Despite many professionals focusing on SEO marketing for veterinary practices, social media marketing is just as valuable as a marketing tool. With almost every single veterinary customer and pet owner having a social media presence on platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Pinterest, veterinary practices can use this constant stream of content to their advantage.

This form of marketing allows veterinary professionals to communicate directly with current and potential customers, which can help build pet owners’ confidence in that practice’s services, as well as seek out non-emergency advice from the experts. By building these meaningful relationships with customers, veterinary professionals using social media marketing can improve their revenue by building customer loyalty and boosting traffic to their veterinary hospital website. 

With that in mind, let’s take a look at the best social media marketing ideas for veterinary practices. 

Photo Competitions

With 51% of consumers saying that they’d be more likely to engage with and/or purchase from a brand online if that brand shared their content, user-generated content is becoming even more vital to social media marketing than ever before. 

Photo competitions are a great way to gather user-generated content, encourage engagement, and encourage customers to share posts with their family and friends. Some great ideas for photo competitions include:

• Setting a winning photo as the practice’s cover picture for the month, 
• Running regular photo contests for vouchers and other prizes, 
• Running yearly competitions with large prizes for the photos with the most likes/votes.

The prizes will all depend on what each veterinary practice can afford to give away, which is why small, regular competitions to select a new cover photo is a good option for practices that can’t afford to invest much into their marketing budget. 

Video Content

63% of businesses say that video gets them the best ROI on social media, making it one of the best investments that veterinary professionals can make with their social media marketing. 

Video can often be seen as a more authentic representation of a veterinary hospital or veterinary professionals, making it more likely to garner trust with a practice’s social media audience. Some great ideas that have been successful on social media are:

• “A Day in the Life” videos showing snapshots of what veterinary professionals do daily, including a look behind the scenes,
• Introduction videos, with each member of a veterinary team talking about who they are, what they do, why they love their job, and even a fun fact about themselves,
• “How To” videos showing customers how to perform basic pet care at home, such as brushing teeth, clipping nails, and grooming,
• Customer-requested FAQ videos, where a member of the team answers a question submitted by a follower,
• General information videos about pets, covering topics like food, exercise, different breeds, and trivia.

Infographics

Infographics help veterinary practices to post informational content in visual form, making it more accessible, appealing, and shareable. And, as infographics have been shown to increase web traffic by 12%, they’re also a great way for practices to promote their veterinary hospital website. 

The following content ideas are great for using in infographics:

• Fun information about a veterinary practice, such as what type of pets they treat, the oldest pet they’ve treated, etc,
• Key facts about parasites, diseases, and illnesses that pet owners need to know, 
• Timelines of veterinary medicine or other significant developments in the pet world, 
• Numbered lists of tips, tricks, or ideas for pet owners.

Veterinary practices can also use infographics to promote seasonal preventative treatments, remind pet owners about vaccinations, or educate them about a trending topic in the pet world. With so much information available for pet owners to try to understand, infographics not only help customers find the information they need but they also establish a veterinary practice as a thought leader in their industry. 

Infographics can also be used on veterinary hospital websites as part of SEO marketing for veterinary clinics, so practices only have to invest in their creation once. 

Engage with Followers

Social media is a two-way platform, meaning that veterinary practices need to reply to comments, respond to messages, and build conversations with their audience. This is both beneficial for a practice’s social media reach, given that most platforms reward engagement in their algorithm, but it also helps practices to build meaningful relationships with their customers. 

This is the biggest benefit that social media marketing has over SEO marketing for veterinary clinics, and as such, veterinary professionals with access to the practice’s social media should be encouraged to talk to customers and answer questions over social media. 

Monitoring comments and messages will also help a veterinary practice know which social media posts are working based on how much their followers want to discuss the topic. It also means that veterinary professionals can respond to negative comments and feedback as soon as possible, which helps to improve their reputation and keep their customers happy. 

Use a Social Media Content Calendar

Using a content calendar for a practice’s social media marketing is the best way for them to keep on track with their campaign, build engagement, and ensure that they don’t miss out on a valuable posting window. 

Veterinary practices have multiple awareness weeks and seasonal campaigns they can run, so creating posts ahead of time and scheduling them in a calendar helps keep customers informed. It also means that practices can maintain a consistent flow of content across all of their social media channels so every customer gets the same (or similar) content at the right time. While not every practice will have the ability to create content ahead of time, particularly for busy practices or those that can’t afford to have a dedicated social media marketing employee on hand, a calendar is still a valuable resource. Even if veterinary professionals are creating content shortly before being published, a social media content calendar can remind them to create their marketing materials or schedule it around other tasks.