does your Social Media Marketing deepen Relationships?
For the purpose of this story, we will substitute social media marketing (SMM) with relationship(s).
Too many attempt to turn social media marketing into a thing, similar to a process, such as having maintenance done on your car.
It is more than that.
SMM is as complex and simple as all the hero’s journey #loveaffairs you have ever listened to or been a part of.
In the same way you would not have one ‘act’ of Love per relationship throughout your life, it would be inappropriate for you to post once or twice a week and expect to build a life-long relationship with your community through SMM.
SMM, as is a relationship, is a way of Being, not doing.
Tina Turner, Early Years
Tina Turner has sold 100+ million records.
She received 12 Grammy Awards, three Grammy Hall of Fame awards, and a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
She is the first African-American and female to cover Rolling Stone.
Rolling Stone ranked her in the top 100 artists ever.
She has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame and St. Louis Walk of Fame.
She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors.
If you read the lyrics to her song and aggregate it with every other experience you have ever had with Love, you will come to realise Love is everywhere and everything.
Tina Turner is the embodiment of longevity, consistency and her message is clear.
What does your allied health practice have which delivers on this certainty your patients crave?
When Harry Met Sally
Harry saw Sally and Sally saw Harry at the same time.
There was a momentary, imperceptible, mutual sensation or spark that coursed through their bodies at the same time.
It wasn’t exactly lust; it was something more, perhaps a knowing.
Sally and Harry both recognised something in each other that expanded an experience of self.
While each tried to negotiate a dance, which is to say attempting to communicate interest whilst simultaneously playing hard to get, neither was aware their attraction strategies had been activated and they were hopelessly and inextricably caught in a system of learned behaviours that would not cease until it had run its course.
Love was taking root.
Their SMM had started before they knew there was one to begin.
What Are Relationships
This is not definitive; it is perspective.
Relationships are the spinal column and peripheral nervous system of life.
SMM lets you know that you are greater than the festering meat-sack society attempts to convince you is your identity.
Without relationships, the body can not move.
Your eyes could not read this blog, nor could you move on to the next thing without relationships.
Your peripheral nervous system (PNS) is more than an electrical relay system.
Trees have a similar system with their roots.
Your PNS communicates the thoughts and feelings you are having to every organ in your body, which then allows them to respond in kind.
Your PNS also exists as a harmonising system between both of your brains and the rest of your body.
When your PNS is damaged, it is to the detriment of every system in your body.
Relationships, PNS, & SMM are more than what you have historically taken the time to celebrate, consider or speculate about.
You are not able to do anything without relationships.
You can not get healthier, allow more abundance to flow, nor can you experience the most basic pleasures of being in nature without a healthy relationship.
If you were to consider your part as an allied health practitioner in supporting your patients to expand their wellness and vitality, what are you communicating?
What is the intention beneath what you are sharing?
Are you taking into account the listening of the patient you are seeing?
Have you gotten into their world in such a way they cherish their relationship with you and want to allow themselves to be the greatness they already are because of your connection?
Are you expanding your experience of self to every client you interact with?
You are not a specific part of the PNS or SMM or relationships.
You are all of it.
What is SMM vs Relationships
Earlier, we talked about social media marketing being the same as relationships and it is more.
SMM is a digital vehicle across multiple channels designed to share messages, ideas and feelings.
Your flavour of allied health may be to communicate tactics, strategies, hybrid content and even more.
Sometimes the thing your patient is saying is not exactly what is happening.
The listening you take into that situation allows your client to be transparent or otherwise.
SMM is a part of relationships whereby you can introduce yourself to your patients and clients and remind them of who and what they are.
There is a suggestion that the communication types are verbal, visual and non-verbal.
Experts attempt to provide insights into which communication types are dominant.
The answer is based upon the context of the person receiving.
Social Media marketing is as effective as who you are being in the relationship and whom you intend your communication and relationship to be with.
If you stand on a box in the middle of the street shouting to anyone and everyone that passed by about what you are committed to in life, most would ignore you as a crazy person because of the vehicle you are using to share your rant. There would be a lack of relatedness.
Even though you have seen this and understand it, why do so many allied health professionals manage their SMM in this fashion?
It isn’t enough to create inspirational or funny posts in an effort to get attention, followers, and so forth.
Try behaving the way you have seen most people engage on social media in an actual conversation and you may find you stop having people who want to be around you.
Why Do You Need SMM
You need SMM in the same way you need a car or a home or a means to care for your survival needs.
Social media marketing is a smorgasbord of digital options in the way you can support your patients to allow more abundance to flow from their lives.
What if you had the same conversation with your partner every day for 20yrs?
If someone close in your life refused to go out for a meal and ate the same thing, three times a day, every day of the year, it may cause a challenge in your connection.
Who do you know that wears the same clothes every single day?
These basic understandings you have of what it takes to deepen connections with your partner, children and especially your patients is known.
It is the same with your digital tool and mechanism of experiencing Love in your community.
Why Babies Need Cuddles
I was a teenager staying with my grandmother.
My cousin was also staying because she was about to have a baby.
Her daughter was born healthy and strong.
My cousin had postpartum depression.
My grandmother worked full time and I was in school.
When I arrived home, my grandmother and I would take turns feeding, changing her nappy and giving her cuddles.
During the day, these activities were less frequent.
After 6-weeks, the baby passed away.
Her daughter received most of the physical things she needed but did not experience enough Love.
Our intuition is that we need love for our nourishment and survival and is essential for our being able to thrive.
Your PNS seeks harmony, which is a frequency of Love.
Harmony naturally expands and communicates that we are always greater than our context.
Your SMM is an opportunity to share even more Love.
Babies and children and adults and all humans need love for everything that requires you to be what you truly are.
As an allied health professional, you are the front-lines to embody this.
Your patients can look at you and know how love sounds and appears all the time.
Does a baby need cuddles?
Do you need SMM?
SMM Basics
Before you go off to start your new SMM automation account, it could be useful to remember your values, message and who you are meant to serve.
When you understand that, you may want to enable your patients and prospects to experience it in a few different categories.
Entertainment
- Fun Holidays – share your experiences and tie them to your values in a way your clients and patients can use to allow more abundance for their lives.
- Memes – Funny memes can also be educational by taking a whimsical approach to persistent societal myths that usually cause challenges with wellbeing.
- Jokes – As you know, your patients rarely remember everything you say. They always remember the way they feel around you.
- Throwback / nostalgia – This is a great opportunity to celebrate milestones your clients have had.
- Contests & Giveaways – There are compliance issues around this and can still be leveraged appropriately when done for the purpose of expanding ideas rather than business gain.
- Puzzles – This is another opportunity to guide your patients on a journey that allows them to expand their wellbeing
- Comics – There are so many options with this, let’s just say, How long is a piece of string.
Inspiration
- Quotes – These are excellent as part of a pattern on your Instagram mood board
- Trivia / Amazing Facts – Include, short, easily digestible morsels that your patients will want to share with their tribe.
- Gorgeous images – Anything that is going to stimulate feelings can be a metric for how you select image content for your channels.
- Personal stories of your or your clients’ triumphs – You do not have to tell the entire story. It can be one sentence of the result and then link to the actual story. As with all content, it must be done in compliance with the regulatory bodies you fall under.
Education
- Link to your and others’ blog posts – This is a fantastic way to create authority with the ideas and values your clinic would like to share. It is best practice to cite your articles with peer-reviewed content as appropriate.
- Tips & Tricks – These are simple to you and usually unknown to your patients and easy for them to share with their networks.
- Industry Research – Provide your editorial on how the content is relevant to your niche and the value it can bring your patients
- Free Resources (reports and guides) – Useful and leverage sparingly since human behaviour rarely values or implements things that are perceived as cheap or free.
- Answers to FAQs – Have this content readily accessible throughout your blogs and pages interlinked with your services.
- Case Studies – Case studies are primarily read by those who have already said yes to your message and are now looking for the last bit of validation to press the green-Go-button.
- Live Video Training – Consistency with videos is essential because those who take the time to absorb this medium are the ones who will absorb, implement and share.
- “Did You Know” – Similar to FAQs with more tactical engagement.
Conversation
- Questions – Even when you do not have a large following, this can be implemented with prospects who have expressed interest in what you have shared.
- Polls – When leveraged on social media, make sure it is short and provides feedback to the person who has filled it out on what you will be doing with the data and why it is relevant to them.
- Advice – For those who are already a fan, this is an opportunity to provide feedback about their experiences with you. Make sure you always take action and communicate about the suggestion, even if it is to say if or how you will implement.
Connection
- Behind the Scenes – This stokes the voyeur in most and deepens the connection with your patients
- Product Previews just for followers – Your fans will love that you are making an effort specifically with them and this also deepens connection.
- Photos of Your Life (hobbies, vacations, family) – As appropriate, with compliance and being mindful of your privacy and security, share in a way that will support your patient's growth. This is not appropriate for allied health practitioners that focus on mental health issues.
- Stories – Rather than having a story universally applicable, share stories from the context of your niche exclusively.
- Shoutouts of complementary businesses or groups – Using this always excites the Law of Reciprocity regardless of it being intentional or not.
- Staff features – Your fans will appreciate knowing the breadth offers available through your clinic.
- Photos from events you’re attending – Be sure to explain why the event is relevant to your followers and what they can expect next.
- Thanking fans – Share the impact the engagement of your fans has had on your life. While there is a level of professionalism that must be adhered to for compliance, your patients are able to expand more as they become more related to you.
- Share your favourite cause – Not all of your fans will agree with your cause and they will appreciate you taking a stand. For reasons of compliance, avoid political and religious activities.
Promotion
- Freebies for email signups – The more appropriate people you have in your email distribution, the easier your marketing activities are.
- Webinars – In addition to promoting your ideas as they contribute to your niche, it is a highly effective tactic for deepening connection.
Regardless of the category of content, make sure it is always relatable and relevant to your values and the kind of relationships you are committed to cultivating with your clients and patients.
Let’s have a conversation about the possibility you are expanding through your allied health practice.
