When it comes to your practice’s social media, Facebook is often the first platform to be utilized. Most practice owners and marketers are most familiar with Facebook from personal use, thus making it an easy adoption for clinic marketing. However, Twitter can be a great sister platform that serves a somewhat different purpose and communicates with a different audience. Twitter provides the opportunity for short, simple statements that range from hyping an incentive program to promoting a blog post to sharing an update on clinic operating hours.
Who Uses Twitter?
Twitter users vary slightly from other social media platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest. A 2015 study from the Pew Institute shows a demographic breakdown of all social media platforms. Twitter tends to sway more towards male, under 50 years of age, college educated, and higher income. These demographic combinations differ from Facebook, which is more age neutral and lower income, and Pinterest, which is predominantly female and leans toward rural communities. So by incorporating Twitter into your social media platforms, you can start to market to a different online population.
How to Use Twitter
- Tweets: are 140 characters or less (including links) and act a Twitter’s version of a Facebook post without images. It is important to keep your tweets short and compelling to engage viewers.
- Hashtags: are the “old-school pound” or # symbol. By adding them to the front of a word or phrase, such as #PhysicalTherapy, you can automatically link your tweets to other with the same hashtag.
- RT or Re-Tweet: if you see something you like or think is interesting, RT it! This is the Twitter equivalent of Facebook’s Share feature.
- Favorite: if you like a tweet and want to maybe save it for later, you can favorite it (aka Like it in Facebook terms)
- Reply: say a patient tweets “Back to #running again thx to @ABCPT”, you can reply with “@runnergirl glad to help you get back to #running and #healthy”. Now this looks like a simple interaction and it is! Replying to a tweet is similar to replying to a text message, but on social media.
- Follow: if you see an account (in Twitter speak a “handle”) that you recognize, then follow them on Twitter. Also, if you see someone tweeting fun tips or PT advice, follow them too! A Twitter follow can lead to more exposure for your clinic.
What to Tweet
Unlike Facebook, Twitter is all about quick updates and sharing information. You can tweet several times a day (we recommend a max of 3 times) and share different content with your followers. Three types of tweets are:
- Status Update: share something new or interesting happening at the clinic. Use hashtags where appropriate to increase visibility.
- Example: Registration for our fall #sports #camp is open! Call the office for more details 888-888-8888 #PhysicalTherapy
- Link Share: when you write a new blog post or add a new service to your website, share that link with your Twitter followers.
- Conversation/PR Update: try to RT another user’s tweet that you find fun, positive, or engaging. This builds a social network and helps to build a POV for your Twitter account.
Want more help with social media? Check out our Pinterest boards for tips, stats, and free content to get you started!
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