When you search for a new Staff Member for your Practice, what sort of person do you look for?
Since your community is diverse, you choose someone who compliments your team. Someone who is motivated and can relate well to others. Someone who is engaged in their community.
According to the Sensis 2015 Social Media Report, the average Australian Adult has 297 Friends, Contacts or Followers. Your Practice Staff may have more connections than this.
Everyday, your staff act as powerful Practice Ambassadors. Here are four ways to motivate them online:
1) Motivate with Purpose, Not Profits
We all desire to be part of something bigger than ourselves. What drives your employees to succeed?
Perhaps it is the desire to help patients to complete their new look. Others might love helping children who need glasses for the first time. Maybe they might want to help others succeed through good vision for learning.
Help your Staff to identify their purpose. Align this with your Practice Goals. Then give your Staff the opportunities to reach out to your community through social media. Give them the freedom to be creative. Let them see that their ideas can impact your Practice. They will repay your trust not only through social media, but in the practice.
2) Post Content that makes your Staff Valued
Recently, a colleague of mine, Tanya, held an optical stall at her children’s school ‘market’. She spoke to several families at the event about the Practice and caught her enthusiasm. They said that they would make an appointment.
For your Practice, post a picture or video like Tanya’s Optical Stall or another staff initiative. This is great for your Practice. It also makes your Staff appear clever to their friends on social media. Similar to the time when your Mum told you to tell Dad about something great that you’d accomplished.
3) Train your Practice Staff in Social Media
Your Practice Staff need to understand the process for creating ideas, drafts and then posting online.
Put a folder on Dropbox or Google Drive for Staff to post ideas to. Or better yet, create a Shared Notebook in Evernote, and allow them to post ideas, photos or links there. The advantage of using Evernote is that everything is searchable. Evernote Premium can even recognise your handwriting on paper or whiteboards, which can help save time.
Ideas can then be pooled together, and Practice Staff can give feedback. The best ideas should go online.
Don’t forget to educate your Staff on being careful with testimonials. Abide by the guidelines on the AHPRA website.
4) Help them know what content to re-share personally
The most shareable topics online are ideas or causes. These are ideas that your community can really get behind. They also spread well to other media such as local newspapers, radio or community bulletins.
Think about asking Practice Staff to promote a post by you about good vision for kid’s learning. Or why most eye injuries happen at home, and how to prevent them. Educate your community and build their trust. Help to make them your partners in eye health and good vision.
Posting about products is okay. People in your community may be looking at what to items to spend their tax return.
But you need to make it the exception rather than the rule. Otherwise your community might switch off. After all, they are good at ignoring the multitude of other sales messages that they receive everyday.
Don’t make it mandatory for your Staff to re-share posts. This gives them autonomy and allows them to choose to be involved. This ends up making them more proactive about ideas that matter to them
Conclusion:
Have a think about your Practice’s Facebook Page. See how your Staff are currently interacting with it. Help them to get behind your mission for your Practice. Watch your Staff engage more with people in their reach.
Question:
What are the best things that motivate your employees to promote your practice?
