Instagram is one of the busiest social networks today, and through this network, it is possible to attract several customers to your business. Concerning consultations carried out by health professionals, it is no different. It is possible to achieve a full schedule by converting your followers into scheduled patients, and we will explain how this is possible.
As one of the social networks that deliver the most reach among users, Instagram has stood out when it comes to doing good marketing. However, it is very important to be aware of several details that can interfere with your digital marketing, therefore, to complement the tips that we will give you here, we also recommend reading our article: "Mistakes You Should Avoid in Medical Marketing".
Before we continue, we need to know: Do you already use medical software to perform your calls? We invite you to get to know Ninsaúde Apolo, online software that can be used on a tablet, smartphone, or in the traditional way, on computers. Learn more on our website apolo.app.
To attract followers who are interested in your work, first, your Instagram profile must be prepared to receive so many new people to come. This preparation involves not only some adjustments that you will have to make in your social network, but also the preparation of a specialized team that will receive these possible new patients.
As far as the Instagram profile is concerned, it is very important to always be working on different techniques so that new followers come to you, as they will become potential customers. For this, it is important to use a practical and safe tool that can bring you these followers, and as we mentioned in our article "Tips for attracting patients". Sponsored publications are excellent in this regard.
Sponsored posts are posts that you can invest value in so that they are boosted, and that way, they start to appear on the timeline of people who don't follow you, but that fit a certain profile of your choice. In this sense, a good tip is to promote a post about some service offered in your clinic or office, for example.
Another very important tip is to avoid using apps other than Instagram itself to get new followers. Although there are applications that use mechanisms to facilitate the gain of followers, their use is not recommended for several reasons, and we will mention a few.
Firstly, in most cases, you must log in to such an application, being then necessary to enter your Instagram password. Many of these apps ask users to accept terms of use, but the fact is that people hardly end up reading such terms. For this reason, in addition to running the risk of being hacked and losing your account, your data may be exposed and/or used in a wrong and perverse way by the people behind the application.
Another negative point in using these applications is that to gain followers, you need to follow other people. Following other profiles through your medical profile is not wrong, but for professional profiles, it is always recommended that the number of followers is greater than the number of people you are following, as this brings you more credibility. Also, the type of profile you follow can say a lot about you, and not always these profiles followed by applications will be beneficial to your image, since it is not you who chooses who will follow, but the application itself.
Still, about the followers coming from this type of app, another negative point is that these profiles are following you out of obligation, therefore they will not interact with your publications nor be interested in your services. Most do not even live on the same continent as you, or in other cases, are fake profiles created by robots whose purpose is just to make volume.
Now that you know the correct way to gain a lot of followers in a short time, it's time to prepare a good team to receive these followers in your clinic, because by following a few steps, these followers will become your customers/patients.
Before starting the next tip, let's do a little reflection: what's the point of gaining hundreds of followers and leaving them all "hanging"? This expression is often used when we leave someone unanswered or when they are ignored in the face of some reaction. This delay or vacuum is something that can never happen in a professional's social networks, especially when the people looking for you are potential customers, that is, future patients.
When a follower is interested in your Instagram profile, they will certainly need more information about your service before making an appointment. Some information should be visible in your profile description, where you can also put the online appointment link and even the clinic or office phone number or WhatsApp.
It is necessary to keep in mind that with an active social network, various other information may be requested through a private message, and in this case, it is important to always have someone ready to answer questions and answer followers. To speed things up, you can leave a scheduled message so that no one goes too long without an answer. This message could be a welcome message or answer to frequently asked questions, for example.
It's important to know that automated messages won't be able to do all the work for you, so don't forget our previous tip: having someone answering people in real-time is always important because in addition to valuing human communication, it brings the patient closer to you and the people in the office, and with that, the service becomes more humanized even before it materializes in the consultation.
In this same sense, it is important that Whatsapp and telephone are also being monitored at all times so that no one is left unattended. For this reason, it is important to hire people to carry out specific activities within your clinic, so don't mistake your secretary for a marketing assistant.
Many health professionals may think that responding to people on a social network is not a task that requires one more hiring, and so they may think they are saving. The truth is that today many people are hired just for this purpose, precisely because it is not such an easy task. It is good to remember that a good profile on Instagram needs to be always up to date, which means that whether it's posted in stories or videos or photos in feed, your profile needs to be moved to be remembered, and this should be done with quality publications.
Thanks to the people who work with social media management, it is possible to devote much more attention to your future customers, and your medical schedule can always be full. This is because this is the best way to keep all the followers you have gained and convert them into a query. And when we talk about social media management, it doesn't mean you should spend a fortune and hire an agency. You can, and should, do this, but only when you think it's necessary, but for starters, you can give an opportunity to someone who wants to grow in this area as much as you do.
So, did you like our tips? Keep following the blog for more articles like this one, and if you still don't use management software to make your appointments, come and meet Ninsaúde Apolo.