It’s the end of the month and time for me to do my social media calendars for September. It takes a little time, but having my clients’ content mapped out and scheduled for a month in advance makes it so much easier!
There’s nothing worse than staring at a blank Facebook prompt and wondering what to post. So here are a few tips to make the job easier so that you can get on with running a veterinary practice.
Prepare a list of topics
Brainstorm some interesting topics at your next team meeting so that you can pick one from the list when you’re feeling less than inspired.
When you expand it to include topics such as animal behaviour or other specialties you will never run out of ideas for posting!
Here’s a small section of my list to help you get started:
Create a calendar
- As much as possible, try to align your social media posts with your marketing plan.
Delivering consistent messages in your social media and newsletters will help to drive traffic back to your website where you can add a call to action such as “Call our friendly receptionists” or “Book Online”. - A few quick Google searches will give you all of the national and international holidays and celebration days such as International Cat Day or World Animal Day.
- Split the remainder of your posts into categories.
I like to use Expertise, Uplifting, Engaging and Promotion but these can be anything that works for you. As a general rule, the majority of your posts should be in the first three categories, with no more than 20% being promotional or sales related. - Any impromptu patient and team photos can be posted ad-hoc in addition to the planned posts.
Here’s an example:
Content and Artwork
I prefer to prepare my post content and artwork a month in advance where I can.
Many of your posts will be ad-hoc patient visits that you capture in the moment.
Having the ‘fixed’ content ready to go makes it more fun and less stressful.
Scheduling – Set and Forget
If you like to be super organised, you can pre-schedule posts for Facebook and Instagram in Facebook Creator Studio, which lets you manage posts, insights and messages all from one place.
I’m not going to sugar-coat it. Planning, creating and scheduling social media posts is time-consuming. However, if you start with the bigger picture (your business or marketing plan) and add the ‘fixed’ predictable posts around promotional events and seasons, it’s much easier to plot the rest of your content around them.
If you have a social media champion in your practice, you could delegate this task to them.
Alternatively, if you’d like some help setting up a social media calendar or if you’d simply prefer to outsource the task altogether, email me at info@waggydog.com.au or book here for a free 30-minute no-obligation consultation.
