If you haven’t harnessed the power of Facebook for your veterinary practice, you’re missing out on an opportunity to develop a relationship with clients and potential clients, be viewed as a thought leader in your geographic area, increase engagement, and boost sales.

How to Use Facebook to Publicize Your Veterinary Practice

Most of you are familiar with Facebook personally, but do you know how to use Facebook effectively for your business? Here are some best practices to set up and use Facebook to benefit your practice.

Set Up Facebook for Your Business

1. Set up a separate business page. Do not use your personal page for your practice. If you’re setting up the page, ask the veterinarian or practice manager to whose personal page it should be tied, adding that they’ll have to give you the appropriate administrative permissions and page role in order to set up and manage the page. You can set up a business account, but it’s limited.
2. Make it professional. You can do anything you want with your personal profile and cover photos, but make sure the business’s photos are of good quality, correctly sized, and appropriate. And remember that your page’s profile photo will be cropped when posting.
3. Fill in the short and long description using keywords. The About section is displayed for users and search engines, so it’s important to use descriptive keywords in it. Some sample keywords may be “small animal veterinary practice in (location)”, “holistic”, “veterinary certification”, “veterinarians in (location)”, “veterinary payment plans”—any words or phrases you believe your potential customers use to search.
4. Add a call-to-action button. Choose from one of the following options (not all will apply):
1. Book Services

• Book Now lets people book an appointment.
• Start Order lets people order food.
  1. Get in Touch

   

• Call Now lets someone call you with a single tap of the button.
• Contact Us and Sign Up take users to a form on your website for lead generation or subscriber capture.
• Send Message opens a private Facebook message between the user and your page.
• The Send Email button lets people email you directly from your page.
  1. Learn More

   

• Watch Video takes people to a video on your website or Facebook.
• Learn More shows more information about your business.
  1. Make a Purchase or Donation.

   

• Shop Now lets people see and buy products on your website or page.
  1. Download App or Game

   

• The Use App button takes people directly to your app and will increase downloads or engagement.
• The Play Game button lets people download or play your game.

1. Create a custom username for your page.

Follow These Best Practices on Your Facebook Page

• Assign page roles for page users to ensure only select people can perform specific actions on your Facebook page.
• Set your privacy and security settings to prevent certain people from commenting, require an admin to okay comments, and more.
• Post images and videos. Images receive 38% more engagement than posts without images.
• Use Facebook analytics. Analytics will tell you everything from which posts get the most engagement to the age range of people on your page to the device they use to access it to their geographic location. This is helpful in determining who you’re reaching. If you’re not reaching your target audience, you need to change.
• Monitor your page to prevent potentially embarrassing incidents. You can prevent people from posting without review, but you can’t do that for reviews, so it’s important to monitor your page. It’s a good idea to respond to all reviews, even the negative ones.
• Develop a social media policy. Develop policies for damage prevention and control. What do you do if a customer makes a spiteful comment on your Facebook review? How do you prevent a disgruntled employee from posting something negative on your page?

Sources:

https://www.facebook.com/help/1206330326045914/?helpref=hc_fnav

http://www.socialmediatoday.com/social-business/2017-facebook-image-sizes-cheat-sheet-infographic

https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-build-a-facebook-page-for-business-a-guide-for-beginners/

https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-create-facebook-business-page-ht

https://analytics.facebook.com/

http://mashable.com/2009/07/09/social-media-damage-control/#YLwXG7Oyxaqc