The Best Practices for Therapist Facebook Marketing in 2019
With how prolific and influential Facebook has become, it’s funny to remember years past when it used to be an up-and-coming socialization site only for college students. Of course, nowadays Facebook is the undisputed titan of the social media world – and the social media marketing world, to boot. In fact, over a quarter of the world’s population is a Facebook User.1
Since Facebook is such a desirable field for online marketers, it has inevitably become a bit crowded as everyone tries to get their piece of the pie.
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But don’t worry! You can follow our best marketing practices for Facebook below to maximize your audience engagement (clicks, comments, likes, and shares) and give yourself a valuable advantage over many of your competitors.
Best Practices for Therapist Facebook Marketing
How Many Times per Day Do I Post?
The most commonly asked question we receive when it comes to Facebook marketing is: what is the best number of times to post per day? The answer isn’t as cut and dry as we’d all like, but we do have some strong guidelines to help set us on the right path.
While the optimal posting frequency will be a little different for each private practice or business, a great place to start is posting once a day – or less!2 According to a study by Hubspot, the number of Facebook posts your business account should post each day depends mostly on how many followers you have.
If your Facebook page has less than 10,000 followers (which is most of you), you shouldn’t post more than once a day to maximize your audience engagement.2 Depending on your unique audience, you may even see increased engagement if you scale your posting schedule back even more. Once your page reach 10,000 followers, however, your ideal post frequency actually goes up slightly to once or twice a day.2
Post Time
While I wish I had a nice, clean number to give you for the best time to post on Facebook each day, the fact is that an objectively “best” time probably doesn’t exist.
As Buffer points out, many different studies by reputable organizations have found wildly different times to be the supposed “best” time to post on Facebook – ranging from 8 o’clock in the morning to 8 o’clock at night.3 The time can change depending on your industry, your particular audience, the news of the day, and more! The key to finding your optimal time is going to be testing, testing, testing.
Earlier this month, we went over some great testing tips for finding your perfect blog posting time and it doubles really well as a guide for discovering your best Facebook posting time through self-testing.
To hit the highlights, a great way to start testing is by picking your two posting times – time A and time B for example – and pitting them against each other. For half of your Facebook posts, post them at time A, alternating with posting the other half of your Facebook posts at time B. Keep your eye on your engagement numbers and before long, you’ll start to see a “winner” emerge.
Continue testing your current best posting time against other “B” options to find the time of day that works the best for your unique private practice and ideal potential clients.
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How Long Should a Post on Facebook Be?
Now here is some essential knowledge that is much easier for us to put into concrete numbers. The length and general format of your Facebook post is just as important as your posting time or frequency when it comes to boosting your audience engagement.
The great news is that Brighter Vision already has a phone-friendly infographic of the Anatomy of an Effective Therapist Facebook Post for all of you visual learners out there. This infographic breaks down the most important aspects of your post’s format, but we’ll hit the highlights below.
- Post Length – Keep your posts to 50 characters or fewer (excluding URLs) to maximize your engagement.
- Image size – Ideal resolution size for your images is 1200 x 630 pixels.
- Hashtags – AVOID hashtags on Facebook. In general, posts without hashtags on Facebook get 1/3 more engagement than posts with hashtags.
What Do I Put in My Facebook Posts?
Compared to other social media platforms, Facebook in particular is great for building your brand and reaching locally based potential clients.4 In addition, the kind of content that receives the best feedback on Facebook is much broader than most other platforms (for example, Instagram posts are primarily visual and are weaker if they don’t have a striking photo or thumbnail).
Facebook audiences will enjoy shared blog posts, news articles, video clips, photos, and graphics. However, the best content to share on Facebook right now is video – both live video streams (where you’re the star, of course!) and video clips made by other people (like YouTube).4
If you’re struggling a bit to find quality content for your social media posts, I highly recommend checking out our article on 4 Ideal Places to Find Content for Your Private Practice Social Media Accounts to find a handful of great places to get started.
Psst! Wanna Know a Secret…?
You clearly care about the benefits of marketing your practice on social media, so why not take it to the next level?
Did you know that Brighter Vision has developed a fantastic tool that will take away all of the pain when it comes to planning and creating social media posts for your practice?
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How to Construct Your Facebook Business Page
That’s right, you can’t forget managing your actual Facebook business page! With much more to explore here than just posts, this is a wonderful opportunity to squeeze in as much marketing for your private practice as you can.
First of all, it’s important not to neglect a professional looking profile picture and cover photo. A high-definition stock photo or high quality photo of your practice space will work great for your cover photo. However, when it comes to your profile picture, make sure you are either using the official logo for your practice or a professional head shot of yourself. Either way, avoid using too much text in these two locations since you never know what size device your visitors are using.5
It’s also important to fill in your About section with as much relevant information as you have about your practice, such as address, hours, and contact information. It’s also a “must” to add links to your private practice website and any other social media accounts you manage for your practice.
Lastly, if you haven’t added a call-to-action (CTA) button to your Facebook page yet, that’s a must-have for any marketer looking to maximize traffic and engagement.5 A CTA button is a quick and free way to connect more of your Facebook audience with your website audience, getting more eyeballs on your private practice.
To add a button, click “+Add a Button” when editing your Facebook page. Link the button to your main website (or wherever it’s easiest for potential clients to contact you or set up an appointment) and add some clear and concise text that tells your interested visitors what to do next. For example, “Make An Appointment,” or “Contact Us Now.” Your page visitors will happily make that quick click over to your practice website when you put you make it that much easier for them.
Want to Become a Social Media Marketing Master?
Looking for even more ways to level-up your social media marketing game? Good news! We have everything you need right here:
- Essential Twitter Marketing Tips for Therapists
- How Social Media Marketing Improves Your Therapist SEO
- The Newest Trends in Therapist Social Media Marketing
Need a beautiful new website that puts your practice in the best light? That’s what we do best.
Brighter Vision is the ultimate marketing package for therapists, centered around the best therapist website you’ve ever had. Fill out the form below to learn more about our team of professionals who can’t wait to help your practice grow like never before. 🙂
1. “Facebook World Stats and Penetration in the World – Facebook Statistics.” Internet World Stats, www.internetworldstats.com/facebook.htm.
2. “How Often Should You Post On Social Media?” Social Report, www.socialreport.com/insights/article/115003574046-How-Often-Should-You-Post-On-Social-Media-.
3. Read, Ash. “Best Time to Post on Facebook: A Complete Guide -.” Buffer Marketing Library, Buffer Social Blog, 24 Jan. 2019, buffer.com/library/best-time-to-post-on-facebook.
4. Lua, Alfred. “What to Post on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and More.” Buffer Marketing Library, Buffer Social Blog, 15 Jan. 2019, buffer.com/library/what-to-post-on-each-social-media-platform.
5. “How to Create the Ultimate Facebook Business Page.” WordStream, www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2017/10/16/facebook-business-page.