The Veterinary Social Media Podcast | Social Media Marketing, Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Hospital, Digital Marketing

VSMP 8: 3 Ways to Increase Your Engagement with Pet Owners On Your Social Media Posts

• Cheyanne Flerx • Episode 8

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Hey friend! In this episode, I share 3 ways you can increase your engagement on your social media posts. I also share something I was doing that was causing my engagement to go down and how you may be doing the same thing! I don't want you to keep making the same mistake with your social media engagement, so tune in and start making progress for your veterinary clinic's social media today! 

Cheering for you! 

Cheyanne Flerx 🧡

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

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Hey friends, welcome back. Today, I've got some juicy, juicy stuff to share with you but I got to start off with just being honest with you. So today we are going to discuss three ways that you can increase your engagement on your social media posts. And honestly, when I was preparing for this episode, I was I was sitting down and really thinking about it. And honestly, I, I gotta, I just gotta say it when we, as the social media managers are creating content for social media posts and managing social media, we're often the ones in the way of getting more engagement there. I said it I'm on, I'm on, I'm guilty of this too. So don't feel like I'm picking on you, but honestly there is a way to go about social media. That is. engagement centered and really just engagement for thinking. So with that, I want to just share some ways that you can some things you can do today to get your engagement back on the up and up and just back on track. So without further ado, let's get into it. 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. All right. So the first thing that you can do today to get your engagement up is to Understand where your dream clients or your current clientele likes to hang out on social media and then really get good at that platform. So I know a lot of us are really versed in Facebook because a lot of our clientele's on Facebook. But I bet if you surveyed your audience and asked them which social media platforms they like to be on and what types of content they like to engage and consume you may be surprised with the millennial generation alone there are a lot more people going into Tik TOK and Instagram and less on Facebook. Now, I know a lot of us still see engagement on Facebook, so I'm not telling you to ditch Facebook or to ditch your other social media platforms. Platforms, but it's worth considering on looking at other social media platforms, getting comfortable there and getting in the spaces where your clients like to hang out in their free time. So definitely consider that and get. Become a master of that platform. So where I'm really alluding to is Instagram here. Now it takes a special hospital to really want to dive into tick talk and get into that kind of content. So I'm not really going to address that today, but with Instagram alone. Personally, I love Instagram as a consumer and I love producing content on Instagram. So I'm a little partial to Instagram, but if you have a younger generation, say millennial and younger, then I say it's definitely worth considering exploring Instagram and testing the waters out and really getting to know Instagram as a whole and how it works. We can talk about that in another episode, but I just wanted to mention that to you because It will bring a lot more fun to your content, to your creativity, and your clients, your followers, anyone who comes across your page will be able to capture that energy. So definitely just consider it. The second thing you can do today to really get your engagement, wow up and up is to review your content strategy. And see what needs to be tweaked. Chances are you're posting content that isn't working. I know a lot of people say it's the algorithm. The algorithm is out to get me and chances are you're just not understanding how the algorithm works. I know how quickly the algorithm and social media changes. So it's understandable. It's, it's really hard to keep up with, but as the social media manager, it's partially our job. To keep up with the changes and adapt our content accordingly. So if what worked for you five years ago is not producing the same sort of engagement today, it might be worth considering to either put a pause on that type of post or to Introduce something new. I know a lot of people like 10 out Tuesday, and that used to be really popular five, 10 years ago. Personally, when I've tried it as of late, it doesn't do anything for the pages that I've managed. So I have since put that post to rest, even though it's fun, we can bring it out later. But I think a lot of people just get fatigued of seeing things again and again and again. And that's kind of where we're When we use the social media holidays on the calendar and we use those on repeat. We'll talk about that here. I think next on the next episode. Yes. But, or no, in a couple episodes, sorry, but just really consider. everything that you're posting and see if how you can add more spice to it or see what you can put in the vault for a little bit or just do something a little different and see what happens. And honestly, What I'm seeing now is a lot of consumers or people on the social media platforms are wanting to see content they enjoy and what they like. And so if we aren't producing content that they enjoy, the algorithms aren't going to recommend that to them because of the way that how the algorithms work at the time of this recording, this goes for Instagram, for TikTok, and even Facebook now, the platforms want you to stay. on their app, right? You know, if you're on Instagram, if you're on Facebook, they don't want you to leave because the longer you're on those platforms, the more they can put some ads in front of you and make more money or really just provide that data of like, Oh, people are staying on longer and longer. So there's more value that they're added to their overall. Product, right? They're a business. So if we can hop into our followers feeds or clients feed and be a top of mind and really just continue to stay in their feed and be consistent in doing that Facebook, Instagram, Tik TOK, whatever social media platform you're using is going to be like, Oh, okay, cool. They are producing the content, the inventory, so to speak, that this user wants to see. So we're going to keep showing their stuff to them. So that's just a little algorithm one on one for you. But also be sure that you are identifying what types of posts your clients, your pet owners want to be engaging with. So what I mean by that is if you're constantly just posting photos or graphics and you're not seeing much results from that, Try adding some video to that and it doesn't have to be like, okay, I've got to get my tech in here I've got to get my doctor on camera and You know get them to say something to me It doesn't have to be that or constantly getting pets into videos but what you can do is you can start small. Like if you have an iPhone you have that live photo feature where it takes like a little shot of a video of what you're trying to take a photo of, like a gift, so to speak, if you're not familiar with them try using that for video, oftentimes I get the best kind of B roll is what it's called. And provide that in in reels or just other areas where I can use video. So give that a try if you want to test out the waters with video, but honestly, if your team is willing to be on video and willing to be involved with your content, then that is gold right there for you. And I talk about how to get your team involved with social media on episode number four of the podcast. So definitely check that out. If you struggle with your team getting involved with social media, because honestly, I don't know if you have witnessed this before, but when my team was involved with my social media content, I definitely saw a huge turnaround and a lot more engagement and people connected with us in a much in a better way. So, you know, Give that, give that a consideration as well. So also one thing that when you're reviewing your content strategy that I do want to say before we move on to the third way is really be sure that you're not using medical jargon or using generic stock photos from third party companies that really anyone can be using because A, People are smart nowadays. They can sniff it out. If you're using stock images or nowadays, people know what AI looks like. AI generated images and that's artificial intelligence. So be sure that you are really using things and content that and verbiage that your pet owners will connect and resonate with. So just be sure that you're not just posting. Stuff for the sake of posting, but really putting some thought into it and using this opportunity that you're making a post to connect with a human on the other side of the screen, right? We are creating content to attract clients and clients are humans. And I don't know about you, but I like to work with and partner up with businesses that. actually have someone who has human emotions and not just treating me like a number, right? Clients will be able to tell that through your posting. So just be sure that you are creating content for humans and not for just to please the algorithm or for robots. Okay. So for the third and last way that you can You can implement to increase your engagement is to make an effort to engage and comment back with people and interact with them. So if you have people who are commenting in your post, for example, be sure you're taking a moment and comment back, you know, it's really great if you just say, Oh, thank you, you know take it a step further and say, Hey, Rhonda, thanks for commenting. How is fluffy today? You know, for example, just really start having that conversation. We are on social media to be social with people, right? Like on Facebook in particular, Facebook is a great platform to connect with your friends and family who especially aren't in the same area as you, if they're across country or in a different region. country. So Facebook alone is really a place where people connect with other people to stay in touch and have that human interaction, the digital human interaction. So in other words, don't post and ghost. Don't just post on your social media platforms and forget to come back. That is one way that you're instantly killing your engagement because yeah, sure. You're keeping up. Posting and staying consistent with that, but you're not connecting with people. And everything is about connection nowadays. So with that said also really encourage people to comment with you when you are posting on when you're posting. So in your captions, for example, we have our. Call to actions are CTAs and that if you're not familiar with them, those are a line of basically directions that you want people to follow after reading your post or engaging with your post. So for example, if you're posting a picture of a patient and you're just say, oh, so glad you know, fluffy came in today. That doesn't tell me as the person who's seen the post of what I, why that matters to me or how that applies to me. If I see that I'm like, oh. Cute dog. So, be sure that you're inviting people into the conversation or encouraging them to comment on it. You can say, Oh you know, Fluffy came in today for da da da da da. Has your dog been in recently or does your dog enjoy peanut butter too? Like, you know. You know, something along those lines, where you're asking the people to tell them about themselves. People love to talk about themselves. It's just human nature. So really use that to your advantage when you're trying to get engagement on your social media posts. So! Those are my three ways you can really increase your engagement with, and if you have questions about this, I would love to hear from you. You can email me, or I would really love for you to come join us in my Facebook group called the Veterinary Social Media Managers and there we share tips and tricks that have worked for other social media managers, because I don't know about you, but being the social media manager for a veterinary hospital was almost like working in the wild west. I had to teach myself how to do social media. I had no previous marketing experience or any research experience. Really any experience with social media overall? Like, yeah, I had a Facebook page, but that didn't really help me when I'm trying to, you know, market a business. So we share those tips with each other, share what has worked for us. And I share some tidbits and some helpful information along the way. So definitely come and join us. And the link for that will be in the description of this episode. But yeah, we would love to have you come join us, but next week I would love for you to come back and listen because I'm going to be sharing some ways you can get your clients to follow you on social media. So since today I talked about ways you can get people to engage with your social media posts, I want them to come actually follow your pages. And we're going to talk about why we want your clients and your local community, in particular, You won't want to miss that. So I highly encourage you to subscribe or follow the podcast if you haven't already because I am going to be continuing to share some great information to help you really get implement social media into the world of veterinary medicine. So if you haven't yet either, if you haven't reviewed this episode or reviewed the podcast, I should say, I would love it if you could take the time to review this podcast and share this episode with a friend, because I want to get this podcast into the hands of as many veterinary social media managers as humanly possible. And I would love your support in that. So thank you so much for joining us today. I hope you found value in this episode and I look forward to connecting with you soon. All right. Bye.