Let’s rip the band-aid off right from the first sentence of this article: Effective social media marketing requires getting in front of the camera, using your credit card, and frequent posting/engagement with followers. In participating in multiple courses, podcasts, and roundtable discussions on the topic of social media for optometrists in the last decade, these items go over about as well as a polar plunge. That said, you’ll be stuck with nonexistent or mediocre results if you don’t embrace them. Let me explain.

Getting in front of the camera
As of September 2024, the post engagement (user action taken on a post, such as a “Like”) rates for Health care, Pharma, and Biotech were 5.9% for Facebook, 5.0% for Instagram, 3.4% for X (formerly Twitter), and 2.0% for TikTok.¹

Translation: The chance of someone engaging with and interacting with your health care post is extremely low. To increase the chances that your practice posts will be engaging and, therefore, create opportunities to help both current and prospective patients, these posts need to look like they are from a friend or family member and not like an ad. Posts that look like ads can prompt scrolling.

To make your practice posts look like they’re from a friend or family member, you and/or your trusted staff members, pets, or family members must be in front of the camera.

Here are some statistics that back this up:

• Facebook subscribers spend 50% of their time watching videos.²
• Over 140 billion Instagram Reels are played every day.³
• Over 80% of sessions on X feature video content, with over 2 billion video views every day.⁴

I, personally, post one-minute videos of myself on Facebook and Instagram answering common patient questions I keep note of during their exams. These videos aren’t any longer than a minute because viewers tend to lose interest after this amount of time on these social media channels.

Optimal video engagement on X is 20 to 45 seconds.⁵ The ideal length of a TikTok video is between 21 seconds to 34 seconds.⁶

Pro tips. Because exam rooms are notoriously dim and, therefore, make for low-resolution image and video creation, I recommend utilizing a stand ring light, which greatly improves clarity. (Pricing starts at roughly $15.) If your office has poor sound quality, microphones that plug into one’s cell phone can be purchased to improve audio. These can be purchased for $20 to $30 and make a huge difference in production value.

Before you start filming, think about the platform on which your content will be posted. Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok require vertical video; YouTube requires horizontal video. Finally, if you are posting a picture of a patient, always do so with their written permission and with HIPAA compliance in mind. Never post personal patient information. Our office utilizes a media release form that must be signed by the patient before any patient photo or video is used.

Getting what you pay for
Organic reach, defined as the amount of social media users who see a post without the use of paid promotion or advertising for the Health care, Pharma, and the Biotech Industry as of September 2024 is extremely low: 6.3% for Facebook, 5.8% for Instagram, 3.4% for X, and 2.0% for TikTok.⁷ 

Translation: To achieve the kind of marketing success you’re looking for on social media, you’ll need to use your credit card. The good news: You don’t have to break the bank. For additional information, check out Face book’s Ads Manager (facebook.com/business/ads/pricing), Instagram Ads (business.instagram.com/advertising), X Business (business.x.com/en/advertising) and TikTok for Business (getstarted.tiktok.com/).

Pro tips. Create an effective budget for this by targeting your audience and setting a goal for your marketing campaign. On Facebook’s Ad Center (in a drop-down menu to the left of your practice’s page), for example, you can set specific demographics for age, gender, interests, profession, and location. Setting the target audience you want your ad served to is essential to the success of your marketing effort(s). At the practice where I work, two custom targets are saved for frequent use, based on the service areas we want to market:

1. “Parents,” where I have set interests of kids, parenting, grandparents, and homeschooling, which I use when I’m posting about myopia management, vision therapy, and kids glasses within a 10-mile radius of our practice.

2. “Dry Eye,” where I have targets set for computer-based careers and interests in beauty and wellness within a 10-mile radius of our practice. 

Once my target audience is set (both who they are and where they live), I then set a goal for my campaign. In the Ads Center, there are a variety of pre-populated goals to choose from. Our practice’s preference is the “traffic” goal to schedule an appointment. Sure, you can pay for people to “see” your post or comment on your post, but wouldn’t you much rather pay for a more focused goal that will lead to your practice increasing its revenue?

In health care, the average “cost per click” for a Facebook ad is $1.32.⁸ Because a click is scheduling an appointment on our website, it is easy to calculate return on investment. See posting example here:

Frequent posting/engagement with followers
For social media to be an effective marketing tool, your account needs to be a participating member of the community you seek to gain. This means consistently engaging, commenting, and sharing content on your account.

It is recommended you post one to two times per day on Facebook⁹, three to five times a week on Instagram,¹⁰ two to three-times per day on X (formerly Twitter),¹¹ and one-to-four times a day on TikTok.¹²

While these numbers are recommendations, for most practices posting this frequently would be impossible unless you have a staff member hired specifically for social media management. I recommend setting realistic goals to manage your time and prevent feeling overwhelmed.

At the practice where I work, my goal is to post on Instagram and Facebook two-to-three times per week. Instead of having a presence on all platforms, we have chosen just these two, so we can focus our efforts effectively.

Overwhelmed by post creation? Consider leveraging the power of artificial intelligence to help with content generation. Specifically, you can ask ChatGPT (openai.com/chatgpt/) what the most popular eye-related Internet searches are for the week and start making video posts around those topics. 

Reviewing the results
For any doctor who isn’t sure their social media is adding value to their practice, that’s where the ad analytics pages related to each social media channel will answer your concerns.

Dive right in
As illustrated, the best practices for social media marketing require getting in front of the camera, using your credit card because effective social media is not free, and consistent post creation and community engagement on your social media platform. If social media was feeling like the polar plunge I mentioned at the top of the article, well now you have a nice warm blanket of advice to launch your new social media success! OM

References:

1. Hootesuite. Average engagement rates for 12 industries [September 2024]. https://blog.hootsuite.com/average-engagement-rate/ (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024).

2. Sproutsocial. 24 Facebook statistics marketers should know in 2024. https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-stats-for-marketers/#video. (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024)

3. Meta. Get Discovered with Reels. https://business.instagram.com/instagram-reels. (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024)

4. THM Agency. 18 Video Statistics on X You Need to See (Updated for 2024). https://tomislavhorvat.com/video-statistics-on-x/#:~:text=Key%20Takeaways,year%20growth%20in%20video%20consumption. (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024)

5. Highperformr. Twitter Video Length Limit: What You Need to Know. https://www.highperformr.ai/blog/twitter-video-length-limit#:~:text=To%20make%20sure%20your%20videos,other%20formats%20for%20maximum%20compatibility (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024.)

6. Wired. TikTok Wants Longer Videos—Whether You Like It or Not. https://www.wired.com/story/tiktok-wants-longer-videos-like-not/ (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024).

7. Hootesuite. Average engagement rates for 12 industries [September 2024]. https://blog.hootsuite.com/average-engagement-rate/#Average_engagement_rates_September_2024 (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024)

8. 9 Clouds. https://bit.ly/3BZLWSK. (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024)

9. Hootesuite. How often should a business post on social media? [2024 data] https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-often-to-post-on-social-media/#How_often_to_post_on_Facebook (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024).

10. Hootesuite. How often should a business post on social media? [2024 data]
https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-often-to-post-on-social-media/#How_often_to_post_on_Instagram (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024)

11. Hootesuite. How often should a business post on social media? [2024 data]. https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-often-to-post-on-social-media/#How_often_to_post_on_X_Twitter (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024)

12. Hootesuite. How often should a business post on social media? [2024 data]. https://blog.hootsuite.com/how-often-to-post-on-social-media/#How_often_to_post_on_TikTok  (Accessed Sept. 26, 2024).

Jennifer Lyerly, OD, practices at TrueVision Eye Care, in Raleigh, NC, where she has a particular interest in custom and specialty contact lenses and oversees the practice’s social media efforts.