Mastering Social Media While Balancing Busy Schedules

As an Office Manager, I was thrilled when I had the opportunity to manage the company's social media. However, I was surprised to find how difficult it was to manage it effectively while juggling other priorities. Through training and research, I prepared organised tips and resources that helped me incorporate social media management and I am excited to share them with you.

Target Audience

Knowing your target audience is crucial for effective marketing because it helps you tailor your content to increase engagement. The general audience for veterinary practices is quite expansive which makes it challenging to create content that resonates equally with all of them. Therefore, it is important to focus on smaller, more specific groups.

Start by understanding your clients' details, such as demographics, preferences and needs. A great starting point is your practice management system and your social media insights. This worksheet from Hootsuite will help you delve deeper into understanding your social media audience (Social-Media-Audience-Research-guide.pdf (hootsuite.com)). Once you have gathered that information, ask yourself the following questions about each target audience (I will provide examples to assist you):

Let's say one of your target audiences is a young couple who decided to adopt a kitten:

- How old are they? (20 - 30 years old)

- What are their biggest challenges? (Ensuring they are prepared to adopt a kitten and follow necessary procedures, such as vaccination, etc.)

- How can I help them? (Post information about a checklist for adopting a kitten, details about pet insurance for new owners and your services that will assist them)

- What is their preferred social media channel? (Instagram, Facebook)

By answering these questions, you will have created a customer persona - a profile of your ideal target customer. Referring to your personas ensures your content is relevant to your target audiences and helps you generate engaging content. Remember that each marketing strategy should focus on one group to ensure the most effective outcomes.

 

Creating Engaging Content

The goal of creating engaging content is to have it resonate with your audience. These three basic content ideas might help you generate content:

1. Educational Posts: Pet owners can never get enough of pet care, health, or nutrition tips. They all want the best for their pets.

2. Behind-the-scenes: Although it might not seem essential, people love to see how your practice operates daily. Additionally, by giving your potential customers insight into how professional and safe your practice is, they will be more inclined to choose you as their next vet.

3. Client Spotlights: With your customers' permission, regularly posting about your pet clients is a great option. People and algorithms love cute pet photos so it should boost your engagement.

If you lack the time to generate the content, you might consider using an AI program for content marketing. You don't need to blindly follow the content that it provides but it can be a great start and a deep well of inspiration and new ideas. It is important to use AI with caution, especially when asking it to write a post copy.

 

Tools for Efficient Content Planning

Most of the time, I am advised to create content in advance—around six months. And how wonderful that sounds! However, when I tried to put it into practice, it was not so easy, especially when juggling other responsibilities. Honestly, my content calendar is usually done only when I'm informed about a need to advertise a service. And that is okay—not everything needs be planned.

To help me schedule content, I use Buffer (Buffer | The #1 Social Media Scheduler in the UK), which offers a free account that allows you to schedule posts and use its 'Create' function to save your ideas for later. If you prefer using Excel, I have also created a template to help you plan your content.

 

 

Monitoring Key Metrics

There is a lot of talk about measuring social media insights to ensure that our content works. I've read many articles and attended webinars that offered detailed descriptions of various statistics to consider but almost none provide actionable advice. To save your time, I have created an Excel template highlighting the most important social media statistics for social media platforms and where to find them.

 

 

Below you will find definitions of the key metrics to monitor:

• Engagement Rate: The level of interaction your posts receive, including likes, comments and shares. This metric reflects how actively your audience interacts with your content, indicating its quality and impact.
• Reach and Impressions: This metric shows how many unique users see your content and how frequently it is viewed.
• Follower Growth: The rate at which your follower count is increasing.

If you use other social media platforms besides those listed in the spreadsheet, feel free to copy the tab and amend it. Additionally, I recommend you check the performance of individual posts or stories on the platforms you use whenever you notice a rise in engagement or sales one month so you can check which content contributed to that success.

Conclusion

Managing social media alongside your other duties is achievable with the right preparation.

Segmenting your audience will allow you to create tailored content and if you lack ideas, remember these three concepts that will never let you down: educational posts, behind-the-scenes insights, and client spotlights. Online tools or Excel templates can help you with content planning, making it less overwhelming. Regularly monitoring metrics will help measure success and refine your strategy.

Even with limited resources, effective social media marketing is feasible. Embrace these tips to enhance your practice’s online presence!