Welcome to question of the day #361

Welcome to question of the day #361

Eyetool question of the day #361

I’m trying to promote my community practice on social media. I don’t have any money to spend on this and am not having much engagement with my posts. Do you have any tips?

I can share some tips that I have found useful in my own use of social media for promoting my work. Include photographs in your posts as posts with photographs receive the most interactions, and the more interactions you get on a post, the more people it reaches. Social media software logs interactions and the more interactions you get the people get to see your post. Include photographs of your staff, practice and equipment.

Keep it natural and simple. No one expects or wants a Hollywood production. Post when your followers are online and when less other people are posting. If you post when less other people are posting your post has less other posts to compete with. The main social media sites allow you to find out when most of your followers are online and when your non-peak hours are. Make use of this free information to get the best reach for your posts. Use questions in your post to get people to engage with you. Engagement with posts leads to a better reach for your post. Use simple questions that relate to your practice or to eye care in general and start a conversation with your followers. Include a share button in your post to get more likes and more of your posts shared. This type of engagement also leads to an increased reach.

Mention the social media pages of other people and organisations in your post and this will increase engagements and your reach. Don’t use too many words in your posts. Keep the words simple and avoid eye care jargon and abbreviations. Chances are your followers won’t understand jargon. Aim for around 5 sentences. If you have more to say then put it into another post. Post around once per day. Reply to people who have commented on your post even if it is a simple ‘thank you’. Encourage your friends and relatives to like your posts.

The key is to build engagement, that will build reach and that will build engagement.