How to grow Optometry Facebook likes?
Leigh PlowmanLeigh Plowman loves helping Independent Optometrists do more online! As a practicing Optometrist, Leigh shares weekly tips and ideas from his experience with www.goggleman.com.au Learn how to grow your Practice Website and Social Media presence. Reach patients who need you!Facebook Page
Optometry Social Media Marketing
An Optometrist recently told me that their “practice is struggling to grow Facebook Likes”
So, let’s ask the question: How do you grow Facebook Likes?
After all, so many of your patients are on Facebook. Globally, Facebook has over 1.6 billion users at the moment.
Let’s take a step back for a moment
How many Facebook Friends do you have personally?
In the early days of Facebook, having 200–300 Friends seemed like a lot. You may have heard of some people with over 3000 Facebook Friends. Amazing!
Perhaps these people genuinely knew a lot of people. Maybe they were in the cool group at school. (I wasn’t.)
But…
Which would you rather in real life? A ton of acquintances or a few good, close friends?
You may have heard that you can buy social media followers for a few dollars. Suddenly, you’re in the cool group.
However, none of these people will ever visit your practice. They likely won’t Like, Comment or Share your posts. Even if they live in the same state, they probably won’t drive to your practice. They just boost your likes or follower count.
It may look good to have more followers. But if you write a post, and no-one interacts with it…
Facebook will recognise this and scale down your reach. That is, the number of people who actually see your posts. In other words, if you have 10,000 followers and only one Like on your post, Facebook will infer that users don’t like your posts. And then scale back the number of people who see it.
So the bigger question is:
Who do you REALLY want to follow you on Facebook?
You need:
- Patients who already love you and your practice AND
- Who buy eyewear from you AND
- People in your community who are like these people
If you are a practice that specialises in Behavioural Optometry or OrthoK, then your ideal Facebook Followers may also support you with regular consultations. (Well done on specializing your practice, by the way!)
What Facebook Wants
Facebook wants to show the best content possible to it’s users. The more good stuff that you find on there, the longer time that you’ll spend on Facebook. And the more advertising revenue that Facebook makes.
You may have heard other optometrists say that Facebook isn’t working as well for them lately. Namely, that Facebook isn’t showing posts to as many of their followers (i.e. their organic reach is down). On average, five percent of your followers see your posts.
Want to do better than average?
At a recent conference, Facebook said that they want:
- Relevant and Timely Posts
- Posts that look like their friend’s posts
Just like Optometry Practice, the best way to use social media is to give patients more of what they want!
Remember that your posts are extremely valuable. Your followers are taking time out of their day to pay attention to what you post. Make sure that what you post is deliberate!
(One social media presenter at Social Media Marketing World, Holly Horner, said that you should treat each post “like it could go viral”)
In your mixture of posts, use a balance like this:
- Practice Promotional Posts (e.g. Book an Appointment, Try our new frames, Phone our office)
- Posts that bring Engagement (e.g. things that your patients will like, comment or share. How do you know what to post? I’ll talk about this more soon.)
- Valuable posts from elsewhere (e.g. your Optometry Association/Board, other Optometry Facebook Pages)
What do your patients love to see?
Find out what you’ve been posting about that has resonated most with your patients.
The best way to find this information is in Facebook Insights:
Ideally, use a Desktop, but you can see it on a mobile too. Go to your Facebook Page, tap on Insights, and scroll down to your post summaries. Here you can arrange your posts by Engagement. You can see what post got the most Engagement (Likes, Comments or Shares). Take note of what you posted. Then, post more like it!
Facebook Live
One of the fastest ways for patients to get to know you quickly is through Facebook Live. Since it’s interactive, new patients can rapidly start to know, like and trust you! (If you haven’t already, check out my video about Facebook Live!)
Quick tips:
- Use square photos: This takes up more space in the News Feed, allowing fewer distractions. Better yet, share your Instagram Posts on Facebook automatically!
- If you want more patients to share your content, post things that make your patients look good, smart, clever, funny or wise.
- See what people in your Country, State or City like! Check out this post about Facebook Audience Insights.
Summary
Don’t struggle to build Facebook Likes. Share great content! Your followers will get to know you more, and you’ll attract more followers too! Be the Eyecare Advocate in your area, and grow your appointments. Especially the right people that support your practice!