Drive traffic to your website and showcase the personality of your practice.
Instagram is a beacon of fun and engagement, making it an ideal social platform for sharing the sights and sounds of daily life in a veterinary practice. Use the power of this photo-driven social platform to drive traffic to your website and engage new and existing customers.
1. Recruit micro-influencers. Check the follower count of your clients on Instagram. Personally reach out to those with hundreds of followers and ask if they will comment on your posts, or post a photo of their pet and tag your clinic. This type of activity will spread reach and exposure for your practice to their personal networks.
Ask this: “Ms. Jones, we noticed that you have a great Instagram profile. As a valued client, would you be up for tagging us in a post, and perhaps commenting on or reposting one of our posts?”
2. Engage your community. One of the quickest ways to excite clients is to post photos of their pets. Those posts are sure to draw a “like” and comment from the pet owner, and if they share it, the post should appear in the feeds of their friends, family and neighbors.
Instagram also gives you an opportunity to showcase the culture and personality of your practice with behind-the-scenes outtakes, valuable educational content and practical “How-To” tips such as “how to brush your pet’s teeth.”
If you participate in local events, post photos of the event. Tag the Instagram accounts of the sponsors, hosts, other vendors and people you meet throughout the day. You can also step it up a notch by going live during the event. Use Instagram to position the practice as a vital part of the community and solidify your practice as “the one to visit,” both on social media and in real life.
Try this: Set up a decorated area for photo opportunities in your office. Include signs that say, “While you wait, take a photo of your pet in our photo booth. Tag us on Instagram (@username) and use our hashtag (#YourVetPractice), and you’ll be entered to win our monthly contest!”
3. Use Instagram Stories. On Instagram, “Stories” only remain for one day before disappearing, and because of this they entice viewers with exclusivity. If your followers don’t catch them almost immediately, they’ll miss out! Stories are perfect for timely content, such as holidays, special offers or events. Plus, the Stories Location Tag can place you in your area’s Local Story for the day. All of this will expand your audience and keep them coming back to check your profile routinely.
Do this: Take vertical photos and videos exclusively for Instagram Stories leading up to events and special offers. Stories are sized for vertical, whole-screen mobile viewing, unlike the square shape of standard Instagram posts.
Many veterinary practice owners ask us about the ROI of investing time and effort in social media. Practices that really pay attention to their analytics and metrics correlating client engagements outside the practice to appointments in the practice have clearly seen that social media can have a powerful impact on bottom-line results.