Today, Instagram boasts 500 million daily active users and a whopping 1 billion monthly active users.
And you know what that means?
Your patients are on Instagram. Your potential patients are on Instagram. And if you accept personal injury liens, the law firms you want to connect with are on Instagram.
Chances are your current and former patients are a few of the 500 million daily active Instagram users.
Which means you can use your Instagram account to continually engage with them and remain a presence in their eyes.
For example, if you’re a chiropractor and see one of your patient’s post themselves running in the Los Angeles Marathon, this is a prime opportunity to comment on the photo and congratulate them on their accomplishment. It’s a simple way to appeal to their humanity while also reminding them of how you’re able to assist if after the marathon they’re experiencing pain or discomfort.
Always be on the lookout for places your practice can offer a kind word, or offer expertise. This will endear you to your patients and make them feel like your practice is a persistent part of their lives – and make it so they begin to anticipating dropping by for a visit.
Of course, you’ll need your patient’s Instagram handle if you want to engage them on Instagram. A few ways to go about getting this information: ask them to follow you on the platform when they come in for a visit, have a space for their Instagram handles on your intake forms, or hold a contest to attract people to follow your account.
Once you’ve followed enough of your patients, you’ll get a good sense of the type of content they post to Instagram, and the type of content they interact with. You can search each contact’s favorite posts and use them as inspiration for what you’ll post.
As soon as you’re a consistent part of the Instagram community, you can reach out directly to your patients via DMs. This is a great way to remind them of upcoming appointments or to reach out about scheduling one in the future.
After setting up your Instagram account and getting your patients to follow you, you now have the opportunity to expand your network through word-of-mouth.
See, when you consistently post quality content on Instagram, you’ll remain at the top of the mind of your followers. And if you post relatable content, your followers will share your posts with their own friends and family – which brings more eyes to your practice.
Now, imagine one of your posts gets a lot of traction and one of your patient’s hangs out with a friend of theirs. If the friend saw the post and asked where it came from, they’ll tell them it came from your practice and give a brief explanation on how they know you.
Or, when people in your patient’s network see a post of yours they’ve shared, they may click onto your profile and see the link to your website. Then, if you’re looking for a physician with your specialty (either now or in the future) they’ll take a look at your website and book a consultation.
See, Instagram is where decision-makers interact with their favorite brands and influencers across generations. Not only are they making medical decisions for themselves, they’re also making them for their families. So, one positive interaction with your practice followed by amazing treatment could equal one-to-four more patients who come to see you regularly.
In the age of social media, you’d be hard-pressed to find any place of business where the employees aren’t scrolling through their Instagram feeds all day.
Which is to say, if part of your strategic plan to grow your practice is to connect with businesses, law firms, and other medical practices in your area, you need to maximize the number of touchpoints they have with your practice.
Much like you would use your Instagram to attract and engage with individuals, you can do the same with local businesses as they’re posting a ton of valuable content to attract their own followers.
For business interactions, you’ll want to search for places where you can help or provide your expertise – like if a law firm posts about a client recovering from an auto accident, you can offer up exercises they can do for pain relief.
This will also keep you informed about local happenings, such as charity events you can sponsor or professional mixers you can attend. This way, even if you’re not super comfortable posting on Instagram, you’re still getting value out of the platform and finding opportunities to connect in person.
Now what can a connection do for you? Again, there’s the word-of-mouth aspect as local business owners and other medical practices will refer people looking for physicians in your specialty to your practice if they know who you are and trust you. And starting a working relationship with a personal injury law firm with help your practice become their preferred choice, which means more lien cases referred directly to you.
As you can see, there’s opportunity to generate a massive return-on-investment for just a few hours of work per day. And there are tools to make posting and content creation even easier – which we will go through in a later section.