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Social Media Ideas for Plastic Surgeon
Social Media has become the most influential virtual space available today to help you grow your practice because that’s where all the eyes went.
it’s no longer optional if you’re looking for new cosmetic patients.
It’s here to stay so you might as well embrace it and make it an important part of your marketing plan, your branding and a gateway to current and prospective patients.
But please note:
Social media is just one part of your marketing plan. You still need to invest in paid advertising and retention.
Social media done right can increase your website traffic, generate leads, portray you as an expert and build relationships by interacting with your audience.
The beauty of social media is that you get to tell your story your way. You are the actor, producer and editor all in one. You control the narrative and create your own image.
That’s powerful, but also daunting so I’ll give you lots of social media ideas you can use right away.
Since you are a business, remember your main objective of social media is to grow your plastic surgery practice. So, your social media posts need a balance of various types of social media posts that are:
• Educational
• Informative
• Interesting
• Entertaining
• Compelling
But be forewarned….
Social Media can take a chunk of your and your staff’s time so here are tips to help you be most effective:
Choose the Right Platforms for You
Unless you have a marketing agency doing this for you, you most likely have a staff person handling this and 10 other things so their time is limited.
My advice is to focus on one platform first. Get good traction going and then spread out to more platforms. For example, Instagram is, by far, a favorite for our plastic surgery industry; however, facebook wins hands down for sheer volume and results.
The good news is facebook owns Instagram so when you post on Facebook, it can be set up to automatically post on Instagram and visa versa (check your settings).
And Yes, Tik Tok is the latest craze and you can build an audience early there; however, that takes time and the audience skews very young. That means they want to be entertained so I hope you can dance!
The most serious prospective cosmetic patients looking for a provider care most about your social proof.
They want to see your work. They want to know what kind of results to expect. They want to see your other happy patients enjoying their new look.
A photo really is worth a thousand words so don’t hold back. Show off your great results and watch the comments flow in.
And, better yet, let your patients do it for you! Encourage them to upload their own before/after photos to their own social media platforms so their friends can see how great you are.
And here’s another new trend to complicate things….
85% of consumers find User Generated Content more influential than brand content. That’s the content that is created when your audience comments on your posts.
You see plenty of examples of this on social media when the surgeon asks his audience a question to respond to or shows them a video and now you see a stream of responses.
That’s user-generated content that engages prospective patients to interact with you, you need to determine what inspires your audience to share content and how you can engage patients to create user-generated content.
Examples would be:
– “Here’s a 38-year old patient who’s had 3 kids and wanted to get her body back.
What do you think?”
– “If you could improve only one body part, which part would it be?”
– “I’m going hiking this weekend. What are you doing?”
And Video is Super Popular
Patients prefer video to all other forms of content when learning about new procedures and services.
It’s also a great way to position you as a helpful expert when you answer prospective patients’ most common questions via video.
So, you can start your own YouTube channel and designate an outside videographer or a tech-savvy staff person to capture and post content in video to then be shared throughout your social platforms.
For example, do a tour of your office, interview a patient to describe her own journey and how great she feels now and do educational videos going over FAQs of your most popular procedures.
Patients love Authentic Personality Posts
Prospective cosmetic patients want to know you. Your headshot on your website doesn’t cut it anymore.
They need to see you in action as a surgeon, a speaker, a person, a parent, an athlete and so on.
To keep it simple, select someone in your office to be the “Roving Reporter”. Their job is to follow you around with an iPad or iPhone to capture moments of “A Day in the Life of a Plastic Surgeon.”
You are the content. It’s you preparing for surgery, doing surgery, your post-op visits, consulting with new patients, interacting with staff and so on.
It’s endless content for you since no day is the same and you have an endless stream of patient stories, their journey and their results.
I’ll now go through a list of social media ideas you can create contact with using photos and videos.
Now this is super important to know and prepare for…
There’s a big challenge when you build your web presence on social media such as FB, IG, TikTok and the rest of them….the landlord can kick you out and/or raise the rent at any time.
That means you are at the mercy of their rules. That also means they can shut you down for offensive content and they can force you to “pay to play”.
One way they do that is to “strangle” your list of followers, so they no longer see your posts. So now you have a false sense of comfort thinking you are communicating regularly with your audience, when in reality, less than 10% are seeing you.
These social platforms want you to advertise which would be fine except, if you have been trying to advertise on social media platforms, plastic surgery does not get along well due to the nature of your content.
You are one step away from porn, you are seen as persuading consumers to have medical procedures and you are hurting the consumers’ self-esteem.
That’s why it’s so difficult to get your ads approved.
As a matter of fact, social platforms’ organic reach will be non-existent in the near future. As already mentioned, they only show your posts to about 10% of your audience since they want you to pay for advertising just like you had to with TV, radio and newspapers but do you see the catch 22?
They will force you to advertise YET they won’t approve your ads – crazy!!
So, here’s what you do…..you collect your own data by adding a link in your bio that goes to a customized landing page for the prospective patient to give you their name, cell and email, as well as ask a question or request a consultation.
I also want to touch on Influencer Marketing since it will continue to be popular; however, consumers are waking up to the fact that most influencers are promoting for the sheer motive of getting paid and that hurts your brand.
Word of mouth has always been and will continue to be a huge patient attraction strategy. When you get patients talking about you on social media, you build brand awareness and credibility, and set yourself up for more patients.
One way to drive social word of mouth is to partner with influencers—people who have a large following on social media and can draw the attention of that following to you. Just google “influencer Marketing platforms” and they will partner you with infuencers.
Of course, it would be great if you could get one of the Bravo housewives to be your influencer but it’s not necessary.
Start by getting to know your current patients to find out what kind of following they have and if they would be willing to spread the word for you.
I actually prefer your own patients to influencers since it’s more authentic and their local followers are more likely to follow through then followers who have to travel cross-country to see you.
BTW,
There are loads of tools to help you if you decide to do your own social media. Hootsuite is a popular social media management tool since it allows you to respond and engage without having to log into each of your individual social media accounts but there are many others.
And, if you need help making your graphics eye-catching, Canva is popular because it’s so easy to use and has a huge library of creative deliverables done for you.
Video editing is also becoming a big part of social media to make your content more eye-catching and engaging so I suggest starting with free apps, such as Apple iMovie and OpenShot for PC.
So,
As you can see, there is a lot to social media. But like everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it.
If you believe social media is an important aspect of your brand and marketing plan, you need to put the time and investments into it.
See you on social media!
Transcript:
Beauty and the Biz
Ep.74: Social Media Ideas for Plastic Surgeons
Catherine Maley, MBA: Hello and welcome to Beauty and the Biz where we talk about the business and marketing side of plastic surgery. I’m your host, Catherine Maley, author of your Aesthetic Practice and consultant to plastic surgeons to get them more patients and more profits. Today we’re going to talk about Social Media Ideas for Plastic Surgeons because social media has become the most influential virtual space available today to help you grow your practice because that’s where all the eyes went. So, it’s really no longer optional if you’re looking for new cosmetic patients. It is here to stay so you might as well embrace it and make it an important part of your marketing plan, also, your branding. And it is a gateway to current and prospective patients. But please note, social media is not the Holy Grail. It’s just one part of your marketing plan, you still need to invest in paid advertising and retention strategies. So social media done right can increase your website traffic, generate leads, portray you as the expert and it builds relationships with your prospective patients while retaining your current patients by interacting with them. Now, the beauty of social media is that you get to tell your story your way. So, you’re the actor and the producer and the editor all in one. So, you control the narrative and you create your own image and brand. So that’s powerful but it’s also daunting. So, I’ll give you lots of social media ideas you can use right away.
Now, since you are a business remember your main objective of social media is to grow your plastic surgery practice business. So, your social media posts need a balance of various types of social media posts that are educational, informative, interesting, entertaining and compelling. But be forewarned, social media can take a chunk of you and your staff time. So here are tips to help you be most effective. First, choose the right platforms for you. So, unless you have a marketing agency doing this for you, you most likely have a staff person handling this and 10 other things, so their time is limited. My advice is to focus on one platform first, get really good traction going and then spread out to more platforms. For example, Instagram is by far a favorite for our plastic surgery industry. However, Facebook wins hands down for sheer volume and results. Now the good news is Facebook owns Instagram, so when you post on Facebook it can be set up to automatically post on Instagram and vice versa. You just want to check your settings. And yes, TikTok is the latest craze, my 14-year-old niece loves it. And you can build an audience early on. However, that takes time and the audience skews very young. That means they want to be entertained, so I hope you can dance and that’s what that’s all about. The most serious prospective cosmetic patients, they’re actually looking for a provider and they care most about your social proof. They want to see your work, they don’t need to see a dance, they want to see your work, they want to know what kind of results to expect. They want to see your other happy patients enjoying their new look. Now a photo really is worth 1000 words so don’t hold back, show off your great result and watch the comments flow in. And better yet, let your patients do it for you. Now you want to encourage your patients to upload their own before and after photos to their own social media platforms so their friends can see how great you are. And here’s another new trend to complicate things, 85% of consumers find user generated content more influential than brand content. So, brand content is what you’re creating, user generated content is what’s created when your audience comments on your posts. And you see plenty of examples of this on social media, when the surgeon asked his audience a question to respond to or shows them a video. And now you see a stream of responses. Now that’s user generated content that engages prospective patients to interact with you. But you need to determine what inspires your audience to share content and how you can engage patients to create user generated content. So, examples would be you would show some killer before and after photos of a mommy makeover. And you can say here’s a 45-year-old patient who’s had three kids and wanted to get her body back. What do you think? Or you could ask if you can improve only one body part, which part would it be? Or I’m going hiking this weekend, what are you doing?
And by the way, video is super popular. Patients prefer video to all other forms of content when learning about new procedures and services. Now, it’s also a great way to position you as a helpful expert when you answer prospective patients most common questions via email. I’m sorry, not email, via video. So, you can start your own YouTube channel and designate an outside videographer or a tech savvy staff person to capture and post content and video to then be shared throughout your social platforms. For example, you can do a tour of your office, you can interview a patient to describe her own journey and how he feels now. And you can do educational videos going over FAQs of your most popular procedures.
Now patients love authentic personality posts. Because prospective cosmetic patients want to know you and your headshot on your website doesn’t cut it anymore. They need to see you in action as a surgeon, a speaker, a person, a parent, an athlete and so on. Now, to keep this simple, select someone in your office to be the roving reporter. Their job is to follow you around with an iPad or iPhone to capture moments of a day in the life of a plastic surgeon. So, do you get it? You’re the content. It’s you preparing for surgery, doing surgery, your post op visits, consulting with new patients, interacting with staff and so on. It’s endless content for you since no day is the same. And you have an endless stream of patient stories, their journeys, as well as their results. Now I’m going to list a whole bunch of social media ideas you can use to create content using photos and videos. FAQs on procedures, patient testimonials, before and after photos, q&a with patients, ask your audience a question, do the day in the life of a surgeon, how to videos, inspiring quotes, share what you’re reading, share how you stay in shape, show off your cooking skills, highlight a new procedure, share a free resource, do a contest or giveaway, virtual event invite, behind the scenes photos, funny cartoon or meme, staff product pic, share a tip or trick, tell a story, conduct a survey, do fun facts. You can do you speaking or share a fan photo or share asepsis statistics, those are interesting. Do a catchy photo or video, do a themed promotion and do a tour of your office. I mean, frankly, I just did these off the top of my head in about two minutes, get your team together and do a brainstorming session and think of all the different things you can talk about, maybe what’s in the news but not politics, keep it fun and light. But there’s so much to talk about. And the point is rather than just talk amongst yourselves, grab an iPhone and talk on video. Now, this is super important to know and be prepared for.
There’s a big challenge when you build your web presence on social media such as on Facebook, or Instagram or Tiktok and all the rest of them. If you think about it, the landlord can kick you out and or they can raise the rent at any time. That means you’re at the mercy of these social media platforms, they also can shut you down, they can charge you more, they can take down any offensive content, they can force you to pay to play. So, one way they do that is to strangle your list of followers so your followers no longer see your post. So now you have a false sense of comfort thinking you’re communicating regularly with your audience, when in reality less than 10% are seeing you. Now these social platforms want you to advertise which would be fine except if you’ve been trying to advertise on social media platforms. Plastic Surgery does not get along well due to the nature of your content. You are one step away from porn, you’re seen as persuading consumers to have medical procedures and you’re hurting the consumer self-esteem. That’s why it’s so difficult to get your ads approved. As a matter of fact, social platforms organic reach will be nonexistent in the near future. As already mentioned, they only show your post to about 10% of your audience since they want you to pay for advertising, just like you had to with TV, radio, newspapers and magazines. But do you see the catch 22? They’ll force you to advertise yet they won’t approve your ads. That’s insane. So, here’s what you do. You collect your own data by adding a link in your bio that goes to a customized landing page for the prospective patient to give you their name, sell an email, as well as ask a question or request a consultation. I also want to touch on influencer marketing, since it will continue to be popular. However, consumers are waking up to the fact that most influencers are promoting for the sheer motive of getting paid, and that hurts your brand. So, word of mouth has always been and will continue to be a huge patient attraction strategy. Because when you let patients talk about you on social media, you’re building your brand awareness and your credibility and you’re setting yourself up for more patients in a much more authentic way.
Now, one way to drive social word of mouth is to partner with the influencers like we said and those are people who have these huge large followings on social media. And they can draw attention to you and get others to follow you. All you have to do is Google influencer marketing platforms and they’ll partner you with influencers but just know they expect to be paid. So just consider that. Now, it would be great if you could get one of the Bravo housewives to be your influencer but it’s not necessary. And it’s also not authentic. Unless of course, she did have something done by you. It just won’t play well if she’s just talking about you but she doesn’t know you. So, start by getting to know your current patients to find out what kind of following they have and if they’d be willing to spread the word for you.
Now, I actually prefer your own patients to influencers, since it’s more authentic and their local followers are much more likely to contact you than followers who have to travel cross country to see you. Now by the way, there are loads of tools out there to help you if you decide to do your own social media. Hootsuite is a popular social media management tool, since it allows you to respond and engage with the various platforms without having to log into each one of them individually. But there are certainly many other platforms. And if you need help making your graphics eye catching, Canva’s popular because it’s so easy to use and it has a huge library of creative deliverables done for you.
Now video editing is also becoming a big part of social media to make your content more eye catching and engaging. So, I suggest starting with a ton of free apps, there’s like Apple iMovie or open shout is for PC. So needless to say, there’s a lot to social media. But like everything else in life, you get out of it what you put into it. So, if you believe social media is an important aspect of your brand and marketing plan, you need to put the time and investment into it. So, if you need my help, please reach out I’d be happy to otherwise I will see you on social media because I too have had to adapt and change. And yes, I’m all over social media as I should be and I’ll see you there. So that’s it for today. I hope that was helpful. Please subscribe to Beauty and the Biz. And if you haven’t already, I’d love a great review. And then if you have any questions or feedback or want to contact me, please do you can leave me a message on my website at catherinemaley.com or you can check out my own social and see what I’m doing. And ask me questions there and Instagram is a favorite and that is catherinemaleymba. That’s it for now and talk again soon.
