Podiatry Clinic Facebook and Instagram Best Practices

You're listening to podiatry marketing, conversations on building a successful podiatry practice with Tyson Franklin and Jim McDannald.

Hi. I'm Tyson Franklin, and welcome to this episode of Podiatry Marketing. With me is Jim. Jim, how are doing today?

Things are good, Tyson. Excited to talk about tonight's topic, so

Okay. Let's get straight into it. What is the subject? This is your focus.

Yeah. So tonight we're gonna talk about Facebook, you know, kind of the the evil empire. I don't know. There's a lot of Yeah. You know, wild stuff about what Facebook is and what Facebook isn't these days.

But it definitely is a platform, probably the most prominent social media platform that a lot of podiatrists have and use on a consistent basis. So we're gonna get into the basics, you know, how to use it, how not to use it, what type of content to put on there, and just kind of how to, you know, make it a place that's a little bit different than your website. Yeah. It has a little bit of a different angle, so you're not just kinda trying to replicate your website on on Facebook.

Okay. So I would say nearly every podiatrist I know that has a business, has their own business, has a Facebook page as well. Yep. I'd say they they all do it. Where do you wanna start with what they should be doing?

Yeah. So the I guess the first reason why most people do it is that, like, that's where a lot of people are, at least like around our age or maybe a little bit younger. I don't know. Most of the super young generations maybe on TikTok or, you know, on Instagram or Snapchat or something Doing exactly doing doing dances. But that's the reason why people will make a Facebook page is because, you know, instead of having obviously, along with the webs web website, people are just scrolling, looking for old high school classmates.

I don't know. Just, you know, mindlessly scrolling on Facebook a lot. And if your clinic is there, you know, it's it's there because there's people that are there on it. I think that one of the first steps that's really important though is to make sure that, you know, your overall branding and the kind of like, obviously, your address, all this kind of information is also important from an SEO perspective. You know, basically, obviously, showing up on Google happens because you have these kind of author you know, authoritative links, you know, from your website or to Google that kinda match it.

Sometimes it can match exactly. It doesn't necessarily have to, but it can be a strong signal to Google that if you have a Facebook page that, like, you know, Tyson Franklin Podiatry is, like, a legit establishment with a specific type of address. So kind of, obviously, making sure the demographic information and the, you know, the name, address, phone number is the same as your your real clinic.

Yeah.

But also just the overall branding, like the logos, the look and feel is as similar as you can make it. Because especially for your patients, if your website looks one way and your Facebook page looks completely different, it can be a bit of a startling thing or is this really the webs you know, you've seen those pages that haven't been claimed. It almost feels like a ghost page or like, is this really a thing? So that's one thing to be aware of.

Yeah. Well, especially I've seen some pages where they will they'll have the name, and it's it's very similar to the name, but for some reason, it's just a little bit different. The logo, you know, it's probably the same, but the logo on the website might be newer or older than than the Facebook logo that they used. And then there's no yeah. There's a bit of information, two posts that were done four years ago, and there's nothing else there.

It's just it's sitting there and people come to and go, and you you go off it. And I'm looking at a lot of podiatry Facebook pages purely because of what I do.

No. For certain. And I think, like you said, it's if there can be a little bit of loss of trust if you go, like, from a website that looks super professional to, like, kind of a substandard Facebook page that people are really, like, looking into this clinic. It's it's a huge marker for whether people are gonna trust you or not. So keeping it kind of, like, high quality is the first thing, like, from a branding perspective, but also from an information perspective.

I think also when you do have a Facebook page, you have to be aware that a lot of kind of like communications are like kind of you know, you're already opted into those things. So, you know, like, you'll sometimes see clinics that will get they'll get to clinics I've worked with. They'll get these direct like, if they don't pay attention to their Facebook page a little bit, they're getting direct messages or instant messages from patients or prospective patients

Yeah.

That don't realize, you know, if they're only checking the Facebook page like once a week and someone's not kind of keeping an eye on it, you know, maybe that emergency ingrown toenail person like, instead of like calling you or emailing your clinic, maybe they just like they try to send you an instant message on Facebook to tell them that like, oh, I have pus coming out of my toe or something, and you don't want that. So like, not that you have to be on your staff needs to be on Facebook all the time, but it has to be a channel that like is looked at if you do have an active page. Currently, you can't just like necessarily set it and forget it.

Yeah. Well, I actually find it really weird when I go to a business and then I go to Facebook and they're not actually on Facebook. I find it odd they're not on Facebook. And I know you said age groups that Facebook target a a a particular age group and some of the younger businesses are more on, you know, TikTok, Instagram, yeah, other platforms. But I I know I still think Facebook is really important because there's so many people that are on there.

So it just needs to be set up the right way.

No. For sure. And there's also, you know, things like reviews that can be on Facebook as well. They're obviously not as popular as Google reviews. But at the same time, you know, if you have, like, a one out of five stars on Facebook reviews, you need to do something there to kinda facilitate that.

It also becomes one of these things like, you know, what is the right type of content to put on Facebook? And I think, you know, this is for any kind of social media platform. And usually what people try to do initially and this is know, we talked a little bit about Google Ads going after the low hanging fruit, and Yeah. This is like almost the opposite thing you should be doing on Facebook, at least initially. You don't wanna make every post that you write on Facebook if you once you start to be like, come make an appointment.

Like, we do this thing, come make an appointment, where it's every like, every other post is a call to action or, it's really kinda like trying to squeeze people to, like, make appointments on Facebook. Because when they're scrolling and if they do like your clinic, right, you know, it it it is important to realize that, like, you want there to be helpful information because they're not necessarily, like they're not searching on Facebook to, like, go make an appointment. It has to be kind of it has to be kind of more palatable materials that might interest them in some way different than just like, come make an appointment now.

Yeah. But I don't go into Facebook to find out about my dentist, what special he's got on for teeth whitening right now. It's not why I'm there. I'm there to catch up family, friends, and occasionally, certain businesses that I do follow. So and I know they post on a regular basis.

So I do like seeing that information coming through, especially hamburger places.

Yeah. You're a big burger guy. I can tell some of the burgers you've posting recently have made me, you know, wanna wanna head out straight for the burger joint and grab one. So I definitely the stuff that you share is, you know, it shows personality. I think that's what we're gonna get into now is like Yeah.

So if I don't ask patients, you know, people to, like, make appointments on my Facebook post, then what what should I do? Right? And like it's and like I said, it's it's about creating content that's gonna, like, you know, be palatable and kind of in that that way as far as, you know for example, let's say you sign a partnership with a local physio clinic. Right? The nice thing about that is they're you have the ability to kinda link to their Facebook page and provide value for them and say that, you know, know, two community you know, star stalwarts of the community are getting together to provide, you know, the the care at the, like, let's say, Los Angeles marathon or something.

Or, like, you know, we're working together to work with this type of patient. People like to see that kind of stuff on Facebook, like people working together and collaborating, you know, in in the community. You know, and I think that's an important component as well as like, kinda highlighting your community and your community involvement. If you're sponsoring a soccer team or a hockey team or there's a diabetes walk that you're helping, you know, sign people up for, it's a way for you to use kind of your platform to show that you are, you know, an important member of the community that's not just trying to, like, grab you know, we we all need to see patients. Right?

But it's Facebook's the platform more to show that you are kind of that involved community member more than it is just to like squeeze out a new patient visit with every type of post you put you put on your your Facebook.

Yeah. But I think you can you can look at other pages that you may like yourself, other businesses, and you have a look at some of them that have got hundreds of thousands of people that actually like and follow them and comment and and really engage with those pages. And if you look at those particular pages and go, why do people like this page? What is it about them that they like? And then you try and try and use some of those ideas in your own business.

Because, look, I know there's certain pages that I follow that they do some things on there that had really got nothing to do with their actual business itself. So for example, I've said to some podiatrist, if you like wine, you could do a wine review and put that on your on your Facebook on your Facebook page for your business. And you'll get certain patients that will sort of go, hey. My podiatrist got these really cool wine reviews. And they will start following you for the wine reviews, not for the foot advice.

But they'll see some of the foot advice because they're eager to learn more about your wine reviews.

Now that's a good point. I think it's also an opportunity to highlight your staff in some interesting ways. It is about yeah. Like you talk about the wine reviews is an interesting idea, but just like highlighting not only like clinical aspects of your staff, but maybe someone in your staff like, you know, volunteers at the local like animal shelter or does these crazy like ultra trail marathons or something. I mean, it's just it's an opportunity to kinda create content that is like relatively engaging.

Right? I think, some of the stuff that I've seen recently that might be more engaging to other folks is APMA, for example, has been doing a lot of an athlete gets a specific type of injury, whether it be a football player, baseball player, basketball player. And they'll you know, highlight that player and say like, they have a Lisfranc injury or something. So like making something kind of like more than just like, we do bunions or, you know, like, something that, you know, people don't wanna see come in their feed, something that might, you know it doesn't have to sizz be super sizzly or super juicy, but something that's more than just like, we're open, come see us for an ingrown toenail. Yeah.

Because that that's better off, you know low hanging fruit is better off on a platform like Google Ads. You really wanna make your social content, you know, like I said, about you, your community, highlighting things that are like that people find interesting when they're scrolling. Because they're not like I said, they're not typing in a lot of kind of like keywords to go find stuff. You're showing up in their feed, you know, when they're on Facebook.

Should do you think podiatrists should actively be saying telling telling the patients, hey, we have a Facebook page and trying encouraging them to follow it, but there has to be a reason for the patient to wanna follow it.

Yeah. That's a tough one. I think I think, you know, there's a lot of there's only so much we can ask of our patients. I think it's it's it's good to have them follow it. I think the kind of like the you know, the more likes, the better.

But even now, like, there's there's definitely some shortcomings of the platform that are becoming more noticeable. It shifted kind of from a very strong organic kind of reach platform to now being a lot of kind of pay for play. And maybe in the future podcast, we'll talk more about, you know, Facebook or Instagram advertising. I think to me, it's it's really about, like, having enough stuff that I don't think it has to be something you do every day. But I think, you know, one or two posts a week to show that, like, you are on there and doing things is important.

You know, unless you just already have, like, a huge number of people that like your page, the problem becomes that like only like one or 2% of the people that like your page actually see it these days. It's getting lower and lower every year that that kind of organic reach. I think it is like you talked about. Whenever someone shows up on your Facebook, you want them to have that kind of like internal feeling that it feels legitimate. It doesn't feel like a ghost town, and it kinda highlights some of these community, you know, staff, you know, like interesting messages as opposed to to, like, squeeze you know, trying to, you know, turn blood out of a stone every time you're you're posting about do you have open slots or appointments available?

It it is getting it's a harder platform than it used to be, especially with the lack of that kind of organic reach, if if you know what I'm talking about.

Yeah. What you're thinking I know there's a lot of common mistakes that people make, which I wanna ask you about. But what you're thinking on and this is a conversation I had with someone recently. You've got your Facebook page. You may have set it up for your business.

Mhmm. But Facebook groups, setting up a group within your Facebook page. So you might have say, for example, it's ProArch Podiatry and you had the page, but then you might create a a walking group or a running group or it could be a, you know, an exercise group that you form a a group off of your actual page and your patients that are interested in that particular area, is there more engagement in that group than there will be on your page?

I think that's a really great idea, be honest. Like, you know, I think Facebook can still be a great way, like you talked about, as far as, like, fostering, like, small communities. Like, you're you're you're no stranger to this, obviously, with, you know, the podiatry or the Spartans group that you have there. I think that's a, you know, like Oh,

the podiatry podiatry business owners club.

There we go. Sorry. Podiatry business owners club, not the podiatry Spartans. Sorry. My bad.

Now, the Podiatry Business Spartans exist, but that's a private group.

Yeah. But like I said, I think that's, you know, if just when you have a kind of a a general business page, like you said, it's just like creating that consistent content that builds trust with people. And it doesn't I don't think that content has to be amazing. Yeah. But like, you like, offshoots, like, creating these kind of, like, these groups off of it, like, that have kind of a shared purpose, like you said, for a running group or a walking group or like a podiatry business owners group, where people are getting value on a consistent basis.

You know, that stuff is almost like it's almost kind of like a, you know, a cons there's consistency and like a flywheel that will happen inside those groups where, yes, you'll have to like put some of your own content occasionally, but then there's enough people contributing within that group where it kind of they build some kind of brand affinity

Yeah.

Towards maybe your practice or to your clinic because you made that option available to them. But I think there are a few takeaways from just the general business page that can be helpful. You know, I think, you know, whether whether we like it or not, anytime we put if you put a link, like, in our posts, most likely Facebook is and a lot of other social media platforms are not gonna like that, especially if it's an external link, because they want to keep people on their platform. So you probably will get more engagement on posts that do not have links, like, inside of them. If you're trying to link link back to your clinic website or make an appointment here, they'll they'll probably penalize that a little bit as far as the amount of people that will see it.

But, you know, usually and and you never just wanna like put I would say never put a text only post. Like Facebook is becoming more obviously, photo, but heavily video centric. People wanna see, like, you know, engaging moving pictures when they're scrolling. Like, that actually help them stop, you know, scrolling a bit. And also the format of the the either the video or the picture you're using should be something kind of that, you know, has colors that will, you know, kind of trigger trigger them maybe to stop.

I don't know if anyone in you know, listen to podcast has seen some of the videos that Tyson and I have put either on Facebook or on some social platforms where we have our very, you know, subtle green logo.

It's very subtle.

But but there's a reason why we use that color of green is that like, when people see that green, they probably think of us and if they think relatively highly, let's maybe they'll stop and watch, you know, five, ten a minute of our our of a clip. But, like, the type of content you put in those posts will, you know, the format of it will have a huge impact as well as far as how much people are engaging with it. Because if people continue to scroll by it, then like that's a huge signal to Facebook that like, this is not worth showing to other people because no one wants to check it out. So those are some small tips I would say to to be aware of when kind of building out content on your Facebook page.

Okay. Another question I wanted to ask you about, and we've I mentioned this, let's say, off air before I press record, was there's a lot of podiatrists that will have their their Facebook page for their business, but they're on their personal page, it's almost like they're embarrassed to be a podiatrist. They don't they don't put anything on their personal page that they actually have a podiatry business. So what what's your thinking on that? Should they do it or should they try and hide and not be seen?

Yeah. That's a tough question. I think it really depends on the individual. Think, you know, especially as we learn more about these kind of web two platforms and how they try to basically use AI and all kinds of stuff to like, you not only the preferences we we give to them that we that they'll advertise against, but also scan photos to see they probably know you like burgers just because of the number of photos of burgers you've had. They had these AI bots scan that.

So I don't know if maybe I'm a little more I wouldn't say paranoid, but I'm a little bit more aware of this being in marketing myself. But, you know, it's one of these things where these, you know, this comp you know, since it's a free platform, they're they're trying to monetize you, and you kinda share what you feel like, I share kinda what I feel comfortable with. Yeah. Exactly. Look at all those burgers.

Right? Like, he's he's the burger man. But I think there's nothing you know, I think it's it's it's one of those things where like, I think you can't I I think it's a personal choice, to be honest. Like, you know, I use my social channels, to be honestly, mostly in a professional sense. Like, I have small kids that I don't necessarily wanna have on on social media

Yeah.

So I don't show show that side of my life. You know, scrubbing into a case or you know, showing you in the clinic, you know, I think some people feel, you know, I think some people got into podiatry or into medicine, so they they wouldn't They could feel like they didn't have to market themselves. I think now now knowing what I what I know, like, you know, having seen different sides of, not only podiatry but of marketing, like like every action you take is kind of an act of marketing. So you're kinda kidding yourself if you're not thinking that, you know, what you do in the real world or online is some form of marketing that they have to like be in your own head too much. But it's I I think it's just one of those things like how, you know, how much, you know it's not a nine to five job being a a physician or or podiatrist.

Right? So it's like how much do you wanna extend that into your personality and how much does someone really like see their identity tied to the profession. Right? So I think you do a great job. I think you do a great job of showing kind of the, you know, obviously, you're currently practicing, but like, I I you know, having that kind of human connection side, it can also bring people in and it can be hugely valuable.

You know, they say that you're a bird guy or you like wine or you like to have a beer here and now. It makes you a real person. I think for a long time, doctors I don't know if it's initially podiatrist, but doctors saw themselves at this like very like high pedestal we put ourselves on. We go through all this school, all this residency. So like, you know, you should do what I say because I did all this stuff.

And then things like Doctor Google and other stuff came along and almost feels like a direct affront to all the time, effort, and money we spent to become a physician. And then Yeah. I think it's natural to maybe have a bit of pushback to some of these channels. But for those people who choose to engage, I mean, you'll you'll see it on people who have huge YouTube channels or have, you know, huge there's a I think there's like someone on TikTok Epidegist on TikTok who has like 1,400,000 followers or something, and she can monetize that in ways beyond just clinical practice.

So Oh, yeah.

It it becomes one of these things that it's like, it is a personal choice, but I think you're right. There is an avenue to grow an audience besides just kind of like having a vanilla, like, podiatry clinic website if people choose to these days. It's just kind of like it's gotta be kind of our personal choice, and you have to put time and consistent effort into it. Like, you know, even the personal stuff. Like, you don't have to be too calculated, but like, if you're it's just if you're super inconsistent on your personal or you're super inconsistent on your podiatry business page, like, it says something about you as a person or as a as a podiatrist potentially.

Yeah. In regards to the you like your personal page, yeah, I always post the stuff about the podiatry clinic, what we're doing. Even with my podcasting stuff now or business coaching, if I'm running an event, I still put that on my personal page. And if I ever had a friend that said to me, oh, Tyson, you're you're I'm not gonna friend. I might not wanna be friends anymore because you put too much work stuff on your personal page.

I go, fine. Wouldn't bother me. So I've I've never really had a problem with it, but it's but I yeah. I do understand. Yeah.

Some people want to keep it separate, but something you said that think is really important. On the weekends when you're out and about, your patients see you. They recognize you. They they're watching what you're doing, and they're watching you from afar. So if you're wearing a pair of thongs around and a dirty singer with a hole in it and your ass hanging out of your pants, smoking a cigarette, your patients are seeing you.

So to to try and think, oh, no. I I wanna keep my personal life completely separate on Facebook so they don't know what I'm doing. To me, they're they're seeing you anyway. So I think you've just I think you've always got to have your spider senses on. Spidey senses.

Yeah. No. I think there's a huge opportunity there. Like I said, like, you know, we kind of all live in public now, whether we like to or not. You know, obviously, I think, you know, when we put our you for example, you and I, like, we put our podcast, you know, you know, podiatry marketing podcast things on our personal channels.

Like, I think there are people generally interested, our friends or our colleagues or past workmates, the people we've chosen to be friends on these platforms. Some of them are super curious to see see what we're up to, whether we're gonna, like, you know, win or lose or, you know, fall on our face or, you know, stutter on a podcast. You know, it it does take a certain level of confidence and not not necessarily trust, but just kind of like to put yourself out there on some of these channels. But I think, you know, when you're providing value and you're creating kind of win win situations for other people, you know, it's not just us like, I'm not on this podcast, you know, for an hour talking about how I'm the greatest marketer in the world and how I'm gonna bring somebody like 50 patients new patients next month and neither are you. Right?

So, I mean, that wouldn't be the worst outcome. But at the same time, like, you and I are aligned because we wanna produce that value for people and getting it out there, you know, whether it's a podiatrist trying to show that they're trying to do the best for their community by sponsoring events or, you know, volunteering at a marathon. You know, there there's no shame in kind of, you know, creating awareness about what you do. I think in the old school days, there was this kind of like, we're on a pedestal, we don't have to do that. We have our degrees, you know, not necessarily bowed down before us, but like, you know you know, you have no say.

It's it's a very kind of like hierarchical relationship. But for good or for bad now, you know, people feel like they know as much as we do as podiatrists. Yeah. So we have to meet them somewhere kind of in the middle now. And by kind of making yourself, you know, making yourself human also is appealing to people.

You know, they don't necessarily wanna see you as like, yeah, you are their doctor, but at the same time, you know, you're that person that could grab a beer with or someone that can have like a human conversation with them and not talk down to them. It's something I think is, especially generations younger than us, like really values even maybe even more than our generation and the older generations.

But like you said, it's it's taking what you're doing in the community and taking parts of your life and and bringing that into Facebook and making the page more interesting. I I find the quotes, funny comics, those sorts of things we used to get more engagement from a patient from a good quote that got everyone motivated or a funny cartoon or a funny short video that you shared seem to get more engagement than anything we posted about podiatry.

Yeah. That stuff sometimes can be a hit. You just have to kinda find your own voice in it. And, yeah, that that that's definitely something to consider.

Okay. So as we wrap up, have you got a final tip or anything else you wanna say about Facebook before we finish?

No. I mean, I think, you know, like there's all this kind of controversy around Facebook tracking. I think that's one thing we didn't really touch on. It is, you know, we'll talk probably talk more, like when we talk about Facebook and social advertising. But I think, Facebook is still a powerful platform.

There's a lot of people I would say, 40 and over on it, you know, trying to find old high school classmates and, you know, looking people's puppies and memes and, you know, God knows what in some of the, you know, the kind of stuff that's really engaging in Facebook. But it is a place that you wanna like build trust, and you don't want it to be a ghost town. If you're gonna do it, like I said, at least two posts a week on stuff that's relevant, interesting, helpful to people, inspiring, like you mentioned, and and just keeping it, like, on your radar. It doesn't necessarily have to be the biggest platform beyond your website, but it's something that is still relevant and should be considered, you know, when you're trying to increase awareness and visibility in your local area.

Yeah. And if anybody is listening to this and they wanna track me down on Facebook, just look for Tyson e Franklin. I'm pretty easy to find. And and I'm a fun guy too. So if you wanna friend me on Facebook, I am open to it.

Just send me a friend request. And I think, Jim, I don't know if you're as friendly as me. If someone sent you a friend request, when you're like, nah, piss off.

I mean, I'm both American and Canadian. I'm like double friendly. Right? Oh, right. Now that now that I live in Canada.

But, yeah, if if people can figure out how to spell my last name, McDanald, m c d a n n a l d, you know, they'll be able to, you know, either find me or my brother's neuroscience lab on Facebook probably. So, yeah. Yeah. Hit me up there or, you you can reach out to Tyson and I on our website, you know, podiatry.marketing is that URL. You know, leave a voice mail.

We're definitely, got a lot of ideas for future episodes, but open to hearing from the community that's listening to make sure that we can provide, you know, a lot of relevant helpful information for, you know, private practice podiatrists who are trying to, you know, make it out there. So, no, we're we're excited to continue this podcast and happy to have everyone as listeners.

That's awesome. Okay. I'm gonna talk to you next week, Jim.

Sounds great, Tyson.

Okay. You. Thanks for

listening to Podiatry Marketing with Tyson Franklin and

Jim

McDaniel. Subscribe and learn more at Podiatry Marketing. That's the website address, podiatry.marketing.