Spring into action with savvy social media tips

nataba / stock.adobe.com

Happy spring, everyone. This is a time for us to rejoice in longer sunny days, warmer weather, and more outdoor activities. Perhaps these activities include charity events, fundraisers, and marketing your veterinary hospital.

I would like to share 10 easy, actionable social media tips and ideas that you may find of interest for your team and clients. Remember, adding value to your social media adds credibility and trusted sources of information to your community and followers.

1. Spring cleaning hacks. Let’s face it. We all have pets, and we all tend to do some spring cleaning as we open the windows, clear out the living spaces, and create a clean environment. This is a fantastic opportunity to share your team’s cleaning hacks on social media. What do you use for smudge marks on windows? What about urine stains on carpets? What are some pet-friendly cleaning products you recommend? Trust me, this will generate a lot of engagement.

2. Time to update your website. You know you have been putting this off. Are all your team’s photos updated on the website? Have you removed any of the team’s pets that are now deceased? Does your mission statement need to be updated? Have you added any services that are worth mentioning? Spring is also a great time to post some blogs. Remember, any social media post can be turned into a blog, or vice versa. I like to be consistent among all my channels at the same time. You would be surprised which posts do better than others along the channels.

3. Parasite-palooza. This is the perfect time to educate your clients on parasites—heartworm, fleas, ticks, and intestinal parasites. I strongly encourage you to be creative. Your clients are smarter than you think. Post an egg of a parasite and ask the audience to “name that parasite.” I love doing social media games where your followers must “match the bug to the prevention.” For example, one column can have a list of your hospital’s preventives with another column listing parasites. Encourage the audience to match the preventive to the correct parasite. This is also a very good reminder to make sure your hospital has everything in your arsenal for preventing parasites, including tapeworms.

4. Caption this. Your clients love to engage in your photos. It’s one thing to post cute photos of your patients, but it’s another to take action photos of your team doing something that shows teamwork and hard work in play. Be creative with the action shots. It’s a great morale booster for your hospital as well.

5. It’s getting hot in here. From cars to pavement, our patients are exposed to increasingly warm temperatures. Be sure to create content that shows education, awareness, and concern for warm and hot temperatures in our pets. Your followers appreciate a hospital that supports the general well-being of animals.

6. Spring toxins. From plants and pool chemicals to grilling outside, your patients have greater risks of toxin exposure. Create some easy content and do some true/false posts on whether a particular item is toxic to dogs and cats. Always include a call to action to direct owners on more information on pet toxicities.

7. Spring fling contest. We all know we have the cutest pet on the planet. Your clients love to highlight them, too. Creating a fun spring fling contest for pets is a fun way to increase client loyalty and brand visibility. Springtime action photos are fun and give you great content to use throughout the year. Perhaps the winner can have lunch with your hospital team and receive a gift certificate to your practice.

8. It’s the season for allergies. Be sure to provide content on allergies in both dogs and cats. We know that spring is a popular time for pruritus. Educating clients on allergies in general is important. Sharing stories of different allergy cases is crucial. Not all owners know that ear shaking or the butt rub can be signs of allergies.

9. Open house. Having a spring open house is an exceptional way of showing community engagement. The warmer weather is a wonderful time to do this, and the social media content for this is endless. Interviewing some of your top clients on why they love bringing their pets to you is magic in a bottle. I know some hospitals invite the clients to plant flowers or paint a mural together during an open house. Anything that brings clients, team members, animals, and children together is a feel-good story. If you do this, do not forget to invite your local press. This includes newspapers and radio stations. They love to cover these kinds of feel-good days. If you struggle with this, reach out to me. I am happy to help you.

10. Celebrate the client and pet. Springtime is a very nice time to spotlight a great feel-good story a client has about their pet. Perhaps they wrote a fantastic Google review and you would like to feature them on your Facebook or Instagram? Maybe the blocked cat is no longer blocked and is now doing fantastic. Or the shelter dog no one thought would be adopted found a wonderful, loving home? Spotlighting your clients will turn them into your cheerleaders. We can never have enough cheerleaders.