11 Powerful Social Media Tips For Veterinary Practices
Updated: Mar 20, 2023
Photo by Remains via Canva
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Bonus Tip 💡: Schedule Your Veterinary Practise Posts
Social media has become an essential part of the modern veterinary practice for every veterinarian today. It gives you the ability to connect with new clients, build a loyal following, and increase credibility.
However, implementing social media can often be overwhelming for veterinarians who are wearing multiple hats. Here are 11 powerful tips you can use to improve your social media marketing and reach more of your desired audience as a modern vet.
Why Is Social Media Important For Veterinary Practices?
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The veterinary community is growing rapidly on social media — and it’s easy to see why. In the United States alone, 69 million households reportedly own at least one dog, according to Statista. Cats and freshwater fish rank second and third, respectively. Bottom line: People love their pets.
To reach these pet owners as a vet and increase awareness for your veterinary practice, you’ll need to make social media marketing a part of your strategy. It’s one of the best ways to connect with clients, build a community around your brand, and drive traffic to your website.
To reach pet owners you’ll need to make social media marketing a part of your strategy
To make the most of social media, veterinarians need to use a combination of inspirational, educational and engaging social media content. Original content that’s relevant to your practice and your audience will help you reach more of your local audience and get people (and their pets) through the doors of your veterinary practice.
In general, the veterinary practices that do the best on social media are those that create original content that is relevant to their practice and its audience. Real photos of your clients, their animals, your staff, and your practice will help you create buzz around your practice.
With consistent posting at least three times a week on platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Google Business, and TikTok, you can build your following and make the most of social media marketing as a veterinarian.
Social Media Marketing Tips for Your Veterinary Practice
As you determine the best mix of content for your social media pages, the following tips will help you generate social media content ideas. Focus on creating value for your audience with authentic, original content, and you’ll be able to build a following and create a buzz in your local community.
1. Craft Engaging Content
As a vet, you have a lot of responsibilities on your plate, and social media marketing is one of them. The fact is that creative posts are important to engage your followers. But sometimes it's not easy to come up with ideas. This is where the Hookle app comes in.
Hookle's AI generates high-quality posts for your veterinary practice with a click. The app also publishes posts to all your social channels in one go.
Hookle's AI generates high-quality posts for your veterinary practice with a click
That's a massive time saver as you don't need to come up with ideas yourself and switch between all the different social platforms constantly. Try the Hookle app yourself.
2. Share Cautionary Content
Photo by veterinarysecrets on Instagram
Pet owners always want to know the best ways to keep their fur babies safe. Educational posts that warn about toxins and other dangers to pets allow you to be a source of help to your audience.
Educational posts allow you to be a source of help to your audience
They’ll think of you anytime they have a question about potential toxins and rely on you as a voice of caution for your pets.
3. Provide Helpful Resources
Photo by drlisalippman on Instagram
Many pet owners are looking for resources to help them pay vet bills, adopt or foster a pet, or learn more about their animal companions. Be a source of support and help by letting your audience know about any helpful resources available to them.
For instance, if you know of ways to help clients pay their vet bills or find local training, you can provide them with that information.
4. Show a Day in the Life
Photo by doctor.xander on Instagram
As a vet, your days probably look different from one to the next. Show your followers what you’re up to by snapping a real-life photo of yourself in or outside of your practice.
Even better is if you have a furry friend of your own to show off in photos — so you can give a glimpse into life as a vet who can relate to the ups and downs of being a pet parent.
5. Celebrate Holidays
Photo by vet.lo.robinson on Instagram
Every holiday is an opportunity to post funny, inspirational, educational, and other types of social media content on your pages. Whether it’s a national “pet” holiday like National Spoil Your Dog Day or a calendar holiday like Valentine’s Day, you can post a variety of engaging content.
It could even be an opportunity to warn your audience against common holiday dangers like keeping chocolates away from dogs or helping your pet cope with fireworks around the 4th of July.
6. Showcase Your Patients
Photo by dr.dannysack on Instagram
You see adorable pets all day long in your veterinary practice. With their owners’ permission, you can snap photos and videos of them and post them on your social media pages.
Whether you want to simply post a cute photo of a puppy or educate your audience about pet health issues, your patients provide an ongoing source of inspiration.
7. Post Videos
Photo by thefriendlyvet on Instagram
Video content is huge, especially on platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Create short videos that answer a question or let you offer a few words of advice, and post them with relevant hashtags and captions.
Look for trends you can capitalize on like “5 Things I Would Never Do With My Dog.” It’s sure to spark engagement and conversations around the topic!
8. Post Content for Future Vets
Photo by thetinyegyvet on Instagram
Veterinarians looking to break into the field will appreciate any tips and advice you have for getting started with a veterinary practice. Whether it’s recruitment tips for a new grad or advice on opening your doors for the first time, you can be a source of help and inspiration for vets of the future.
9. Get Real
Photo by steph.vetmed on Instagram
The gritty, authentic version of you will always win on social media. Post a selfie with a caption that tells who you are, how you got where you are, the struggles you’ve encountered, and how you’ve overcome challenges.
Some vets will partner with a brand and tag them in their posts to help increase exposure and reach!
10. Post Exotic Pet Photos and Videos
Photo by exotic.pet.vet on Instagram
Everyone loves a puppy or a kitten, but how about those exotic pets? There are plenty of people who would love to see the turtles, birds, chinchillas, rabbits, snakes, ferrets, and other animals that don’t always get the spotlight!
Tell your followers a few fun facts, share an engaging video, and let people know you treat a variety of animals.
11. Show Off Your Team
Photo by drbelindathevet on Instagram
Your team makes your veterinary practice tick, so don’t forget to shout them out in your social media content! Whether it’s a team photo or individual spotlights of your team members, these posts go a long way toward building morale and showing your audience what an awesome team you have.
Schedule Your Veterinary Practise Posts
Photo by Hookle
With these tips in mind, you should be able to grow your following on social media and increase engagement with clients and referral sources while building a solid reputation as an expert in your field.
To make the job even easier, try incorporating social media scheduling software like Hookle. Our AI-powered platform makes it easy for veterinary practice owners and entrepreneurs to manage their social media content on all major social media platforms and generate content in one mobile app.
To learn more, download the Hookle app and get started with planning, publishing, scheduling, and auto-generating posts from one sleek dashboard.