The essential social
media marketing guide
for physios
Connect with physiotherapists worldwide, learn from them,
be guided by them and be inspired by the work they are
passionate about.
When it comes to marketing your physiotherapy
services online, it’s understandable that you might
feel overwhelmed by the variety of digital platforms
available and regulatory barriers.
Understanding how to operate safely within the
regulatory framework can be intimidating. One of the
things that can keep you awake at night is how you
are going to grow your business, increase your leads
and keep yourself and your staff in a job.
Regardless of where you are in your online journey,
this guide will provide the essential social media
marketing tips to grow your business, help build your
profile as an expert and keep you connected with the
Australian and global physiotherapy communities.
Social media should sit within a broader marketing
strategy that includes your website, email
communications and local area marketing.
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Using this guide
Behind each hyperlink are the very best resources
from the web, hand-picked by us. Keep this guide
handy when you dip your toe into each new platform.
First, define your business or personal profile.
If you don’t know who your business is or what your
mission is, stop everything. Take some time to nut
this out. This will form the backbone of your digital
presence.
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are you developing your digital presence as an individual or as a business?
what are your business goals?
where do you see your clinic in five years?
who is your ideal customer? ie demographics
and psychographics
define your voice. This should come easily but
establishing how you will speak on behalf of your business will help you to remain consistent
and authentic.
Connect
Converse
Convert
• with patients
•colleagues/peers
• local business community
• start a conversation
• join a conversation
• influence a conversation
• turn leads into appointments/sales
• create opportunities to learn and grow
• build your professional network
1 in 7
people on
Earth
Over
1 billion
500 million
Facebook
Twitter
users log on to
tweets sent on
use Facebook
per day
400 hours
22,000
11,000
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
of video content uploaded to
every minute
physios on APA
each day
physios on APA
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Take advantage of opportunities of using
social media – understand the regulatory
landscape
Some physiotherapists shy away from social media
to avoid misinterpreting the regulatory boundaries,
including testimonials and AHPRA’s advertising
guidelines. Don’t let fear drive you away.
Consumers expect you to have a social media
presence so ensure you are familiar with AHPRA’s
social media policy.
While you’re at it, refresh your knowledge of the
AHPRA code of conduct:
•confidentiality
•defamation
• professional boundaries
• professional conduct
Apply the same approach to your online presence as
you would your professional reputation. Use a social
media policy to develop clear boundaries for you
and your staff. This should cover what is expected of
them, including specific do’s and don’ts.
We encourage a positive and proactive approach.
Testimonials: understand and take action.
This is an area that raises questions for physiotherapists
in Australia. Ensure you are familiar with the advertising
guidelines and AHPRA’s Frequently Asked Qestions.
Sometimes posts that breach testimonial guidelines will
occur but they can be managed.
In the context of the National Law, a testimonial
includes recommendations or statements about
the clinical aspects of a regulated health service.
How to avoid breaching testimonials:
• you cannot use testimonials in your advertising including your website or your social media
accounts
• if you see posts from patients or your community, on a page that you control, that promotes your services you should remove it or request that these are removed
• if you think a post may be a breach you can easily notify the user and request it be removed
• never solicit testimonials as a way to increase likes and followers to your pages
• do not run competitions asking patients to attest
to your clinical service
• don’t re-tweet, share or like tweets/posts by
patients that comment on your clinical services
• deactivate the Facebook rating and review system for business pages
‘My husband, who works in tech, told me I needed to get on
Twitter. My initial response was, ‘I don’t need an account for
Twitter because not many physiotherapists are online.
How will I know who to follow and what to read? What if I
have nothing valuable to contribute?’ In time it became clear
that it was purely a fear of the unknown.’–Sian Smale
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What am I doing here?
• simple to use and the most active social
network in Australia
• visual content is key, images outperform
text-based content up to 94 per cent of the time
• engaging content: demonstrative videos,
infographics and images
• inbuilt analytics tools to help you understand
what content is driving new business
Where to find great content
• Anatomy and Physiotherapy
• APA Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and YouTube
• APA media releases and generated media
• Arthritis Australia
• Better Health Channel
• blogs
• British Journal of Sports Medicine
• Continence Foundation
• ExerciseWorks
• Heart Foundation
• InMotion
• Journal of Physiotherapy
• Lung Foundation
• Move More Sit Less
• Movember
• Prostate Cancer Foundation
• Sports Medicine Australia
• The George Insitute
• WCPT
How do I get started?
Creating a Facebook business page
If you own or manage a clinic and haven’t already set
up a Facebook page, today is the day to get started.
This is separate to the profile you might already have
where you engage with friends and family.
The basics
Set up your business page then invite everyone
you know, including friends and family, to ‘like it’—
otherwise known as following your business news.
Encourage your existing patients to follow your page
through email marketing and display signage in your
waiting room.
Find your feet by taking a look around to see what
other businesses are doing. Don’t reinvent the wheel
if you don’t have to.
It is becoming increasingly difficult to gain visibility on
Facebook unless you pay for audience reach so that
your patients and community can see your posts.
‘Creating original, consistently high-quality content as well as
sourcing relevant other content is critical to engaging with Facebook
users. This requires creative resources and time. You should always
look at your investment in the resources used to generate content for
Facebook against your return.’–Back in Motion Health Group
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Facebook ads
Facebook ads are simple to get started and allow you
to target messages to very specific audiences. Unlike
some of the traditional methods like print, radio or
TV, they’re also relatively inexpensive and easy to
measure. You have two primary opportunities: adding
budget to a post or setting up an advert from scratch.
Getting started
Define your ideal new patient by selecting from the
demographics options in the Facebook ads menu
Perfecting the copy and imagery to support your ad
may take some experimenting. Try running concurrent
ads with similar messages to understand what drives
the most traffic to your page or website.
Aside from lowering your marketing expenses,
Facebook ads will increase your post reach (potential
audience size) and help you gather genuine leads.
‘Since Facebook changed its algorithm it’s important
not to rely only on organic reach for the feed but invest
in well targeted ads and boosted posts.’ –Brad Beer
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Facebook groups
When it comes to free marketing, a great way to
promote your business is through Facebook groups.
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This is one of the easiest ways to connect with your colleagues. There are hundreds of
physiotherpist-specific Facebook groups with healthy, active conversations going on every day. Physiotherpists across the globe are
solving one another’s complex casestudies, linking up with the latest research and
networking for future opportunities.
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While you’re getting in touch with colleagues you can also create a buzzing community that your patients can get involved in.
A great benefit of groups is that you’re able to run a
search within any group to identify people that you
could assist and drive traffic towards your business.
Jump into a group, introduce yourself and get
involved in the discussions.
You may wish to locate your target audience in your
area. For example, if you are wanting to find a ‘mums
and bubs’ group you can perform a key word search
for ‘exercise’ or ‘breastfeeding.’ You will be able to
access discussions where you can provide helpful
advice demonstrating your expertise. You will not only
share knowledge with the individual but also
broadcast your capability to the group who will likely
have similar needs and interests.​
By creating a group to educate, share schedules, tips
and advice, you’re also demonstrating your value and
driving leads.
If you don’t have time to manage a group but are
keen to grow your business and connections with the
local community why not drop into one of the groups
in your local area (linked to postcode search for
Facebook groups).
‘Today there are 4000 members in the group. On any given
day, I probably receive 3-5 messages from physiotherapists
around the world keen for support or to make contact. This
has been both socially and professionally rewarding, with
business gains an extra outcome at times.’–Jo Milios
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What am I doing here?
• short and punchy posts with 140 character limit
• gain huge traction in the physiotherapy world with hashtags like #physio #physiotalks and #globalPT- allowing the community to connect
globally
• great tool to stay informed with new research
• whether you’re in attendance or viewing from afar, Twitter is a great platform to network at
conferences.
How do I get started?
Twitter’s strength for physiotherapy lies with
networking and researching. Running like a 24-hour
billboard of information distilled into bite-size chunks,
Twitter is ideal to promote your research and network
with peers across the globe. Twitter also offers similar
benefits to Facebook groups with key word search for
lead generation.
‘Don’t just be a follower. Be a leader.
Use hashtags and start conversations,
ask and answer questions. The more you
do, the more followers you will get. You
will find yourself in a rich and diverse
online community that you can tap into
to enhance your personal and professional
growth.’
-Jonathon Kruger
Getting started on Twitter
Complete your bio to let people know who you are.
Make sure your profile image and bio are up to date
and explain clearly what you’re about. For individuals,
it’s a good idea to mention in your bio that ‘tweets are
your own’ and not representative of your organisation.
Like and retweet posts from other accounts you follow
and tell people what you’re interested in. Send your
first tweet to the world!
If you produce a tweet that is interesting or is a clear
statement about you, or your business, you can pin
a tweet to the top of your page.
Follow interesting accounts in your area of clinical
interest or academics you are interested in.
• APA
• JoP_editor
• WCPT
• BJSM
• ExerciseWorks
Familiarise yourself with the power of ‘hashtags.’
A hashtag is simply a way for people to search for
tweets that have a common topic.
‘I like Twitter because it is short and sharp.
I quite like the challenge of distilling a
3000 word research paper down to 140
characters with a picture.
-Chris Maher
Using key word search
Advanced search allows you to tailor search results to
specific date ranges and people. This makes it easier
to find specific tweets, or opportunities.
For example you could search for ‘running injuries,’
‘marathon training’ near: your suburb to find people
tweeting in the vicinity of your clinic to offer advice.
Remember to keep the tone friendly. No one likes a
hard sell.
The same tool can be used to connect with health
professionals that are working in a similar or related
discipline in your area or across the globe.
If you’re comfortable and active, and if you’re using
Twitter for business, consider looking into their suite
of business tools. (Twitter too now has ‘pay to play’
advertising options).
‘Twitter has been a great for the
promotion of my recently released book.
Through a Twitter campaign my book
reached bestseller status with Amazon.’
–Brad Beer
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What am I doing here?
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the world’s largest professional network –
400 million registered users
3.6 million monthly active users in Australia
has become a popular recruitment tool often used as an online resume
94.2 per cent of journalists are on LinkedIn
allows you to join industry groups with peers who share common experiences and interests
Industry groups of interest:
Australian Physiotherapy Association
Australian Physiotherapy Association Group
American Physical Therapy
Canadian Physiotherapy Association
New Zealand Physiotherapy
Sports Medicine Australia
The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy
World Confederation for Physical Therapy (WCPT)
How do I get started?
Create a LinkedIn profile, consider it your
professional social network and public-facing digital
resume. Use your account to tell other professionals
about your education, professional experience and
what interests you.
If you want to build your media profile, it is easy to
identify and seek out the journalists of publications
you want to be featured in. Reach out over LinkedIn
to build a relationship, share information and offer
valuable expert commentary around key topics.
Building your presence
LinkedIn is the place to build your personal brand.
It has recently opened up the platform Pulse, for its
members to publish. Showcase your area of
interest by posting regular updates on your profile
and through LinkedIn groups. If your article is
interesting, informative and engaging, LinkedIn will
publish it in one of the categories within Pulse.
Similar to Facebook, LinkedIn has a range of
discussion groups that can be found through the
keyword search.
‘To date, this is by far the best port of call to find the most
reliable and professional information about people I want
to connect with. There is a comprehensive list of steps
to complete on joining, with past schooling, employment
and occupational achievements prioritised.’ –Jo Milios
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What am I doing here?
Follow @physiotherapyaustralia
to see how the APA are using Instagram
This is the visual identity of your business.
60 million photos are uploaded per day,
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that means almost 700 photos each second
70 per cent of the Instagram users check their 2
feed at least once a day, 35 per cent several times a day
How do I get started?
Before you get started with Instagram, as with any
social platform, it’s important to establish your
Instagram goals. These goals should tie back to
your business objectives particularly those around
building your brand awareness and driving traffic
for appointments.
Building your presence
Set up your profile using your smart phone by
downloading Instagram from your app store. Ensure
you complete your bio with a link to your website and
contact details.
As Instagram is a photo-sharing app, you will need
a ready supply of beautiful or interesting images.
Remember that using images that are not your own,
such as from Google, may be a breach of copyright.
You will need to obtain consent from any patients that
you take photos of before sharing. A way to engage
with other businesses and Instagram users is to
repost their photos, crediting their work.
For the right audience, Instagram delivers brands 58
times more engagement per follower than Facebook,
and 120 times more engagement per follower than
Twitter.
‘Before embarking on this social media
adventure I read blogs and articles. Take
what is useful, discard what is not and create
what is uniquely your own. Consistency in
image, message, content and hashtags is a
must in my opinion’ - Sal Oliver Lange
This helps raise their profile but also can be a way to
start a relationship. ‘Repost’ can be downloaded via
the app store and is great for re-publishing other
peoples photos.
Photos with short blurbs providing insights into your
knowledge, particularly with motivating or
inspirational quotes are well suited to this format.
You should maintain a regular posting schedule,
anywhere between 3-7 posts per week.
‘Instagram has allowed me to connect to the community and educate
them on the benefits of physiotherapy, pilates, and give advice on general
health and wellbeing. I have only recently opened my clinic in a regional
town and it’s been great to see the community thrive on new ideas
involving their health. I have been able to showcase my brand, message
and skills that I have brought to the community.’ -Amanda Osborne
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Social media landscape: keep your eye out
Snapchat
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share images or video clips to your friends.
But there’s a twist: they can only be viewed for
a matter of seconds.
close to 200 million users
• around 26 per cent of 18-29 year old smartphone users report using Snapchat
Periscope
• live video streaming
• owned by Twitter
• 2 million daily active users
• available in 25 languages
• available on iOS and Android
Whatsapp
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messaging app that lets users text, chat, and share media, including voice messages and video, with individuals or groups.
cost: $0.99 per year
• uses the same internet data plan that you use for email and web browsing.
• 1 billion monthly active users
Meerkat
• live video streaming
• 2 million registered users
• available on iOS and Android
• more than 100 000 videos streamed
Peach
• post a gif with just one letter
• released in 2015 by founder of video sharing app, Vine
• mixture between Twitter and Slack
• App only rather than web based
The APA would like to acknowledge Mark Merolli and Karen Finnin for shaping this guide.
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