February 27, 2024 • 27 mins
Join us as Cheyanne discusses the often murky waters of when and how much to post, a dilemma many veterinary professionals face due to conflicting information. In this episode, we aim to provide both general guidelines and actionable steps tailored to your hospital's unique needs.
Discover the importance of aligning your social media goals with your hospital's objectives, a crucial yet often overlooked aspect. Whether you're aiming to increase brand awareness or foster client engagement, understanding your goals is paramount to crafting an effective posting schedule.
Learn valuable insights into optimizing posting times on platforms like Facebook and Instagram, leveraging audience analytics to maximize engagement. Gain practical tips on scheduling posts and establishing efficient reposting systems to alleviate the burden of social media management.
Join Cheyanne for this conversation to unlock the full potential of your veterinary hospital's social media presence. Whether you're seasoned with social media or just starting, this episode offers actionable strategies to propel your hospital toward social media success. Don't miss out—tune in now!
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Links mentioned in this episode:
- Show notes from this episode: https://www.heycheyanne.com/post/frequency-posting-social-media-for-veterinary-hospitals
- Later Social Media Post Scheduler: https://later.com/r/cheyanne-ce97fa
- Plann Social Media Post Scheduler: https://www.plannthat.com/register/?fp_ref=cus_k5yllanxpfqf0z
- Enroll for Cheyanne's Course, Veterinary Social Media Foundations here: https://heycheyanne.ck.page/c7af92a244
- Want Cheyanne to coach you? Schedule a call here: https://hello.dubsado.com:443/public/appointment-scheduler/65d6a42ae28529003a197cea/schedule
Links shared may contain affiliate links. Cheyanne may receive a commission at no extra cost to you through these links. Cheyanne only recommends products shes uses and loves!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Veterinary SocialMedia Podcast, where you learn
how to navigate social media andapply it to the world of
veterinary medicine.
I'm your host, Cheyenne Flerks,and let's get down to business.
Cheyanne (00:11):
Welcome to today's episode I may get a wound nerdy
because we are diving into anaspect of strategy for social
media.
And that is w when to post andhow much to post.
This is a question that I know alot of veterinary professionals
struggle with because there's alot of conflicting information
(00:31):
out there, to be honest.
And when it comes to aveterinary hospital, there are
some conflicting informationwith that as well.
So today what I want to do isgive you some general
guidelines, but also show youhow you can get.
Those general guidelines to bemore specific to your hospital.
And also really talk about someother ways that you can get down
(00:57):
to the nitty gritty with comingup with a good posting schedule.
Now, there are a lot of thingsto consider when we are talking
about a posting strategy, suchas we are today, when it comes
to figuring out how much we needto be posting.
And when.
But really what I want you tofocus on here today and
(01:20):
something that I feel like a lotof hospitals miss is what are
your goals for your socialmedia?
And really what is yourhospital's goals for social
media?
Because when we know that, and Italk about this quite a bit.
We can open up a huge amount ofinformation that will help us to
guide our steps and reallyfigure out how we need to
(01:42):
proceed.
If you want to hear me talkabout this more.
I talk about this in a, anotherepisode on the podcast and let
me pull up that number for you.
It's going to be episode.
Number.
Number five, where I talk aboutwhy your hospital should be
(02:03):
using social media.
So definitely give that alisten.
But I bring that up for a reasonbecause when we look at general
guidelines, whether it's theones that I provide, which we'll
talk about here in a fewminutes, or it's ones that you
see online, It can be a littleconfusing when you aren't sure
why you're doing social media orwhat your goals are, but when
(02:25):
you are sure of what your goalsare, you can take those
guidelines and really comparethem to what you want to be
doing.
But with those generalguidelines, they don't Take
account to where your hospital'slocated, what services you offer
and who your ideal clients are.
Because when we are looking ata.
(02:45):
The veterinary hospital in ametropolitan area or a city.
Compared to a veterinaryhospital in a rural area.
We instantly recognized thatthere's a huge difference in how
people come in and out of thatveterinary hospital and really
how the relationship with thoseclients vary.
Now with that.
(03:06):
There are definitely somesimilarities and how we can
market to people with on those.
General guidelines, but overall,we need to dive in deeper, use
those general guidelines as astarting point.
And from there really tweaked tohow we're noticing the changes
and observations from.
For our hospitals.
(03:27):
And go on from there.
So what's that some generalguidelines could be posting to a
social media three to four timesa week.
That is something that Igenerally recommend to people to
start off with.
But if you are a new practice,you have the.
Obstacle to overcome, to gettingpeople to know and be aware of
(03:47):
your hospital.
And so you'll need to want topost a lot more and maybe put
some advertising behindeverything that.
Put advertising behind yourpresence online because people
just need to know about who youare and where you're located.
But if you are an establishedpractice in a small town, What
(04:07):
you may need to focus on isposting things that will mean
something to your existingclients.
And get them to come back intoyour practice time after time,
or get them to refer yourpractice to their friends and
family.
So there goes a little bit of adifferent strategy right there.
If you're posting just three tofour times a week, that's a
great maintenance schedule.
(04:28):
But if you're needing to getmore traffic to come into your
practice, you'll need to want topost more so that more, you get
more opportunities for people tosee your content.
But without me getting too nerdyand.
On a tangent here or more.
So getting down into the nittygritties of strategy there.
(04:49):
Well, I want to talk about isyou and your practice and
helping you to determine yourideal frequency for your
hospital, because I can giveexamples all day long, but I
want to be sure that you'rewalking away from this episode.
With some good tangible adviceso that you can take it for your
hospital and get 1% better everyday.
So with that, I have somequestions for you to help you to
(05:14):
determine this for yourpractice.
So what I want you to do ismaybe not right now, if you're
driving or if you're listeningto this at the practice, but
these questions will be in theshow notes.
So don't worry about writingthem down right now, but I'm
going to list of some questions.
I want you to take a few momentsto either write down yourself,
reflect on how your hospital orwould respond, take these to
(05:37):
your practice manager, go overthem with them or with.
With your team, take thesequestions to the team and see.
What this would look like.
But the first question I wantyou to reflect on is how often
would you like to be posting?
Now this can be, can vary ifyou're just the social media
manager, this could be morelike.
How often would my practicemanager, my ownership, my
(05:58):
management, whoever.
Would like me to be posting ifyou're the manager or the
practice owner, once you to besure that you're clarifying this
for yourself so that you caneither know for yourself or
delegate this to a team member.
Now, the next question is howoften can you realistically post
while keeping a consistentposting schedule without burning
(06:20):
out?
I know this is a temptation fora lot of practices because
either there's that advice outthere to be posting as often as
you can, as many times a day.
I remember this one social mediamanager sharing with me that
they.
Wanted her to be posting likesix times a day for on Facebook
and whether Y.
(06:41):
While that could work for apractice.
Honestly, I don't think that'ssustainable if they're doing
that every day of the week.
Multiple times a day.
It can be a lot, especially ifyou're still working on the
floor.
So.
being sure that you can keep upwith that flow of content.
And publishing that while alsocreating that in a way that
(07:04):
reflects your hospital well iswhere I'm talking about
realistically, because if youare wanting to do video clips
where every, you know, every dayof the week, or trying to keep
up with the theme every Tuesdaythat is quickly going to drain
on your creativity reservoirs Sobe honest with your time with
your energy, with yourbandwidth, whether that's for
(07:24):
you as the social media manageror the leader, the management of
the team saying, Hey, this iswhat I want to do.
Is this realistic?
It's like saying, okay, I'mgoing to be taking on, you know,
8 surgeries this morning, but Ionly have.
A four hour block and I have onethat's a very intensive surgery.
It may not work, but if you'reonly doing spays and neuters and
(07:47):
you have very good systems inplace, and that's all you're
doing, you may be able to getthose, you know, aid Spain
neuters for an example, done inthat four hour block.
I mean, I've seen hospitals dosomething similar before, but
without those good systems thatwould be close to impossible.
I would think.
So.
(08:07):
Really just being honest withhow much time you have to create
all this.
Then from there, once you to askyourself, what is the overall
goal for your social mediaaccounts?
And can you realistically reachthat goal?
Now?
One common goal.
I know a lot of practices have.
Is, they want to reach as manyfollowers as they can.
(08:29):
And I often get feedback on themwanting To hit 10 K followers.
Now.
You've heard me talk about thison the podcast, or you've heard
me talk about this before, butif that is your goal, I really
want you to pause and evaluatewhat that means for you.
Are you wanting the followersbecause you are wanting to get
(08:49):
as many people in to yourpractice as possible in the
hopes of the more followers youhave, the more clients you get,
or are you trying just to getrecognized in your area having a
lot of followers, or is thatjust a goal that you've seen
someone else achieve and thatyou thought that would be really
cool to achieve for yourself?
With that though.
I want you to be careful aboutachieving that because that will
(09:12):
quickly discourage you or Causeyou to burn out because for a
veterinary hospital, lots of biglofty goal, unless you have a
doctor who has a.
A social media following ifthey're an influencer, but makes
a little bit easier.
But for event in our hospital, Idon't always rec I actually, I
don't recommend that because.
(09:34):
Now.
If you're in a big city areathat may change.
But generally when you're ahospital, you want to be
attracting the people who are inyour local community.
Now.
If you're attracting people fromsay I'm in Washington state.
Okay.
And I want to, you know, attractas many followers as I can, but
I'm starting to attractfollowers from New York or from
(09:56):
Florida.
Those people aren't going to dobusiness with me.
So I though those followers aregreat for metrics, but they're
not going to help me in the endof the day with my business or
with my practice.
So.
Just reevaluate your, youroverall goal for social media.
So that you can align youractions with your goal and that
(10:18):
you can be more successful inachieving those.
So, With that.
This is a big question for a lotof people I'm coming to realize,
but this next question is whatdo you need to make this happen?
So, what do you need to do tomake your, your overall social
media goal happen?
What do you need to make yourideal posting frequency
(10:40):
possible?
That is something I really dowant you to take time to think
about because when you know whatyou need to make it happen.
Then you're more likely to beable to schedule out those tasks
that you need.
And if you're the social mediamanager, Doing this on the side.
Amongst your full-time positionor your main position at the
(11:01):
hospital.
It's going to be a lot.
More fruitful for you to be ableto say, okay, I need to make a,
I need to post, you know, fivetimes a week.
This month, that's about a four.
You have four weeks in a month.
That's about 20 posts a month.
Then you can say, okay, I onlyhave time to make 10 posts.
In the next two weeks, you caneasily say, K, I need to carve
(11:23):
out time here, here, and here sothat you know that you're not
having to spend all of it in onechunk.
And burning out, trying to keepup with that, or, you know, the
posting that posts in one dayand rushing, and I'm risking to
make a mistake on those posts.
So.
With that though, this lastquestion really depends on your
(11:47):
bandwidth within your team.
But here is, do you need supportin making this happen?
Now.
I will say that everyone needshelp.
Especially if you're the socialmedia manager, who's doing this
with another M P position inplace.
See what you need.
And that's why I ask you toreally reflect on what do you
(12:09):
need to make this happen?
Because then you can say, oh, Ineed patient photos.
But I don't have the time rightnow to go get photos or I don't
have any photos on hand.
How can I get more photos?
This would be where you could goto your team.
And say, Hey, I need somephotos.
Can you help me out?
Now, if you struggle withgetting photos from your team
and gain them involved withsocial media, please check out
(12:32):
episode number.
Let me see here.
Yes.
So I want you to go check outnumber episode number four for
that, because I dive in deep andgive you some tangible.
Tips on how you can get yourteam more involved and what that
looks like, because it looksdifferently for every person and
every team.
(12:53):
But definitely give that a gobecause once you can unlock that
help from your team orunderstand at least how you can
get them involved with socialmedia, it's going to free you up
as a social media manager orgive you more peace of mind at
the management that.
Your social media is.
Be more of a collaborativeeffort with the team versus just
one person managing it, or youas the manager posting things
(13:18):
when you can.
So in getting clear on thosequestions will not only help you
to see how often you need to beposting.
But really establishing thosesteps.
To see what you need to beposting and be successful in
meeting that frequency schedulefor posting.
(13:39):
Now if you or your team.
Ha struggle with answering thesequestions or you're left feeling
like you have more questionsthan answers.
I just want you to know thatyou're not the only one.
There are a lot of hospitalsthat struggle with this.
And this is something that Ihave also have worked to
(13:59):
overcome and been able to helpother hospitals and other
companies and consultants workthrough this as well.
And so I just want you to knowthat if you want to really
improve this for your hospitaland make social media and
effective tool that doesn'tdrain your team's resources.
I would love to be able to helpyou.
I am offering.
(14:19):
Coaching for private coachingfor hospitals now.
And so if you'd love to talkwith me about that and see if
this would be a great fit foryou, definitely reach out via
email.
And I would love to talk withyou and see if this would be
something.
Your team could benefit from,but let's talk about general
guidelines now, because I knowthat there are there's someone
(14:42):
listening that just needs a goodstarting point.
And so what I want you to do istake these general guidelines
that I offer, or I recommend usethese as a starting point and
then track the results thatyou're getting.
And then match those along thequestions or the answers you got
from the questions I sharedEarlier.
(15:03):
And really compare that to theprogress that you're making with
these guidelines.
You don't give it about one tothree months before we make any
drastic changes.
And then go from there.
So with the social mediaplatforms, what I really
recommend for hospitals to startoff with, or really good, get
good at as with Facebook andInstagram.
(15:26):
Now if you're really brave andwant to give Tik TOK a try,
definitely do that.
But I generally recommend thathospitals stick to Facebook and
Instagram for now.
Facebook.
Really depends on the age ofyour clients and the
demographics you want to tapinto.
Because Facebook is definitelyfor the older generations.
(15:48):
And Instagram is great forreally millennials and down.
So this really as far as likewhat platforms to use, I won't
get too deep into this rightnow.
But those are the two platformsI generally recommend that you
get really good at.
And if you're looking at addinga third one, but you're
struggling to post regularly toFacebook and Instagram and get
(16:08):
engagement I recommend that youjust take a moment to review
your current strategy, yourcurrent habits with Facebook.
And Instagram and see what youcould tweak to make those better
before adding on anotherplatform.
And I only say that because Idon't want you to add too much
to your low trying to keep upwith every other platform and
every other business that you'renot.
(16:29):
You that you're stretchingyourself too thin.
So this is your permission slipto say Facebook and Instagram
are your, your two platformsthat you can, you can stay with.
So with Facebook, I want you tobe aiming to post at least three
to four times a week.
And that's once a day threetimes a week.
And three to four times a week.
(16:49):
Now, if you can't get intostories for Facebook, Try to do
three to four times a day duringbusiness hours.
And when I am saying whenposting.
You know, like three to fourtimes a week or three to four
times a day during businesshours.
I want you to get into the habitof posting.
Within this guidelines when youare open.
(17:11):
Because then you are starting totrain people who are following
you.
Very actively that you areactive on social media.
Join your business hours.
Same on the weekends.
If you have someone who'smessaging, you don't feel like
you have to message them back.
You may want to glance at it.
If you have that bandwidth tosee if there's an emergency, but
(17:31):
you can set up a boundaries inplace to have an automatic
message an automatic reply.
Pop up the safe, you have anemergency call, blood editor.
So.
You know, there's anotherpermission slip.
You don't have to be active onthe weekends, especially if your
practice is not open on theweekends.
Now, when it comes to figuringout when you need to post or
(17:52):
what time of day you need to beposting and what days of the
week.
This is where it could become alittle bit of a trial and error
situation.
And when you're figuring thisout, I definitely give yourself
a little bit of grace and bepatient with yourself because
when I give you this time, this,I don't want you to take the
says, I must pose at this timeevery time.
(18:14):
Because I don't, I'm not in thebackend of your analytics and
it's going to again, lookdifferently for your practice
than what it will for anotherpractice or for even my own
business page.
So.
With that said, I reallyencourage you to play around
with posting.
Earlier in the day.
So when I say earlier, try aboutsix to eight, depending upon
(18:35):
your client's lifestyle.
If you work with a lot ofretired pet owners, then, you
know, you might want to adjustthat from like eight to 10.
Now, if you're working with alot of busy moms, you know, the
earlier times might be better oryou might even want to try later
in the evenings around dinnertime.
So really just take a moment tothink, okay, who is going to be
(19:00):
looking at these posts?
Are they going to be.
Busy.
During the Workday or are theygoing to be more calm and, you
know, relaxing?
Whatever that would be.
But generally I like torecommend that you post earlier
in the day so that your post hasall day to get attention.
As far as like what days of theweek?
(19:22):
Again, like I said, I would tryto keep it during business hours
so that you're training peopleto look for your posts then
instead of on the weekends.
But if you really want to figurethis out, especially for
Facebook, because Facebook canbe really awkward.
With trying to figure out thebest times.
You can look inside Mettabusiness suite.
(19:44):
Now back in my day.
It was when I was first startingout, it was a lot easier to find
the times.
I'm not gonna lie.
Because you would just go in tothe backend of your Facebook
page and it would just say Besttimes to post, literally, I
would say best times post.
And that is since gone.
When you do log into Mehtabusiness suite.
Now at the time of thisrecording.
(20:04):
You can look at times that theyrecommend that as another thing
that you can look at and kind oftrack and say, okay, Metta is
recommending that I post I two,four and six, you know, that
might not really be a great timeto be posting, honestly, but I
mean, You can give it a whirland see.
But you can also take a look atyour audience activity.
(20:26):
And I show you how to do this inmy course.
And veterinary, social mediafoundations, But that is really
my best tips.
Kind of really getting downdeeper on what works for you.
Like I said, figuring out how,when to post on Facebook can be
kind of a fickle thing.
So.
Be prepared for an experiment.
All right, let's talk aboutInstagram.
(20:48):
Instagram.
I recommend also trying to do,keep up with doing three to four
times a week and keeping up withthree to four stories, three to
four stories a day duringbusiness hours.
I feel like it's pretty easy.
If you can just start off withsaying, Hey, I'm going to post.
Three to four times a week onFacebook and Instagram, it makes
it simple for your brain.
(21:08):
Keeps it easy for you to keep upwith that habit.
Especially if we're going to besticking with this for at least
three months.
So when it comes to figure itout, when you should be posting
on Instagram I honestly, this iswhy I like Instagram just to a
bit better.
You can use men of business weekto check this out.
(21:29):
But I really like using theInstagram app itself to check
this.
Cause you can just go into yourbackend, look at the analytics
and it will actually give you avery good graph of when.
People are most active and youwant to be posting when people
are most active, just as ageneral rule for social media.
And here's a ninja tip.
(21:51):
I actually like to post about10, 15 minutes before the most
active wave of traffic, just sothat I can.
Capture any.
Traffic right before that.
But with that said, I generallylike to post again earlier, the
better on Instagram, so thatthat post has all, has all day
to.
(22:11):
Really get traction.
But this is why I like to lookwithin the app specifically,
because it will give me thosespecific details.
On when they're the most active,because looking at my own
personal account, I was quitesurprised to see that people
were really active aroundlunchtime, which makes sense,
looking back because of myaudience, but.
For your hospital, that might bethe same thing.
(22:33):
And that's definitely not earlyin the day.
So that is my recommendation isas far as Instagram goes post
earlier, but also look in depthinto your posting into your
Instagram app on the back endsof it.
Because.
Metta doesn't give us greatinformation, which kind of
disheartens me.
(22:54):
But with that, if you want toget more on a.
More specific, get more specificdata as far as like when your
posts could go out for better.
Results and really maximize yourscheduling efforts, because if
you didn't know, you canactually schedule your posts.
I do recommend seeing if you canget a paid version of a
(23:17):
scheduler, because that is goingto really help you to figure out
when you need to post and theywill be able to give you a
little bit more guidance on howmuch you need to post.
Not so much with the, how muchcause they want you to be
posting as much as possible.
But really helping you laser inon when you need to post.
I personally like plan that's PL a N N or later.
(23:41):
I really great options foralternative post schedulers that
I really have enjoyed using.
So definitely give those a try.
I will add the links to those inthe show notes as well.
So that is my general guidelinesfor Instagram and Facebook.
Now, if you are using theseguidelines as a starting point
for you, I know it may betempting to want to go way more
(24:05):
than that or way less, but Ireally encourage you just to
trust the process.
Trust my advice.
And really give thoseguidelines, a try and see how
they work after three months.
Now, if you have any questionsabout this, definitely feel free
to reach out to me in email orin my Facebook group.
If you're not a part of myFacebook group, definitely join
(24:27):
us.
It's called veterinary socialmedia managers on Facebook.
I will have the link for you inthe show notes as well.
But with that, it's going to bea super, super critical whether
you are the only person managingsocial media right now, or the
main person.
Or you have a team who isworking on social media
together.
It's going to be reallyimportant for you to get a good
(24:49):
system for reposting in placebecause that system is going to
be your key to success.
Just like we have.
Protocols for surgery fortreatments.
The way that we get clientsbooked, we have processes in
place in the hospital to keep usefficient and to have good
communication.
It goes the same for socialmedia.
If you don't have a good systemin place, You may be feeling
(25:12):
like you're spending a lot ofenergy on trying to get post
out, or you are trying to playcatch-up all the time and you
think social media is notworking because of X, Y, and Z.
I can pretty much guarantee frompersonal experience.
It's because you don't have agood system in place.
So if that sounds like you, Ihave a course called veterinary
(25:36):
social media foundations.
That may just be the thing thatyou need, because in that
course, I teach you.
How to plan out your posts in astrategic way, how to create
posts and really help you todevelop a strong system.
So that social media isn'trunning you, but really having
you run the social media.
(25:57):
I want you to be the boss oversocial media so that you're not
chronically stressed over ontrying to post that day or
figure out what you need to beposting.
And.
Trying to get engagement andyada, yada, yada, like I don't
need to add more to your plate.
So.
If you want to join the link forthat will be in the description.
(26:20):
Or the show notes of thisepisode.
And I would love just to be ableto partner with you and help you
on that and help you just to bethe social media rockstar you're
meant to be so.
That is it for this episode?
I would really appreciate it.
If you find value in the show.
That you would review this.
Give me your feedback so that Ican make this even better.
(26:41):
And consider following orsubscribing to this and maybe
even sharing it with a friend orcolleague, because I'm going to
get this to.
As many veterinary professionalsin the marketing role has as
possible.
So I would appreciate yoursupport there, but if you have
any questions, definitely reachout, join the group.
I would love to connect withyou.
Until then I will catch you.
(27:01):
later.
Bye.
Welcome to the Veterinary SocialMedia Podcast, where you learn
how to navigate social media andapply it to the world of
veterinary medicine.
I'm your host, Cheyenne Flerks,and let's get down to business.
Cheyanne (00:11):
Welcome to today's episode I may get a wound nerdy
because we are diving into anaspect of strategy for social
media.
And that is w when to post andhow much to post.
This is a question that I know alot of veterinary professionals
struggle with because there's alot of conflicting information
(00:31):
out there, to be honest.
And when it comes to aveterinary hospital, there are
some conflicting informationwith that as well.
So today what I want to do isgive you some general
guidelines, but also show youhow you can get.
Those general guidelines to bemore specific to your hospital.
And also really talk about someother ways that you can get down
(00:57):
to the nitty gritty with comingup with a good posting schedule.
Now, there are a lot of thingsto consider when we are talking
about a posting strategy, suchas we are today, when it comes
to figuring out how much we needto be posting.
And when.
But really what I want you tofocus on here today and
(01:20):
something that I feel like a lotof hospitals miss is what are
your goals for your socialmedia?
And really what is yourhospital's goals for social
media?
Because when we know that, and Italk about this quite a bit.
We can open up a huge amount ofinformation that will help us to
guide our steps and reallyfigure out how we need to
(01:42):
proceed.
If you want to hear me talkabout this more.
I talk about this in a, anotherepisode on the podcast and let
me pull up that number for you.
It's going to be episode.
Number.
Number five, where I talk aboutwhy your hospital should be
(02:03):
using social media.
So definitely give that alisten.
But I bring that up for a reasonbecause when we look at general
guidelines, whether it's theones that I provide, which we'll
talk about here in a fewminutes, or it's ones that you
see online, It can be a littleconfusing when you aren't sure
why you're doing social media orwhat your goals are, but when
(02:25):
you are sure of what your goalsare, you can take those
guidelines and really comparethem to what you want to be
doing.
But with those generalguidelines, they don't Take
account to where your hospital'slocated, what services you offer
and who your ideal clients are.
Because when we are looking ata.
(02:45):
The veterinary hospital in ametropolitan area or a city.
Compared to a veterinaryhospital in a rural area.
We instantly recognized thatthere's a huge difference in how
people come in and out of thatveterinary hospital and really
how the relationship with thoseclients vary.
Now with that.
(03:06):
There are definitely somesimilarities and how we can
market to people with on those.
General guidelines, but overall,we need to dive in deeper, use
those general guidelines as astarting point.
And from there really tweaked tohow we're noticing the changes
and observations from.
For our hospitals.
(03:27):
And go on from there.
So what's that some generalguidelines could be posting to a
social media three to four timesa week.
That is something that Igenerally recommend to people to
start off with.
But if you are a new practice,you have the.
Obstacle to overcome, to gettingpeople to know and be aware of
(03:47):
your hospital.
And so you'll need to want topost a lot more and maybe put
some advertising behindeverything that.
Put advertising behind yourpresence online because people
just need to know about who youare and where you're located.
But if you are an establishedpractice in a small town, What
(04:07):
you may need to focus on isposting things that will mean
something to your existingclients.
And get them to come back intoyour practice time after time,
or get them to refer yourpractice to their friends and
family.
So there goes a little bit of adifferent strategy right there.
If you're posting just three tofour times a week, that's a
great maintenance schedule.
(04:28):
But if you're needing to getmore traffic to come into your
practice, you'll need to want topost more so that more, you get
more opportunities for people tosee your content.
But without me getting too nerdyand.
On a tangent here or more.
So getting down into the nittygritties of strategy there.
(04:49):
Well, I want to talk about isyou and your practice and
helping you to determine yourideal frequency for your
hospital, because I can giveexamples all day long, but I
want to be sure that you'rewalking away from this episode.
With some good tangible adviceso that you can take it for your
hospital and get 1% better everyday.
So with that, I have somequestions for you to help you to
(05:14):
determine this for yourpractice.
So what I want you to do ismaybe not right now, if you're
driving or if you're listeningto this at the practice, but
these questions will be in theshow notes.
So don't worry about writingthem down right now, but I'm
going to list of some questions.
I want you to take a few momentsto either write down yourself,
reflect on how your hospital orwould respond, take these to
(05:37):
your practice manager, go overthem with them or with.
With your team, take thesequestions to the team and see.
What this would look like.
But the first question I wantyou to reflect on is how often
would you like to be posting?
Now this can be, can vary ifyou're just the social media
manager, this could be morelike.
How often would my practicemanager, my ownership, my
(05:58):
management, whoever.
Would like me to be posting ifyou're the manager or the
practice owner, once you to besure that you're clarifying this
for yourself so that you caneither know for yourself or
delegate this to a team member.
Now, the next question is howoften can you realistically post
while keeping a consistentposting schedule without burning
(06:20):
out?
I know this is a temptation fora lot of practices because
either there's that advice outthere to be posting as often as
you can, as many times a day.
I remember this one social mediamanager sharing with me that
they.
Wanted her to be posting likesix times a day for on Facebook
and whether Y.
(06:41):
While that could work for apractice.
Honestly, I don't think that'ssustainable if they're doing
that every day of the week.
Multiple times a day.
It can be a lot, especially ifyou're still working on the
floor.
So.
being sure that you can keep upwith that flow of content.
And publishing that while alsocreating that in a way that
(07:04):
reflects your hospital well iswhere I'm talking about
realistically, because if youare wanting to do video clips
where every, you know, every dayof the week, or trying to keep
up with the theme every Tuesdaythat is quickly going to drain
on your creativity reservoirs Sobe honest with your time with
your energy, with yourbandwidth, whether that's for
(07:24):
you as the social media manageror the leader, the management of
the team saying, Hey, this iswhat I want to do.
Is this realistic?
It's like saying, okay, I'mgoing to be taking on, you know,
8 surgeries this morning, but Ionly have.
A four hour block and I have onethat's a very intensive surgery.
It may not work, but if you'reonly doing spays and neuters and
(07:47):
you have very good systems inplace, and that's all you're
doing, you may be able to getthose, you know, aid Spain
neuters for an example, done inthat four hour block.
I mean, I've seen hospitals dosomething similar before, but
without those good systems thatwould be close to impossible.
I would think.
So.
(08:07):
Really just being honest withhow much time you have to create
all this.
Then from there, once you to askyourself, what is the overall
goal for your social mediaaccounts?
And can you realistically reachthat goal?
Now?
One common goal.
I know a lot of practices have.
Is, they want to reach as manyfollowers as they can.
(08:29):
And I often get feedback on themwanting To hit 10 K followers.
Now.
You've heard me talk about thison the podcast, or you've heard
me talk about this before, butif that is your goal, I really
want you to pause and evaluatewhat that means for you.
Are you wanting the followersbecause you are wanting to get
(08:49):
as many people in to yourpractice as possible in the
hopes of the more followers youhave, the more clients you get,
or are you trying just to getrecognized in your area having a
lot of followers, or is thatjust a goal that you've seen
someone else achieve and thatyou thought that would be really
cool to achieve for yourself?
With that though.
I want you to be careful aboutachieving that because that will
(09:12):
quickly discourage you or Causeyou to burn out because for a
veterinary hospital, lots of biglofty goal, unless you have a
doctor who has a.
A social media following ifthey're an influencer, but makes
a little bit easier.
But for event in our hospital, Idon't always rec I actually, I
don't recommend that because.
(09:34):
Now.
If you're in a big city areathat may change.
But generally when you're ahospital, you want to be
attracting the people who are inyour local community.
Now.
If you're attracting people fromsay I'm in Washington state.
Okay.
And I want to, you know, attractas many followers as I can, but
I'm starting to attractfollowers from New York or from
(09:56):
Florida.
Those people aren't going to dobusiness with me.
So I though those followers aregreat for metrics, but they're
not going to help me in the endof the day with my business or
with my practice.
So.
Just reevaluate your, youroverall goal for social media.
So that you can align youractions with your goal and that
(10:18):
you can be more successful inachieving those.
So, With that.
This is a big question for a lotof people I'm coming to realize,
but this next question is whatdo you need to make this happen?
So, what do you need to do tomake your, your overall social
media goal happen?
What do you need to make yourideal posting frequency
(10:40):
possible?
That is something I really dowant you to take time to think
about because when you know whatyou need to make it happen.
Then you're more likely to beable to schedule out those tasks
that you need.
And if you're the social mediamanager, Doing this on the side.
Amongst your full-time positionor your main position at the
(11:01):
hospital.
It's going to be a lot.
More fruitful for you to be ableto say, okay, I need to make a,
I need to post, you know, fivetimes a week.
This month, that's about a four.
You have four weeks in a month.
That's about 20 posts a month.
Then you can say, okay, I onlyhave time to make 10 posts.
In the next two weeks, you caneasily say, K, I need to carve
(11:23):
out time here, here, and here sothat you know that you're not
having to spend all of it in onechunk.
And burning out, trying to keepup with that, or, you know, the
posting that posts in one dayand rushing, and I'm risking to
make a mistake on those posts.
So.
With that though, this lastquestion really depends on your
(11:47):
bandwidth within your team.
But here is, do you need supportin making this happen?
Now.
I will say that everyone needshelp.
Especially if you're the socialmedia manager, who's doing this
with another M P position inplace.
See what you need.
And that's why I ask you toreally reflect on what do you
(12:09):
need to make this happen?
Because then you can say, oh, Ineed patient photos.
But I don't have the time rightnow to go get photos or I don't
have any photos on hand.
How can I get more photos?
This would be where you could goto your team.
And say, Hey, I need somephotos.
Can you help me out?
Now, if you struggle withgetting photos from your team
and gain them involved withsocial media, please check out
(12:32):
episode number.
Let me see here.
Yes.
So I want you to go check outnumber episode number four for
that, because I dive in deep andgive you some tangible.
Tips on how you can get yourteam more involved and what that
looks like, because it looksdifferently for every person and
every team.
(12:53):
But definitely give that a gobecause once you can unlock that
help from your team orunderstand at least how you can
get them involved with socialmedia, it's going to free you up
as a social media manager orgive you more peace of mind at
the management that.
Your social media is.
Be more of a collaborativeeffort with the team versus just
one person managing it, or youas the manager posting things
(13:18):
when you can.
So in getting clear on thosequestions will not only help you
to see how often you need to beposting.
But really establishing thosesteps.
To see what you need to beposting and be successful in
meeting that frequency schedulefor posting.
(13:39):
Now if you or your team.
Ha struggle with answering thesequestions or you're left feeling
like you have more questionsthan answers.
I just want you to know thatyou're not the only one.
There are a lot of hospitalsthat struggle with this.
And this is something that Ihave also have worked to
(13:59):
overcome and been able to helpother hospitals and other
companies and consultants workthrough this as well.
And so I just want you to knowthat if you want to really
improve this for your hospitaland make social media and
effective tool that doesn'tdrain your team's resources.
I would love to be able to helpyou.
I am offering.
(14:19):
Coaching for private coachingfor hospitals now.
And so if you'd love to talkwith me about that and see if
this would be a great fit foryou, definitely reach out via
email.
And I would love to talk withyou and see if this would be
something.
Your team could benefit from,but let's talk about general
guidelines now, because I knowthat there are there's someone
(14:42):
listening that just needs a goodstarting point.
And so what I want you to do istake these general guidelines
that I offer, or I recommend usethese as a starting point and
then track the results thatyou're getting.
And then match those along thequestions or the answers you got
from the questions I sharedEarlier.
(15:03):
And really compare that to theprogress that you're making with
these guidelines.
You don't give it about one tothree months before we make any
drastic changes.
And then go from there.
So with the social mediaplatforms, what I really
recommend for hospitals to startoff with, or really good, get
good at as with Facebook andInstagram.
(15:26):
Now if you're really brave andwant to give Tik TOK a try,
definitely do that.
But I generally recommend thathospitals stick to Facebook and
Instagram for now.
Facebook.
Really depends on the age ofyour clients and the
demographics you want to tapinto.
Because Facebook is definitelyfor the older generations.
(15:48):
And Instagram is great forreally millennials and down.
So this really as far as likewhat platforms to use, I won't
get too deep into this rightnow.
But those are the two platformsI generally recommend that you
get really good at.
And if you're looking at addinga third one, but you're
struggling to post regularly toFacebook and Instagram and get
(16:08):
engagement I recommend that youjust take a moment to review
your current strategy, yourcurrent habits with Facebook.
And Instagram and see what youcould tweak to make those better
before adding on anotherplatform.
And I only say that because Idon't want you to add too much
to your low trying to keep upwith every other platform and
every other business that you'renot.
(16:29):
You that you're stretchingyourself too thin.
So this is your permission slipto say Facebook and Instagram
are your, your two platformsthat you can, you can stay with.
So with Facebook, I want you tobe aiming to post at least three
to four times a week.
And that's once a day threetimes a week.
And three to four times a week.
(16:49):
Now, if you can't get intostories for Facebook, Try to do
three to four times a day duringbusiness hours.
And when I am saying whenposting.
You know, like three to fourtimes a week or three to four
times a day during businesshours.
I want you to get into the habitof posting.
Within this guidelines when youare open.
(17:11):
Because then you are starting totrain people who are following
you.
Very actively that you areactive on social media.
Join your business hours.
Same on the weekends.
If you have someone who'smessaging, you don't feel like
you have to message them back.
You may want to glance at it.
If you have that bandwidth tosee if there's an emergency, but
(17:31):
you can set up a boundaries inplace to have an automatic
message an automatic reply.
Pop up the safe, you have anemergency call, blood editor.
So.
You know, there's anotherpermission slip.
You don't have to be active onthe weekends, especially if your
practice is not open on theweekends.
Now, when it comes to figuringout when you need to post or
(17:52):
what time of day you need to beposting and what days of the
week.
This is where it could become alittle bit of a trial and error
situation.
And when you're figuring thisout, I definitely give yourself
a little bit of grace and bepatient with yourself because
when I give you this time, this,I don't want you to take the
says, I must pose at this timeevery time.
(18:14):
Because I don't, I'm not in thebackend of your analytics and
it's going to again, lookdifferently for your practice
than what it will for anotherpractice or for even my own
business page.
So.
With that said, I reallyencourage you to play around
with posting.
Earlier in the day.
So when I say earlier, try aboutsix to eight, depending upon
(18:35):
your client's lifestyle.
If you work with a lot ofretired pet owners, then, you
know, you might want to adjustthat from like eight to 10.
Now, if you're working with alot of busy moms, you know, the
earlier times might be better oryou might even want to try later
in the evenings around dinnertime.
So really just take a moment tothink, okay, who is going to be
(19:00):
looking at these posts?
Are they going to be.
Busy.
During the Workday or are theygoing to be more calm and, you
know, relaxing?
Whatever that would be.
But generally I like torecommend that you post earlier
in the day so that your post hasall day to get attention.
As far as like what days of theweek?
(19:22):
Again, like I said, I would tryto keep it during business hours
so that you're training peopleto look for your posts then
instead of on the weekends.
But if you really want to figurethis out, especially for
Facebook, because Facebook canbe really awkward.
With trying to figure out thebest times.
You can look inside Mettabusiness suite.
(19:44):
Now back in my day.
It was when I was first startingout, it was a lot easier to find
the times.
I'm not gonna lie.
Because you would just go in tothe backend of your Facebook
page and it would just say Besttimes to post, literally, I
would say best times post.
And that is since gone.
When you do log into Mehtabusiness suite.
Now at the time of thisrecording.
(20:04):
You can look at times that theyrecommend that as another thing
that you can look at and kind oftrack and say, okay, Metta is
recommending that I post I two,four and six, you know, that
might not really be a great timeto be posting, honestly, but I
mean, You can give it a whirland see.
But you can also take a look atyour audience activity.
(20:26):
And I show you how to do this inmy course.
And veterinary, social mediafoundations, But that is really
my best tips.
Kind of really getting downdeeper on what works for you.
Like I said, figuring out how,when to post on Facebook can be
kind of a fickle thing.
So.
Be prepared for an experiment.
All right, let's talk aboutInstagram.
(20:48):
Instagram.
I recommend also trying to do,keep up with doing three to four
times a week and keeping up withthree to four stories, three to
four stories a day duringbusiness hours.
I feel like it's pretty easy.
If you can just start off withsaying, Hey, I'm going to post.
Three to four times a week onFacebook and Instagram, it makes
it simple for your brain.
(21:08):
Keeps it easy for you to keep upwith that habit.
Especially if we're going to besticking with this for at least
three months.
So when it comes to figure itout, when you should be posting
on Instagram I honestly, this iswhy I like Instagram just to a
bit better.
You can use men of business weekto check this out.
(21:29):
But I really like using theInstagram app itself to check
this.
Cause you can just go into yourbackend, look at the analytics
and it will actually give you avery good graph of when.
People are most active and youwant to be posting when people
are most active, just as ageneral rule for social media.
And here's a ninja tip.
(21:51):
I actually like to post about10, 15 minutes before the most
active wave of traffic, just sothat I can.
Capture any.
Traffic right before that.
But with that said, I generallylike to post again earlier, the
better on Instagram, so thatthat post has all, has all day
to.
(22:11):
Really get traction.
But this is why I like to lookwithin the app specifically,
because it will give me thosespecific details.
On when they're the most active,because looking at my own
personal account, I was quitesurprised to see that people
were really active aroundlunchtime, which makes sense,
looking back because of myaudience, but.
For your hospital, that might bethe same thing.
(22:33):
And that's definitely not earlyin the day.
So that is my recommendation isas far as Instagram goes post
earlier, but also look in depthinto your posting into your
Instagram app on the back endsof it.
Because.
Metta doesn't give us greatinformation, which kind of
disheartens me.
(22:54):
But with that, if you want toget more on a.
More specific, get more specificdata as far as like when your
posts could go out for better.
Results and really maximize yourscheduling efforts, because if
you didn't know, you canactually schedule your posts.
I do recommend seeing if you canget a paid version of a
(23:17):
scheduler, because that is goingto really help you to figure out
when you need to post and theywill be able to give you a
little bit more guidance on howmuch you need to post.
Not so much with the, how muchcause they want you to be
posting as much as possible.
But really helping you laser inon when you need to post.
I personally like plan that's PL a N N or later.
(23:41):
I really great options foralternative post schedulers that
I really have enjoyed using.
So definitely give those a try.
I will add the links to those inthe show notes as well.
So that is my general guidelinesfor Instagram and Facebook.
Now, if you are using theseguidelines as a starting point
for you, I know it may betempting to want to go way more
(24:05):
than that or way less, but Ireally encourage you just to
trust the process.
Trust my advice.
And really give thoseguidelines, a try and see how
they work after three months.
Now, if you have any questionsabout this, definitely feel free
to reach out to me in email orin my Facebook group.
If you're not a part of myFacebook group, definitely join
(24:27):
us.
It's called veterinary socialmedia managers on Facebook.
I will have the link for you inthe show notes as well.
But with that, it's going to bea super, super critical whether
you are the only person managingsocial media right now, or the
main person.
Or you have a team who isworking on social media
together.
It's going to be reallyimportant for you to get a good
(24:49):
system for reposting in placebecause that system is going to
be your key to success.
Just like we have.
Protocols for surgery fortreatments.
The way that we get clientsbooked, we have processes in
place in the hospital to keep usefficient and to have good
communication.
It goes the same for socialmedia.
If you don't have a good systemin place, You may be feeling
(25:12):
like you're spending a lot ofenergy on trying to get post
out, or you are trying to playcatch-up all the time and you
think social media is notworking because of X, Y, and Z.
I can pretty much guarantee frompersonal experience.
It's because you don't have agood system in place.
So if that sounds like you, Ihave a course called veterinary
(25:36):
social media foundations.
That may just be the thing thatyou need, because in that
course, I teach you.
How to plan out your posts in astrategic way, how to create
posts and really help you todevelop a strong system.
So that social media isn'trunning you, but really having
you run the social media.
(25:57):
I want you to be the boss oversocial media so that you're not
chronically stressed over ontrying to post that day or
figure out what you need to beposting.
And.
Trying to get engagement andyada, yada, yada, like I don't
need to add more to your plate.
So.
If you want to join the link forthat will be in the description.
(26:20):
Or the show notes of thisepisode.
And I would love just to be ableto partner with you and help you
on that and help you just to bethe social media rockstar you're
meant to be so.
That is it for this episode?
I would really appreciate it.
If you find value in the show.
That you would review this.
Give me your feedback so that Ican make this even better.
(26:41):
And consider following orsubscribing to this and maybe
even sharing it with a friend orcolleague, because I'm going to
get this to.
As many veterinary professionalsin the marketing role has as
possible.
So I would appreciate yoursupport there, but if you have
any questions, definitely reachout, join the group.
I would love to connect withyou.
Until then I will catch you.
(27:01):
later.
Bye.
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