Using Facebook to Build Your Pediatric Private Practice

Three-quarters of all parents in your community are on Facebook. That means that the majority of families in your area can receive messages about your practice through this social medium. If you do it right, being active in this zone can really help you increase popularity and enthusiasm for what you do. And that will bring more families who need your services to your door. 

Creating a Facebook Page for Your Business

This is where you start—a Facebook Page for your practice. Good news: It’s free! 

If you already have a Facebook Profile, it’s easy to start your Page. Look for the + symbol in the upper right corner, right next to your profile image. Click on it, get a drop-down menu and look for Page. 

Start adding information for your practice and images of you and your staff and you’ve got a start on your new Page. 

Once it’s up, put up notices in your practice that announce your new Facebook Page. Place a Facebook icon on your website which links to your Page. Add the name of the Facebook Page to your business cards. Email your patients and their families to invite them to visit the Page and share their experiences. 

Invite people to “Like” the Page by clicking on the three horizontal dots on the right side of the page above your News Feed. A drop-down menu will offer you several choices, including Invite Friends. Start looking for friends, family and anyone else you know and build up your audience!

Not Everyone Loves Facebook, We Know!

We know some people have never been on Facebook and some have abandoned it for various reasons. We know some people have grown to hate this social medium and it’s understandable.

The point is that a Facebook page can help you increase the number of people who not only know about your practice, but who get to enjoy the successes and joy that happen every day inside your walls. The value of being able to share the success of your patients far outweighs the negative impression some people have about this media. 

How to Utilize This Medium 

Here are some tips to get you started:

1. Good news. Share good news all the time! Ask parents for permission to share images of their kids having a great time learning and developing new skills. Images of big smiles are always a winner! 
2. Promotions. Any promotions or contests you’re running in your practice, definitely share that news here! Increase enthusiasm for the contest by letting people know how many have entered the contest, post images of the prizes, and announce winners here.
3. Developmental tips. Share ideas with your parents on how they can help their kids improve their skills at home. 
4. Fill empty time slots. If you have time slots that are hard to fill, post advice for parents of the ages that would typically schedule for those slots. For example, fill 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM slots by sharing developmental tips for parents of children aged five and under. If they like these tips, they’ll come to your page again and again and can then reach out to you for services. 
5. Kids say the funniest things! Share stories about what kids say. They have the funniest takes on life sometimes. And we all love to laugh.
6. Recruitment. This is where you can announce that you have openings for therapists in your practice. Make sure your front desk people tell your marketing people (or whoever is handling social media) where the openings are. Instagram is also really good for this, watch for future articles on using Instagram for recruitment and marketing. 
7. Broadcast news about your PR events. Did your staff all show up at a volunteer event? Were you part of a health fair? Did you run a charity 5K? Make your good works known!
8. Join relevant Facebook groups. Join any groups related to health or development for children. Join the conversations there, answer questions. You can easily become an authority in many of these groups because of your knowledge. Don’t directly pitch your practice, though. 
9. Encourage reviews. When people visit your Page, they can leave reviews. Encourage this. If there’s an occasional bad review, just talk to more parents you know who are enthusiastic and ask them to share their own experiences. But never ignore a bad review or worse, start bickering online with the reviewer. Instead, express your concern about the situation and invite the person to contact your practice directly to remedy it. 
10. Touch their hearts. Always be ready with a camera or smartphone to capture the fun or touching (dare I say tear-jerking?) moments that happen. And then ask the parents involved for permission to share their child’s image on your Facebook page.

The Reason Why

You not only build awareness of your practice, you build spirit. Through Facebook, you can communicate the spirit of the fabulous therapists you have on your staff and the great patients and parents and all the gains and improvements the kids are making. 

Just this no-sales-pitch sharing of the spirit of your practice will relay what happens at your practice far better than any brochure will ever do. It will give hope to parents who perhaps, at the moment, have no hope. It will lighten life for everyone and give your staff and the parents a chance to cheer you on. 

For a real-life look of how this works, join our Peds-a-Palooza Community and Conferences Facebook group. Chime in or simply check out the news and successes of your peers.

To learn more about Peds-A-Palooza, visit our website.