2015-04-01
Could LinkedIn Offer Your Physiotherapy Practice A Boost?

Could LinkedIn Offer Your Physiotherapy Practice A Boost?

Could LinkedIn Offer Your Physiotherapy Practice A Boost?

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past few years then you probably already know that social media is an important marketing tool for all business owners – including physiotherapy practices like yours! You probably already use Facebook, Twitter and maybe even Google+, but there is one social network which is often forgotten and that is LinkedIn. If you have neglected this social platform, then there is a good chance that addressing that now is going to give your practice a boost. Let's take a look at how.

Where LinkedIn truly comes into its own is by allowing smaller businesses a great opportunity to work on building their brand. You may not think of your practice as a brand – it is a word that conjures up images of massive corporations like Coca-Cola, Microsoft or Apple. However, as soon as you begin to offer a product or service to consumers whether you realise it or not you have become a brand. In order to take your physical therapy practice to the next level you will need to understand this and then start working on your brand so that it starts to gain recognition and more importantly – loyalty among consumers. LinkedIn is the ideal platform for this as it is a more professionally orientated social network than the likes of Facebook and Twitter.

Let's look at how to leverage LinkedIn to benefit your practice's brand.

Optimize Your Personal Profile

As a physiotherapist, you are selling more than just a product or service. You are selling yourself and your own skills. This is a very people centric industry and as a result you (the service provider) are a key part of the reason why patients are going to choose your clinic. That means that in order to build your brand on LinkedIn you must first start by bringing your own personal profile up to scratch.

You will want to make sure that your profile paints a clear picture of who you are as a physical therapist, so think carefully about the type of person your patients are going to be looking for in a therapist. Once your page is complete you can approach some of your peers and even patients to provide you with some endorsements. These recommendations have much more credibility than any advert ever will and are very valuable.

Create a Business Page For Your Physical Therapy Practice

Once you have your personal profile perfect, you will want to look at creating a business page for your physiotherapy practice. This should contain a detailed description of your practice and the services that you offer along with contact information and your logos. You can also add links to your practice's website. Complete as much detail as possible when creating your page in order to get the most benefit from it.

Google actually indexes LinkedIn business pages, so having a properly optimized page is going to give your practice additional opportunity to capture search traffic. In order to make sure that you are as visible as possibly you will need to include the appropriate keywords in your description, just as you would when using SEO to optimize your website.

People visiting your page on LinkedIn are also going to see people connected with your company. That means you need to make sure that all of your employees should also have their own fully optimized LinkedIn profiles. This works to your advantage because each staff member from your manager to your receptionist will have their own little network of connections and when they are listed as a part of your practice you will gain access to all of those people.

Connect With People

Once you have your profile and business page complete it is time to start using them to connect with your audience. Your LinkedIn business page is going to function in a similar way as your Facebook page. You can post updates on your page about new articles on your website, special offers, news or even job opportunities. The more you update your page, the more visible it will be on your connections' feed.

In addition to keeping your page up to date, you need to spend some time connecting with some of the 347 million users on LinkedIn. Look for people in your local area, fellow physiotherapists, local athletes and any other colleagues and acquaintances. Reach out and connect with people and start engaging with them. This will encourage them to think of you when they need the services of a physical therapist.

LinkedIn is an excellent way to boost your physiotherapy practice's brand recognition and will help you to snare more search traffic. Pay attention to SEO when creating your page and you are sure to reap the benefits. Get in touch with us now to find out how PatientSites.com can help with SEO and branding for your practice.