done primarily on your blog or website.

But that’s not enough.

Social media promotion is critical to online content marketing success. Because there are millions of users on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and other social sites, it is very likely that people who need your aesthetic services (yet don’t know that your blog exists!) are hanging out there.

The best way to reach them is by taking the stories that you’ve posted on your blog and placing them in these sites.

It’s that easy? Well, yes and no. Yes, because once you have all your content ready, all you have to do is promote it on your social media networks. But preparation is key.

Social media is a very active space. There are a lot of interesting conversations taking place at the same time and since your target audience has a short attention span, they can get distracted very easily.

The challenge for you as an aesthetician using social media, is that you have to be more interesting and more creative than the other people or brands in your target audience’s network! How do you that?

Here are six content marketing and social media success tips for your aesthetic practice.

1. Tell stories

Use your blog to tell stories about your industry, practice, people and events. Each story should be unique and interesting enough to create appeal and draw new audiences on Facebook, Twitter and other social sites that you use.

Human-interest stories are very popular on social media. Aesthetic practices are fortunate to be able to leverage "show and tell" story-telling strategies. Using images and patient stories you can illustrate how your practice is impacting people’s lives, by improving their appearance, and making them feel wonderful about themselves.

2. Blog often

If you don’t already have one, develop an editorial calendar to help you blog regularly and consistently. Remember too that social media content benefits from planning and regular updating.

You need to plan for the interesting stories that you will share on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or Pinterest. Of course many of these stories will be inspired from your blog, but once in a while you may also need to add other content (photos, video, podcasts, etc.) to engage audiences within those specific networks.

3. Execute well

Even though the aesthetic industry is interesting by nature, how you execute stories about your category on social media is very important.

For example, on Facebook and Pinterest, posting visually appealing and well-edited photos will go much farther than posting links to your blog. On Twitter you will need different executions skills such as how to craft a compelling tweet with 140 characters, or how to use relevant hashtags to make it easy for people to find your content.

Every social media platform is different. It’s important for you to learn those environments and leverage their unique features to reach a wider audience with your message.

4. Include location

As an aesthetician, one of your primary marketing goals is to attract more patients to your practice. Create or update your Facebook page, Twitter profile and Pinterest account with your physical location and your contact information.

When patients come in for their appointment, encourage them to “check-in” to your location using Facebook Places.

Checking-in on Facebook has the same effect as word-of-mouth marketing. When a Facebook user sees (on her Newsfeed) that her friend (your patient) has checked into your location, she’ll be curious to learn more about your practice and will probably click through to your Facebook Page for more information.

5. Work on your 'About' section

The “About” section of your Facebook page should be optimized with keyword-rich names, categories and descriptions. The words you use to describe your practice should reflect the natural conversational language that your audience uses. This will increase the likelihood of appearing on Facebook’s Graph Search results.

Similarly, the About page of your website should not just focus on keywords such as aesthetics, but rather on answering questions that typical patients would ask. Think about some of the common questions that your patients have asked in the past and update your practice’s About page with content that provides those answers.

6. Consider contests, promotions and giveaways

Contests, promotions and giveaways are very effective ways of acquiring new clients via social media. Because contests can produce outstanding results, it’s important that you make yours stand out by offering a prize that will create excitement and enthusiasm among your audience. Giving away a free iPad has nothing to do with your practice, so don’t bother.

You can give away a specific skin product with a “limited time only” message to create a sense of urgency and interest. Avoid giving away free services as this might encourage people not to buy until they find out if they’ve won. To ensure high participation encourage Facebook fans to submit photos of themselves, or share stories for a chance to win.

Which of these content and social media tips have you used to market your aesthetic practice? Please share your experience in the comment box below.