Should My Practice Be On Social Media?
I’ve been here before. Faxes, mobile phones, email, search engines and now … social media. It’s the phenomenon where you see a new technology, a handful of users adopt it and slowly more and more people jump on board it until, bang, suddenly everyone is using it. And it becomes abnormal NOT to have it.
I’ve been an early adopter of all the trends in new media since the internet came into my life and I’ve seen social go from niche concept, to a bit of fun to something that is as ubiquitous as the phone book used to be.
Facebook, the primary social media platform, is entwined with our lives.
My 19 year old, who considers the site itself achingly uncool, has an account because as a university student it’s used not as a place for sharing pictures of parties but because most of the groups, clubs and networks that make university life function now operate through the platform.
At the other end of the spectrum my 79 year old Aunt is one of the most prolific users I know on the platform, using it to keep connected with her sprawling family and to stay up to date on the the campaigning she still vehemently believes in. The truth is that it’s incredibly difficult NOT to be on Facebook.
The dizzying stats
As of March this year 57.1 million UK citizens use Facebook. This is up 12 million people since 2020, the point at which most in my industry thought it had maxed out.
30.7 million of us use Instagram, Facebooks cooler, more visual sister platform. Youtube has 50 million UK users although many more use it unconsciously by simply watching videos that are embedded in millions of websites. Linkedin, once considered the ‘boring version’ of Facebook, has 33 million British members. And yes the younger demographic are embracing it more than anyone. If you’re serious about a career or business then you have LinkedIn.
I could go crazy with the stats to show the enormous impact that social media has on our lives but perhaps the most important one is that each Brit spends an hour and 40 minutes on social media every day.
Should my clinic marketing include social media?
The questions of whether to engage with social media comes up every time we talk to a new client and we always reply the same. Your prospective clients are almost certainly on social media but perhaps more importantly, your competitors definitely are.
Many medical professionals have an idea of a social media presence as the preserve of the self-promoting extrovert. Or they worry that their own private social media presence is linked to their business and their holiday shots will be mixed up with their clinic work. Neither of this is true unless you want it to be. You have total control of what people see and the message you want to get out there.
Get in touch
If you want to explore the options available to you then drop us a line using the contact form below. One of our experts will contact you to give you advice and details the packages we offer to get your practice in front of the right people.
