00:00:04:10 – 00:00:48:18
Jay Shorr

Welcome to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. And I’m your host. Jay Shorr, CEO and founder of Shorr Solutions. We are a team of national and award winning practice management consultant with experience running a multimillion dollar cosmetic dermatology and plastic surgery practice. We’re here to share strategies and insights that will help you grow your practice efficiently and profitably. In each episode, we’ll explore the steps and actionable insights to guide you through your journey to increase efficiency, boost revenue, and decrease costs. Tune in and discover how to improve your patient experience and take your aesthetic practice to the next level.

00:00:48:20 – 00:01:49:20
Ana Suarez
Welcome to a new episode of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. My name is Ana Suarez and I am the Director of Client Development and also partner here at Shorr Solutions. I’m so glad that everyone is here with us today, because we’re going to be speaking about a topic that is usually very highly requested. And at the same time is a little bit complicated for many, many practice owners. We’re going to be going through a lot of frequently asked questions when it comes to social media. Today, I also have the pleasure of having with me Paige Hamilton. She’s our advertising and marketing manager at Shorr Solutions. And together we’re going to have a conversation about questions that our clients have when it comes to how to deal with social media. Where should I start? You know who should be doing my social media? How can I maximize my time and even how to use AI to help me save some time and effort when it comes to this specific marketing initiative? Right. So, Paige, welcome to the podcast. How are you feeling today?

00:01:49:22 – 00:02:04:20
Paige Hamilton
I’m doing really good. I’m excited to be here. I think this is going to be a really fun topic, especially because we have just discussed these same topics with a few of our clients, so fresh on our mind, and I’m excited to see where our conversation goes.

00:02:04:22 – 00:03:33:02
Ana Suarez
Yes, yes, this is going to be fun. It is going to be fun because, many of our clients and just like practice owners in general, they’re always asking us some questions about social media. It is a huge topic. It feels very overwhelming to many of the practice owners. Many of the clients that we work with. And so we just want to provide some action steps. And you all can sign up client right away. And so you have more clarity on what to do next in how you’re going to help yourself and also your team in implementing, some steps that would just kind of like simplify the process. Alright, let’s just jump into it. And so one of the most frequently asked questions is who should be creating the content. It gets confusing for many of our clients because they go, well I am the doctor, I am the provider. So should I be in every single video? And if so, I don’t do that. I have enough time in the day to do that. Where do I even start? How do I plan for the content? So let’s take it one step at a time. Who should be part of the content, right? And that’s you know, that’s a very valid question. And basically I would say the doctor needs to be in some of these videos in some of the posts, because if you think about it, patients want to get to know who is this doctor? Who am I going to go and see who’s going to be guiding me with my healthcare needs or aesthetic needs? And so it just helps to build that trust between the patients and their doctor.

00:03:33:04 – 00:04:44:07
Paige Hamilton
Exactly. Yes. I agree with what you said. The doctor should have a role, even if you are hesitant about wanting to be on social media. Most likely the doctor is the face of the brand and that’s really important too, for social media is like keeping in line with your branding and if you are the face of the company but you’re not on social media at all, it kind of is a disconnect between the brand and your patient will want to see who you are. They want to get to know you. They don’t necessarily want to get to know the front desk staff in the same way that they want to know who their doctor is, especially if you do. You don’t need to be doing the trending dances. So if that’s a hesitation, why you don’t want to be on camera, just sit down and film a video about one of the concerns a patient has, or a new procedure or product that you’re offering, so it can be more educational videos, but you definitely should have a presence on social media. And of course everyone else can be in it as well. So who should be creating the videos kind of varies depending on who has time and what you want your brand to be.

00:04:44:09 – 00:07:05:14
Ana Suarez
Exactly. And I really like what you said, Paige, because it has to be a little bit of a mix. So we definitely want to have the doctor, the practice owner, on social media, especially since you’re doing these procedures that that’s what patients are going to practice for. They want to know all of the knowledge that you have. They want to know some of your credentials. They kind of I want to get a sense for your personality. Right. And that’s going to set you apart from the rest of the other, aesthetic practices in the area. In addition to that, patients are also curious about what is your staff like? And not that your staff, your team members have to be in every single video. However, it is nice to present who’s the medical assistant. You know who’s going to be calling me back when I make the appointments and I have some questions? Whose your nurse? Whose the physician assistant? Just because this creates, like, a whole picture of what your practice feels like and what type of care, what type of treatment they’re going to be getting when they when they go to your practice. So it’s kind of like pretty much letting them get to know you, the, the the provider, the practice owner, and also letting them to get to know the rest of the team so they can start feeling more comfortable, more at ease, and also just seeing, okay, you know, their personality is amazing. They provide wonderful, helpful information. And so I do want to go and see these specific doctor, because I feel that I can relate to him or to her in that the staff is very warm and welcoming. And so I think it will be a good fit. Remember respect patients that are doing research online and they’re seeing the reviews that have been given to you by previous patients, or they’re seeing the photos of your practice as well. They’re seeing the photos of your team. And so all of these little things help them to make a decision. So it is important to have a good variety having the doctor having the providers, the team, the staff members and kind of providing dynamic content, not just photos, but maybe like a little intro like, hey, this is Paige she’s in charge of a lot of our marketing. And so if you have any questions about how to create like a really nice campaign, please reach out to her. You know, so just kind of like a little introduction so that people get a better feel for who you are, who your team is and what you can offer to them.

00:07:05:16 – 00:07:55:17
Paige Hamilton
It’s important to I’ll add to that, make sure that the content you’re creating is genuine, because I feel like if you’re creating content that is completely opposite of your personality, you can’t fake it through the consult, through the procedure, through the follow up. So whatever you’re posting online needs to be an accurate reflection of who you are. Otherwise, patients could feel misled. And maybe they really like the personality you showing online. But you’re completely different in the office, so that’s a lot more effort to try and be like the quote unquote perfect doctor online, where maybe you’re trying to emulate someone else, that you’ve seen, who you look up to, or you think they’re a good influencer, but just be true to yourself, because that’s going to be much better content that you’re going to be creating.

00:07:55:23 – 00:10:19:14
Ana Suarez
Yes, that is a great point. Basically, there’s going to be many social media trends, many things that you could do, but at the end of the day, you have to be yourself. And so if you don’t want to be dancing, if you don’t want to be posting every single day, you don’t have to remember. Social media is to create awareness, to share education and knowledge with you. Know, your followers, your audience, prospective patients, existing patients. So you decide what type of information you want to provide and how do you want to do that and how often. So I like what you just said. Paige because that’s right on. And in addition to that, we have to think about the content, right. You know, for example, patient testimonials, those are huge. And even though we have this conversation with many of our clients, you know, whenever we go to conferences, we always hear these things. But yet when we go to our client’s websites, when we go to our client’s social media channels, we don’t see enough patient testimonials. Or maybe they have patient testimonials from like two years ago. And so I’m sorry, but you do have to be more consistent with that, because if I wanted to select like a new provider for my aesthetic services, and I see that they haven’t had a review like in the last two years, or even within the last year, I’m going to be wondering, like, what’s going on over there? You know, are they closing? Like what is going on? So we do have to be consistent with what we’re putting out there with the brand personality, what we want to portray as well, also before and after photos, because that’s basically showing what are you able to do for your patients. What are the type of results that they’re going to be getting when they go see you when they have these procedures with you specifically? And so there’s just like some basics and like I said, like the before and afters. Also, you know, sometimes like something like behind the scenes type of like, short videos or reels, it just gives people a general idea, again, of what you’re like and what your team’s, how they interact with each other, what type of patient experience they’ll have when they go to your practice. So these are all important things that we should try to capture and post on social media, but it’s up to you what type of style, you know, even the timing that you want to do it. It really goes back to, you know, you and just saying to yourself.

00:10:19:17 – 00:12:05:18
Paige Hamilton
Yeah, something to add to that too, is one of the first things in marketing that you have to consider is your target audience. In this case, who do you want as patients? So everything that you should be thinking about your patient testimonials, like Ana was saying, if you don’t have a new patient testimonial in the past two years, how are your new patients going to know what to expect? Are they closed? Do they not have new patients? Are they not doing procedures? But keeping in mind who your target audiences and anticipating their questions and their needs are, is going to help guide you on what to post. So yes, you need to have the variety, but then also tailor it to what you think your patient is going to want to see. And then also keeping in mind where to post these as well, because I feel like those go hand in hand as well as where you want to be. And the main ones that you need to keep in mind is Instagram, Facebook. TikTok is huge and the idea of TikTok can be scary if you’re not that dancing TikTok or doctor. But if you’re filming the content for Instagram and you’re making the reels, then keep in mind that you can just reuse that content across your different platforms. Maybe change the language a little bit. The audience on Facebook is a little bit older, so maybe don’t use trending slang or the same verbiage you would on Instagram and TikTok, where the audience is a little bit younger. Alter your language. And again, that’s keeping in mind who you’re speaking to, who is your ideal patient that you’re trying to attract? So knowing what to post and where to post it is also key. So on a do you have any tips on that as well as where should they be visible.

00:12:05:18 – 00:14:22:20
Ana Suarez
Yeah I mean that’s great information. Something else that we hear all the time. Our clients are like, oh my gosh, there’s so many social media channels. And so I don’t even know like where to start. And I don’t even have time for that. Right. And so what we always say is that going back to what Paige were saying, who is your target audience? Who are you trying to speak to? So when it comes to aesthetics, plastic surgery, dermatology, all of these special is a very visual. And so obviously Instagram is a wonderful medium for that because, you know, you kind of showcase the imagery. You can showcase images of before and after. And so there’s tons of people, a huge patient base that is always on Instagram. And so they could become your patients just by seeing the before and afters, the videos that you would do, you know, whether that is like, your staff or maybe one of the patient testimonials? And of course, you know, we have to be very conscious of the HIPAA Laws and we have to get their consent in order to do this. But once we go to all of the legalities, people relate to people and they want to hear truth stories from existing patients. And so that speaks volumes a lot more than if you know, you yourself or one of your employees talks about the practice. Also, Facebook is really good, especially for crowds 40 year old and up, just because it’s a little bit of an older crowd. But they still, you know, they interact a lot with like communities like Facebook Group. And so it’s really easy to find people saying like, oh yeah, you know, I went to so and so place and I had a great experience. You know, they’re very responsive. They call me to see how I was like, feeling when I got done with my procedure. So Facebook, I would definitely include that in your marketing mix and your social media mix as well. And then, you know, there’s there’s other doctors that they like to do, kind of like videos about the different procedures, the benefits of those procedures. And so they, they post on YouTube as well. But bottom line, just start where, you know, your audience is with like little steps, you know, don’t feel that you have to be in every single channel all the time and just pick 1 or 2 and try to master those social media channels and be very consistent. That’s what it’s going to take you for the consistency and showing up in there and being your true self.

00:14:22:22 – 00:15:06:09
Paige Hamilton
Let’s take a quick break. Are you tired of pouring time, money and energy into marketing efforts that just don’t deliver results? The endless trial and error can drain your resources and slow your growth. That’s why we’ve created the 12 week Marketing Foundations program, a step by step guide to building a powerful, results driven marketing strategy. Whether you’re starting fresh or finding your approach, this program will help you to find your brand. Identify your ideal patient, uncover your competitive edge, and create a marketing plan that works. If you’re ready to attract the right patient, improve your ROI and set your practice up for long term success. Schedule a free concert with our team to get started.

00:15:06:11 – 00:15:34:13
Ana Suarez
So Paige I, I wanted to ask you another question that, you know, many of our clients are asking, and it’s pretty much when to post because it could be confusing. You know, basically anybody can post at any time. However, we know that there are specific times throughout the day where we could see more engagement. So could you tell us a little bit more about what you have seen as you work with our clients in kind of like just some general tips about posting times?

00:15:34:15 – 00:18:41:16
Paige Hamilton
Yes. So posting times are important because as Ana kind of just said people are on social media at different points in the day. So that is something that you have to take a look at from your analytic side. If you go into the Instagram app, you need to make sure, first of all that you have a professional account, a business account, otherwise you won’t be able to see analytics. So make sure your account is set up properly so you can be able to view that, because that is super important to be able to tell who’s liking your stuff, where it’s going, where people are viewing it from. You know, we’ll get into that a little bit later in the episode. Stay tuned, but make sure your account is set up so it’s a business account, and you’ll be able to see when is the highest peak time for engagement, whether that’s at 10 a.m., whether it’s at 6 a.m., it kind of is going to depend. Because if you think about it, most people work 9 to 5. So how often are you on your phone during that time, or is the weekend a better time to post? Could you schedule it for the weekend, when most people are going to be having more of their leisure time versus at work? Or do you notice that at noon or 1:00, whenever lunch break, that’s when you have another spike? So it’s kind of just different things to think about, but also with the algorithm. Let’s say you posted at a random time, it’s going to keep showing your post to people. So don’t be afraid that if you post at a time and it’s maybe not like the ideal time, it’s not going to be shown to people. But the benefit of choosing that peak time why you want to do it is because the more engagement you get right away, it’s going to the algorithm is going to promote your post more. So let’s say you get you post something at 10 a.m., but your peak time is actually at 12. So in those two hours you’re maybe getting a couple likes, maybe 1 or 2 comments, and then you get a huge spike later. Well, it might not be as big of a spike as if you posted at noon and got maybe 100 likes and 50 comments right off the bat. Then two hours later, it’s going to have doubled because the algorithm knows that hey, this was a popular post. People are watching this video past the first three seconds. People are engaging. Don’t let that overrun your thought process. It’s good to know, but it’s not like the most important thing. But just keep an eye on your times. But then also just have a plan because I mentioned it earlier is the consistency. If you post once a week, make sure you post once a week every week. So if you want to post twice a week, three times a week, like 2 to 3 is probably your ideal range and I would just spread it out. Don’t do two post on the same day because then your posts are kind of cannibalizing each other. In a sense, the algorithm isn’t going to know which one you want to share, but if you post one on Monday and one on Wednesday, then they both have their own space to kind of do their own thing versus compete with each other.

00:18:41:18 – 00:21:09:22
Ana Suarez
Very good insights. You know, and obviously you work on our social media. And so I know that you are always keeping an eye on the analytics, on how the posts are performing and so this is very, very insightful. And then too, just remembering that, you know, many of us, the practice owners say, well, you know, that means that I have to post now every day and is going back to what you were saying. They don’t have to post every day. You can just, you know, pick like 2 or 3 times, 2 or 4 times per week. Try to, you know, have some time separation. Maybe you can do it on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. And so you have a good balance in. The most important thing is to be consistent with that posting because it takes time. It takes time to, you know, get it. Followers get engagement, but the more you do it, the easier it gets and the more people are seeing, you know, they continue to see more of your content, of your story, of your team, of the new procedures that you may be doing. Even if you have any type of in office events or if someone’s birthday, if it was even your kid’s birthday, and you just kind of, you know, just want to say like, hey, you know, today we’re celebrating my daughter’s birthday, and I’m so excited. And why? Because people want to see people, you know, people can relate to other people. And so we don’t have to always be a professional. All the time. But we are human being and we have many aspects to our lives. Right. And so social media is a perfect medium to showcase who you are, not only as a professional, but also as a human being. The other thing that I wanted to mention as well, because I know this is another hot point or pain point, it’s basically our clients get very overwhelmed. You know, any business owner, practice owners, they get so overwhelmed with the kind of like planning the content, you know, Paige I we have many, meetings where they’re like, well, and so now we have to do a post, for tomorrow and we still haven’t done the video or we don’t even know what we’re going to be posting about. So I wanted us to speak a little bit more about how can they plan the content for social media so it doesn’t feel so overwhelming and it doesn’t feel so intimidating. We always, always recommend to have some type of content calendar. So Paige, please could you elaborate a little bit more about that in kind of like about how you go about doing like a simple content calendar?

00:21:10:00 – 00:23:44:11
Paige Hamilton
Yes. So that’s something that I am responsible for for the Shorr Solutions account. So this is something that I do every single month. I make sure that it’s a priority that I have. The way that I personally like to do it is to see two months out. So I’m not planning super far in advance, but I’m giving myself enough time to know what’s coming up, and then that allows me enough time to be able to create that content and make sure that it’s done and done well, versus scrambling at the last minute to just put something together to post, because that post is not going to do very good if you’re doing it at the last minute. So what I would recommend is if right now, today, when you’re listening, you have nothing, I would sit down and plan two months out. So this month currently and then the following month. So if you’re listening to this in the middle of the month, plan your next two full months. And then essentially at the end you’ll plan the next month. So a good timeline would be September 1st. You have September done, October done. So at the very end of September, you’ll still have October done. But now you need to plan November. So you’ll always have two months out because that gives you enough time to create the stuff [posts] that’s on October 1st. At the end of September, it’s already done. So you’re not scrambling that first week either. So I would sit down and that can be very intimidating. The first time, having to think through all of the posts that you want, but as we’re talking about before is what to post schedule maybe one before and after every week, then that takes out one of your posts every week, schedule a patient testimonial maybe every other week, and then an educational video in between. However, you want to structure what your timeline is, but also bulk create content that’s allowed to. Because if you film five videos in one day, that’s five videos you have for the whole month. You don’t have to post those back to back in the same week. That video that you filmed today can be posted two months from now, and if you have that banked in your phone stored in there, you’ll know, okay, well, last week I filmed these five videos. Where can I put them on the calendar to post them? So you feel like that makes it a little less intimidating to is if you preplan your content, then you know what’s coming up. And if something else comes up and you’ve already filmed it, push it. And then now you have something else for the week after.

00:23:44:16 – 00:25:36:15
Ana Suarez
Yeah, something else to add to that that will help you to stop having so many stock images. When we start working with many of our clients, when we go and do the social media analysis, they have so many stock images that everybody else has because remember, these are libraries of images that everybody has access to. And so whether that is your marketing person, marketing coordinator, just going to those stock image libraries and using some of those, or whether that is the agency that actually does the marketing posts or the marketing videos, whatever it may be, don’t using the same images as well, because there’s a couple of main stock library images that you could utilize. Right. And so we want to make sure that we decrease the usage of stock images. That was something that maybe like ten years ago, you know, 15 years ago when social media first started, you might have worked. But nowadays, keep in mind that people want to see again three real people, and they want to see the videos and they want to see what your personality is like and what your voice sounds like. So it’s very important, is very important to making sure that we’re doing new, fresh content in. One of the best ways to ensure that that happens is planning ahead of time. That’s what I was explaining. Just planning ahead of time. It doesn’t have to be if you are the provider, if you’re the practice owner and again, you have someone that is doing the marketing for you, you can sit with them and kind of have like a brainstorming session and start planning out what am I going to have. So you have that conversation with them. It’s pretty simple. So one is hopefully helping you to implement these things, but you’re still having the conversation. You’re still guiding your marketing whether, you know a marketing person or an agency.

00:25:36:17 – 00:29:12:01
Ana Suarez
And I think that’s a good segway to another common question that we get, which is who should be doing my marketing? Should we be an agency or should I hire someone internal? Should I have an intern? So what I’ll say about that and then outlet Paige kind of like let us know what you think about that. But it really depends. It depends. Right. So if you want someone to really get to know who you are and your branding, someone that is going to be consistent, that you can have this type of bring brainstorming sessions with them. I would highly recommend hiring someone that is in-house, like, you know, go through your practice and list, even if this is like part time. But you know, they go to your practice, they get a feel for who you are, your branding, the message you want to put out there, their mission, your vision. They get to know about the procedures. Hopefully someone that has experience in this space, right. And so you have that person. You can collaborate and create these plans together. And so at the beginning it’s going to be very involved But once that person understands, you know, your tone, your branding, what you’re offering it gets so much easier. And so at one point you’re just going to be reviewing the content that they’re doing. And just approving it or just providing some suggestions. So just keep in mind at the beginning, if more involved is a little bit more, handholding, just because the person there they need to know to understand your branding, what you’re all about, you know, not only your colors, your fonts, not only that, but your brand voice in how you want to communicate the message with your audience, with your patients, how you want to come across, what type of feelings you want to evoke on, you know, your patients. So that’s kind of like the initial part. If you have an agency, please, please, please do go through this same process because many of our clients think that just because they have an agency, they’re going to take care of everything. They know what they’re doing. And that’s not necessarily the case just because they have many other clients that they work with in, sometimes they don’t take the time to understand, you know, your brand voice, your mission, your vision, kind of like how you want to be perceived. And so it becomes a problem. It becomes like there’s a huge disconnect between who you are, you know, as the business owner, as a provider, and what the you know, what the patients are seeing on your social media. That’s where we have the issues where many of these social media accounts, they just have stock images. They just have the same thing over and over again. And that’s not effective. And so why do it if it’s not going to help you to move the needle? And then lastly, I know some practices, especially when they’re starting out, sometimes they have interest in even though that’s amazing because many of the interns, they come out of college with these wonderful ideas, they have great ability with the technology and all of these things, you still have to take the time to guide them, to talk strategy, to make sure that there’s a plan in place, you know? So it really depends. But definitely whoever you decide to work with, make sure that you’re having these, you know, monthly or at the beginning, maybe weekly conversations. And then once they have the basics, the foundation then is more of just, like a recurring process where you can review the work that you’re doing and you can provide recommendations or changes and that, you know, they will take it from there. They will do the posting for you. They will follow up with you when something is needed. So, yeah. Paige, what would you like to add to, this whole thing about who should be doing my social media?

00:29:12:02 – 00:30:51:14
Paige Hamilton
I mean, I think you kind of hit it right on the head. Nailed everything. I would say that I agree with your first point, that having somebody in the practice is going to be a little bit easier to even just collect content. It’s another set of hands that that’s their main responsibility is just to film the day essentially. So if someone’s just following you around the camera, it’s taking that stress away from having to think about it. And oh my gosh, now I have to set up the camera or I have patients, I can’t talk to the camera right now, but if you just have your social media person in the room with you filming obviously with consent from the patient, but just have them film the consult or have them film the follow up consult, something along those lines is they’re just they’re filming what’s already going on. That’s what people want to see. That’s where the genuine experience that people want to see comes in. Because if you have the social media marketing company, as Ana was saying, if they don’t have that content, they’re going to be posting stock photos because they still have to do their job. So I would say that hiring someone specifically for that to be their whole job is definitely the easiest way to do it. But if you’re going to have the agency just creating the time to create the content and then the intern, same thing with Ana just said, we have a whole other podcast about interns as well, so you can go listen to that after this one. To get more information on if you should have an intern, what that would entail.

00:30:51:14 – 00:34:09:09
Paige Hamilton
But I would say kind of a good segue. I feel like, Ana, your last point, was to make sure that maybe you can get to a point where you’re just reviewing things and having monthly meetings and coordinating things. In those monthly meetings, I’m going to tie this back to the analytics that I said we would get back to, make sure you’re reviewing your analytics, too, because that is very important to see how you’re doing and what you could improve on. And if you’re just posting, I call it Post and Ghost. You can’t just post and then do nothing. You have to post. You have to be engaging with the people you’re following as well. You need to be liking either, vendors or other patients that you have comment on their post, or just even liking things. Or I mean, it’s kind of going to depend, but just make sure you have a presence. You’re commenting on things, your name is getting out there. You’re not just posting. You have to be engaging as well and posting on your stories and things like that, and you’ll notice a difference. So the analytics side of it is you’re going to want to look at your likes, your comments, your shares. And those aren’t as important as maybe your watch time. If you’re doing a video. How long did people actually stay for your video? Was it engaging at the beginning? Did people stay till the end? If not, maybe you need to rethink your strategy for filming your videos as you need a stronger hook. Or it’s too long. You lost people. They only wanted to stay 30s, but all your videos were 60s, so things like that to look at, I would say are almost more important than focusing on well I only got 100 likes and versus oh, this post got a thousand likes. Well, obviously that’s going to tell you that people really liked this specific post, but also to kind of gauge all of your content based on over all those different things. Are your posts going more to followers or non followers or more followers versus non followers engaging what’s your age demographic for the engagement? So there’s just a lot of different things that you could look at. If you have a marketing company, they should be able to help walk you through. But something else that I would say that is probably most important to think about too, for analytics is your website clicks because that’s conversion. So your website company would probably be able to help you out with this, but have specific links for social media. So don’t just put your homePaige link, make sure it has some sort of extra coding attached to it that says it’s like your home page or your booking page from Instagram, from Facebook, from LinkedIn. So that way when you go to Google Analytics, it’ll tell you the source of that lead was from Instagram or from Facebook or from YouTube or from wherever they may have come from. So that way you have even more specific analytics to look at, because then that would be your conversion. So do you need to focus more on Instagram? Because that’s where everyone’s coming from, versus two people from Facebook and one person from TikTok.

00:34:09:09 – 00:37:52:03
Ana Suarez
And I completely agree with all of that. The metrics, the analytics is basically what it’s going to be guiding you, whether the marketing efforts that you’re doing, whether they’re being successful or not, dry marketing is really fun, but it is both an art and a science. The analytics part of it, the metrics. That’s the part that is really telling you how is the artistic side of things performing, how is everything going? Are people they relate with the content that you’re putting out there? Are they engaging? Because that’s a really good point, Paige, you made that followers and like doesn’t just vanity metrics try what really matters is how many DMs you know, how many people are, like messaging you about, hey, I want to know more about, “x” procedure, you know, like a facelift or I want to know more about Botox injections, whatever it may be. You’re getting those DMs that maybe you’re getting phone calls. And when they’re calling your practice in your director first impressions, you know, they should be asking, how do you hear about us in, you know, that specific patient says, oh, I saw an Instagram video, or I saw you on the Facebook group or whatever you may be, then that’s how you know whether the marketing efforts, the social media efforts, whether they’re working or not. So keeping a close eye on those metrics just like you do, or you should be doing with your financials, right? Like every month, you know, you’re keeping an eye on that. I know that’s what we do with our clients, and we provide them ideas about what they could do to increase those metrics or to have more engagement by, that’s where the our part of it comes in. Yes. Because sometimes maybe something that was working for another practice wouldn’t necessarily work for your practice. That’s why it’s so important to going back to the roots of being who you are, knowing, having like a very clear vision and mission of your branding. So metrics are huge. And I would say that’s one of the most, critical areas when it comes to not only social media, but just like marketing in general. And same thing when it comes to the strategy. You know, it’s just funny because many of our clients think that just because they’re putting something out there in the yeah, I posted yesterday and this happen, that that will be enough. But it has to be a strategic intentional type of effort, type of campaign. It kind of just be there’s this funny video posted or yeah, I have, you know, my intern, she’s wonderful at doing graphics and I’m just going to be putting this graphics on the social media. No, it has to be a whole plan for that specific channel, right? Where you are looking at the months ahead or two months ahead of time, like you mentioned. And you’re saying, okay, these are some holidays that are coming up. What do I want to do? Any promotions and if so, what would they look like. And then kind of like coordinating with the rest of the team. So there’s a lot of planning and coordination for successful social media to happen. If there’s something that you take away from the podcast is that the planning, the strategy and the analytics are key. And not only social media, but just all of your marketing across the board. We also wanted to mention AI, as all of us know, you know, AI is here and it’s very helpful when it comes to providing some ideas for your post or helping you write some of the little captions or just giving you ideas about the content. I’m not saying that you’re just going to be using AI and copying and pasting. That’s not what I’m saying, but more, as an assistant, how can we utilize AI to save time and even money to make this process a little bit easier? Do you have like some, you know, like top three tips that you have when it comes to using AI for your social media efforts?

00:37:52:05 – 00:39:55:04
Paige Hamilton
Definitely. So AI is going to be a great tool, especially if you have more limited resources in your practice. Maybe it’s just you, the provider, maybe it’s you and one other person. Maybe you don’t have the bandwidth or the money right now to hire a social media coordinator, or have a specific marketing company to handle that. All for you. It’s going to be a good tool. I wouldn’t rely on it solely to do all of your marketing and all of your planning, just because it’s not going to know everything exactly the way that you want it done. But it’s a good point to start and say, hey, I need help planning next month’s calendar. What are the holidays coming up? What are the National days that I can celebrate? Or what are some trends that are going on that I could utilize? Or how could I twist this trend to, you know, use it as a brainstorming? A good point to start, if it’s just you and you have those limited resources, it’s a good tool to just kind of bounce ideas off of. So I would say that would be the good a good tip, use it for your captions. If you put a photo or graphic in or describe the video that you filmed, how to create the caption for you. Or if you have a caption, have it, tweak it. Optimize this for Instagram, optimize it for Facebook, optimize it for TikTok because maybe your caption is really good for one platform, but not for the other. ChatGPT can twist that, or AI can change that for you and adjust it. Or if you want it to create your hashtag strategy for you. So which hashtags would increase the reach of my post because you want it to reach people. You don’t want it to just be seen by 20 accounts. You want to try and get 20,000 accounts. So I would say that I would say use it as a brainstorm, use it to help you write content, create content and just don’t rely on it solely. But it’s a it’s a good tool to use for sure.

00:39:55:04 – 00:40:48:08
Ana Suarez
Definitely a good tool that we now have available that we didn’t have before in, you know, why not? It’ll save you some time and it will really help you to get unstuck because, so many times when we, you know, the creative we kind of I know these right, where if you’re just brainstorming, you have to come up with different ideas or like, maybe like a different way of saying things. So also if you’re ever stuck, then you can just use it and at least you have some basic, points or ideas to start with and then building from there. So it is there is available. So just like Paige said, don’t just rely on that solely because at the end of the day, you have to put your own twist. You you need to make sure that you’re standing out and that you’re showing your real personality, your your actual your own brand. Right? How are you different from the rest? And so AI would help you with some of the ideas and some of the maybe some of the planning, but at the end of the day has to be you.

00:40:48:08 – 00:41:32:17
Ana Suarez
And so I think just to recap what we have discussed here today, most of these pain points are the same pain points that other practice owners have. And so knowing that social media doesn’t have to be perfect, it is called social media because, you know, you just trying to showcase who you are and what you stand for. And you know, what type of service you want to provide to your patients. And so it’s your opportunity to just open the door and let people get to know you and get to know, your team and what you’re capable of doing and delivering for them. So Paige to close it off. Do you have any final thoughts on this episode, which has been super fun and kind of like full of information? Do you have anything to add to the episode?

00:41:32:18 – 00:42:00:12
Paige Hamilton
Yeah, I would say my last piece of advice would be to just be confident in what you post. You have a practice. You’ve made it to be a doctor. You have patients that love you and come to you, so you have things to share. You have experiences to share. You have stories to share. You have patients to share. So don’t get caught up in the perfection, because I, I really like what Ana just said.

00:42:00:12 – 00:42:27:10
Paige Hamilton
It’s easy to get caught up and so wrapped up in the idea of my post need to be perfect. I would almost say that obviously you don’t want that like scrambled last minute post, because nothing is probably better than that. But something is better than nothing. So that’s kind of contradictory. But just as long as you’re putting in effort, people will notice.

00:42:27:14 – 00:43:16:02
Ana Suarez
So yeah. So in a nutshell, this has been really fun. Remember, you know, the best thing just to start and have some intentional effort behind whatever it is that you end up doing, whether it’s like a couple of posts or the videos and making sure that you’re utilizing your marketing person, your marketing agency. I know this episode specifically, we have done it related to all of the frequently asked questions, related to social media, because we did get a lot of emails and requests, you know, just kind of like people wanting to know, where to even start or how to, like, break the process down so that it’s not so overwhelming. It has been a pleasure speaking with all of you today. I hope you found it, helpful and educational. And so have a wonderful rest of your day, and we’ll see you next time here at Shorr Solutions.

00:43:16:04 – 00:43:54:09
Speaker 1
Don’t go anywhere just yet. If you enjoyed today’s episode, make sure to subscribe so you never miss the latest insights. New episodes are released every two weeks. For more valuable information and resources to elevate your practice. Sign up for our newsletter. You’ll get the latest industry updates, expert tips and exclusive strategy straight to your inbox. Also, don’t forget to follow us on social media at Shorr Solutions. If you’re ready to take your practice to the next level, schedule a free consult with our team today. Thank you for joining us on Shorr Solutions: The Podcast.